Evaluation of a child abuse prevention program for unmarried mothers in South Korea: a single-case experimental design

Purpose: This study aimed to implement a child abuse prevention program and evaluate its effectiveness based on the Nursing Model of Resilience and Coping Skills Training Model for unmarried mothers during pregnancy and puerperium. Methods: This study had a prospective single-case, AB design with four repeated self-questionnaire measures and three observational measures. Seven unmarried mothers were provided with 10 sessions child abuse prevention program through individual visits from 32 to 34 weeks of pregnancy to six weeks after childbirth. The questionnaire was composed related to resilience, maternal stress, maternal attitude, parent-child interaction, child abuse potential. The observation was measured by video recording (total 16 times) the interaction of parent-child during feeding and analyzing it by three experts. Data were analyzed by Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Friedman’s test. Results: Maternal attitude and parent-child interaction were statistically significantly improved after intervention compared to before intervention. However, maternal stress decreased after intervention compared to before intervention, but it was not statistically significant. Additionally, resilience and child abuse potential were not statistically significant. This program is partially effective in preventing child abuse by promoting parenting attitudes and parent-child interactions. Conclusion: This study focused on individual resilience and applied systematic intervention as coping skills training to prevent child abuse. This study is meaningful in that interventions were conducted through individual visits to unmarried mothers at high risk of child abuse, and the program was applied, including pregnancy and postpartum periods, to prevent child abuse early.