Knowledge of Child Sexual Abuse Warning Signs among Secondary School Children in Temeke – Tanzania

Abstract

The study aimed at assessing the level of warning sign knowledge as the primary prevention measure among secondary school children in Temeke Municipal. Specifically, the study intended to establish the knowledge level of warning signs as well as identifying common and least known warning signs among children. This study was a descriptive in nature which employed a sample size of 175 research subjects. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaire; where the study was carried out in five secondary schools in Temeke. The study findings revealed that children have limited knowledge of warning signs; though, scores among identified warning signs had marginal differences. Further, fear of some people or places, developing lying habit and the knowledge of good, bad and confusing touching were identified by the research subjects as the common warning signs while developing new names of the genital was identified as the least known warning sign among others. Thus, the study recommends for programs geared towards imparting knowledge of warning signs in order to combat incidents of child sexual abuse.