Knowledge of Mandatory Reporting Laws and Recording of Clients' Abuse Data: Effects of a Sexual Health Curriculum Training for Health Students in Tanzania.
Mushy S, Lukumay G, et al. • Journal of child sexual abuse • 2025
Sexual health curriculum training significantly improved medical and nursing students' knowledge of mandatory reporting laws and recording of clients' confidential abuse data, with notable disparity in total scores between intervention and control groups at 3-month follow-up (t = -3.682, p < .001, Cohen's d = 0.365).
Key Findings
Results
The intervention group showed significant gains in knowledge of mandatory reporting laws at 3-month follow-up compared to the control group.
The intervention group showed gains of 23.7% for item 1 and 0.7% for item 2 at 3-month follow-up
The control group showed minimal knowledge improvement of +7.5% for item 1 and -6% for item 2 at the same follow-up point
The study involved 412 medical and nursing students in a randomized controlled trial (RCT)
206 participants received sexual health training and a waitlist control group of equal size (206) received no intervention
Results
A statistically significant disparity in total scores for reporting and recording emerged between intervention and control groups from baseline to follow-up.
t = -3.682, p < .001, Cohen's d = 0.365
The intervention group had a mean difference score of M = 0.527 (SD = 1.630)
The control group had a mean difference score of M = -0.044 (SD = 1.499)
Cohen's d of 0.365 indicates a small-to-medium effect size
Methods
Baseline and 3-month follow-up assessments were used to evaluate knowledge of mandatory reporting laws and recording practices in a randomized controlled trial design.
The study used an RCT design with 412 medical and nursing students in Tanzania
Participants were equally divided: 206 in the intervention group and 206 in the waitlist control group
The intervention consisted of a sexual health curriculum training
Assessments were conducted at baseline and at 3-month follow-up
Background
Healthcare students' awareness and reporting of child abuse under Tanzania's mandatory reporting laws were limited prior to the intervention.
Tanzania has mandated reporting laws that aim to identify and address child abuse
Healthcare students' awareness and reporting practices were described as 'limited' prior to training
The study was conducted in the context of recognized gaps in students' preparedness to handle child abuse cases
Conclusions
The sexual health curriculum training significantly improved students' knowledge of both mandatory reporting laws and the recording of clients' confidential information.
The training produced statistically significant improvement compared to no intervention (p < .001)
Improvements were observed across both knowledge of mandatory reporting laws and recording practices for confidential client data
The waitlist control design ensured that the control group received no intervention during the study period
Results suggest the training was effective at a 3-month follow-up timepoint
What This Means
This research studied whether a sexual health training program could improve medical and nursing students' knowledge of laws requiring healthcare workers to report child abuse in Tanzania. The study randomly assigned 412 students into two groups: one group of 206 received the sexual health curriculum training, while the other 206 students were placed on a waitlist and received no training. Students in both groups were assessed at the start of the study and again three months later to measure their knowledge of mandatory reporting laws and how to properly handle confidential information about clients who have experienced abuse.
The results showed that students who received the training made meaningful gains in their knowledge, with a 23.7% improvement on one key knowledge item, compared to only 7.5% improvement in the untrained group. The overall difference in knowledge scores between the two groups was statistically significant, with a moderate effect size (Cohen's d = 0.365). The trained students showed a positive average change in their scores, while the untrained students' scores barely changed or slightly declined over the same period.
This research suggests that structured sexual health training can meaningfully increase healthcare students' awareness of their legal obligations to report child abuse and their understanding of how to properly record sensitive client information. This matters because healthcare workers are often in a position to identify and respond to child abuse, and gaps in their knowledge of reporting laws may mean that abuse cases go unreported. Introducing such training into medical and nursing education programs in Tanzania — and potentially in similar settings — could help improve child protection systems.
Mushy S, Lukumay G, Massae A, Mkoka D, Rohloff C, Kohli N, et al.. (2025). Knowledge of Mandatory Reporting Laws and Recording of Clients' Abuse Data: Effects of a Sexual Health Curriculum Training for Health Students in Tanzania.. Journal of child sexual abuse. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2025.2450404