Peer-reviewed article
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.
Oh M, Ahn S ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study tested a four-week digital sexual violence prevention program with fifth-grade students in South Korea. The program included lessons on digital sexual violence, digital citizenship, and gender sensitivity. Students who received the program showed significantly better knowledge about digital sexual violence prevention and greater confidence in helping others (bystander self-efficacy) compared to those who did not. However, the program did not change students' own self-protection behaviors or other aspects of digital citizenship.
Key points
- The experimental group showed significantly greater digital sexual violence prevention knowledge compared to the control group (p<.05)
- Bystander self-efficacy improved significantly in the experimental group
- No significant differences were found in students' actual self-protection behavior
- No significant differences were observed in other domains of digital citizenship
- The program consisted of four weekly sessions covering digital sexual violence, digital citizenship education, and gender sensitivity
Limitations
The study used a small sample size (n=47 total) from a single school in one city, which limits generalizability. The quasi-experimental design without full randomization and the short four-week intervention period may not capture longer-term behavioral changes.
Abstract
Purpose 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. Methods 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 C City, 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. Results 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. Conclusion 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.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Four-session digital sexual violence prevention education program covering digital sexual violence, digital citizenship education, and gender sensitivity
- Population
- Fifth-grade students (ages approximately 10-11) from an elementary school in C City, South Korea; experimental group n=27, control group n=20
Key finding
Experimental group demonstrated significantly greater digital sexual violence prevention knowledge compared to control group (p<.05)
M et al. · Europe PMC · 31 Dec 2025