Responsible Behavior with Younger Children: A school-based universal prevention approach to prevent teenage problematic sexual behaviors

Many efforts to prevent child sexual abuse (CSA) aim to teach children strategies for recognizing, resisting, and reporting victimization. There is limited evidence that victimization-focused efforts actually prevent CSA. Moreover, these efforts often overlook the fact that many children and adolescents engage in problem sexual behavior against younger children.

Responsible Behavior with Younger Children (RBYC) is a novel universal school-based perpetration-focused intervention that aims to prevent the onset of inappropriate, harmful, or illegal sexual behavior by adolescents against younger children. RBYC was designed to provide adolescents and their parents with the knowledge and tools to help adolescents interact appropriately with younger children and avoid CSA behaviors.

Join the developers of this program to discuss its core components as well as strategies to adapt the content for young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Presenters: Luciana Assini-Meytin, PhD, and Amanda Ruzicka, M.A.
Presentation Date: December 17, 2024

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Examine a new prevention program aimed at preventing the onset of problematic sexual behavior directed towards younger children and peers by targeting young adolescents with universal prevention programming.
2. Identify the primary strengths of the Responsible Behavior with Younger Children.
3. Identify at least two strategies that can be used to adapt intervention content for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.