Effects of Medical Student Training in Child Advocacy and Child Abuse Prevention and Intervention

The Child Advocacy Studies Training (CAST) program was developed by the National Child Protection Training Center to educate future professionals to more effectively prevent, identify, and respond to child maltreatment. The program has been implemented nationally in over 20 colleges and universities. This pilot study examines the effectiveness of the first implementation of CAST in a medical school. Results indicate that medical students' self-reported preparedness to identify signs of child maltreatment, to report a case of suspected child maltreatment, to recommend or secure needed services for a maltreated child, and likelihood to report suspected child maltreatment if they suspected but were not sure about it were significantly improved after completing CAST. The implications of this study may have a profound impact on identifying and potentially decreasing child maltreatment.