Effect of a digital sexual violence prevention education program on digital sexual violence prevention knowledge, self-protection behavior, and digital citizenship among fifth-grade children: a quasi-experimental study

TL;DR

A four-week digital sexual violence prevention program improved knowledge and bystander confidence in fifth-grade students, but had no effect on self-protection behavior or other aspects of digital citizenship.

Contribution

A novel digital sexual violence prevention program for elementary students was developed and shown to improve knowledge and bystander self-efficacy.

Findings

The program significantly improved digital sexual violence prevention knowledge in the experimental group.

Bystander self-efficacy was significantly higher in the experimental group compared to the control group.

No significant changes were observed in self-protection behavior or broader digital citizenship domains.

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a digital sexual violence prevention education program for upper-grade elementary school students and to examine its effects on students’ digital sexual violence prevention knowledge, self-protection behavior, and digital citizenship.

A quasi-experimental pre- and posttest design was employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. A digital sexual violence prevention education consisting of four sessions was developed, covering core content related to digital sexual violence, digital citizenship education, and gender sensitivity. Participants were fifth-grade students from an elementary school in Cheongju, Korea. Two classes (n=27) were randomly assigned to the experimental group, and two classes (n=20) were assigned to the control group. The experimental group received one session per week for four weeks, whereas the control group received no intervention. Outcome measures included digital sexual violence prevention knowledge, self-protection behavior, and digital citizenship. A one-tailed test was applied to determine the effectiveness of the education program in producing improvement.

The experimental group demonstrated significantly greater digital sexual violence prevention knowledge and bystander self-efficacy compared with the control group (p<.05). However, no significant group differences were observed in self-protection behavior or in other domains of digital citizenship.

The four-session digital sexual violence prevention education program effectively enhanced digital sexual violence prevention knowledge and bystander self-efficacy related to digital citizenship among fifth-grade students. Further research using a randomized controlled design with a larger sample size is recommended to confirm and extend these findings.

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