Date of Conferral

2015

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Amy Sickel

Abstract

Each year, approximately 1 million children are found to have been abused, with an average of 4.5 children dying each day at the hands of parents, caretakers, relatives, and friends. Child abuse recognition and parental self-efficacy is understood to decrease the prevalence of child abuse. The literature documents the importance of educating mandatory reporters and suggests inconclusive findings about sex differences in child abuse recognition parental self-efficacy. The current research examines the impact of child abuse education on parental child abuse detection self-efficacy, child abuse recognition knowledge, and sex differences in parental child abuse detection self-efficacy. Bandura's self-efficacy theory states that higher levels of self-efficacy will lead to an individual's higher levels of reaction to the situation. The purpose of this experimental quantitative study was to test (a) if reading a child abuse education pamphlet would significantly increase parents ability to recognize child abuse; (b) if reading a child abuse education pamphlet would impact parental self-efficacy and (c) if gender would be significantly reflected in posttest scores on ability to recognize child abuse. A convenience sample of 66 participants was drawn from parents from a middle class neighborhood in Florida. A mixed ANOVA was used to test the study's hypotheses. According to the results, child abuse education improved both parents' knowledge of, and ability to detect, child abuse. This study promotes positive social change by bringing awareness to this community about this problem. Social conditions will be improved with child abuse training by increasing the individual's self-efficacy and knowledge which will help to prevent child abuse.

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