The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of training children as young as 3 years old to engage in appropriate responses to potentially dangerous situations. Eighty-five children ranging in age from 3 to 5 years from various preschools were randomly assigned to one of two groups (post-test-only or pretest-post-test). Treatment involved the training package, Children Need to Know: Personal Safety Training (Kraizer, 1981). Training effectiveness was assessed by an analog measure of self-protection, in which a confederate adult approached and verbally attempted to lure the child from the setting. The results showed that (a) in comparing pretest and post-test scores of the pretest-post-test group, the post-test mean was significantly higher than the pretest mean; (b) in comparing the pretest scores from the pretest-post-test group and the post-test scores from the post-test-only group, no significant interactions or main effects were found; these results with the results in (a) support the idea of a testing effect and/or a pretest sensitization effect; and (c) in comparing the post-test scores from the pretest-post-test group and post-test scores from the post-test-only group, there were no significant interactions, however there was a significant main effect for Group. These results show that post-test scores were higher than pretest scores indicating the possibility of treatment increasing post-test means. However, the post-test-only group means were not significantly higher than the pretest means from the pretest-post-test group. Additionally, the significant difference between the post-test means from the two groups indicate there was a testing effect or possibly a pretest sensitization effect, or both. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pacific.edu/oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-3764 |
| Date | 01 January 1994 |
| Creators | Ceresa, Shannon Michele |
| Publisher | Scholarly Commons |
| Source Sets | University of the Pacific |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations |
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