Evaluation of a Program to Prevent Sex Trafficking among Youth

• In Event: Innovations in Human Trafficking Research—Part 2: A Focus on Sex Trafficking

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to conduct a pilot evaluation of a school-based program—READY to Stand (RTS)—to prevent sex trafficking among racially and ethnically diverse high school youth in an urban setting. The RTS program includes six, 45-minute modules implemented to high school students in mixed gender groups of ~25 students and provides students with psychoeducation on commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC), healthy relationship skills training, identification of safe people/resources, programming components to enhance valuing of self and others, bystander intervention training, and shifting school norms to be intolerant of all forms of violence, including CSEC. In close collaboration with a Research Advisory Board (RAB), we are in the process of completing a pilot trial that includes students from a traditional high school (~300 enrolled) and an alternative school (~20) in an urban setting in the Midwest. We will examine intermediary outcomes including: sex trafficking knowledge, efficacy to resist sex trafficking, valuing of self and others, healthy relationship skills, bystander readiness to help in situations of sex trafficking, social norms specific to sex trafficking, and prevention related conversations with school personnel. The implications for future research to refine and evaluate the RTS program will be discussed.

Authors

• Katie M. Edwards, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Rochelle Dalla, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Lorey A. Wheeler, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Jamy Rentschler, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Aleesa Nutting, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Genevieve Bryson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Aubrey Pascal, University of Nebraska-Lincoln