Rigorously Evaluating Approaches to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Problematic Sexual Behavior among Youth

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is soliciting investigator-initiated gold standard research proposals to rigorously evaluate programs and policies for their impact on primary prevention of child sexual abuse (CSA) or problematic sexual behavior (PSB) among youth. For the purposes of this NOFO:

• CSA is defined as sexual victimization during childhood (younger than 18 years of age) perpetrated by an adult.
• PSB is defined as sexual behaviors among children (younger than 18 years of age) that are not developmentally appropriate and have the potential to cause harm to the child or children involved (including behaviors that are unintentionally harmful or inappropriate as well as behaviors intended to cause harm). 

Research funded under this announcement will strengthen the evidence base for primary prevention of CSA and PSB. 

Applicants must propose to rigorously evaluate a program or policy for primary prevention of CSA or PSB that addresses one of the following three research priorities:

1. Programs or policies focused on primary prevention of CSA or PSB in digital spaces (e.g., downloading or possession of illegal images of children, nonconsensual image sharing, use of artificial intelligence to create fake explicit images of children);

1. Programs or policies addressing the use of digital spaces for commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) or sex trafficking (e.g., online recruitment of minors for sexual content creation, online advertisements soliciting minors for commercial sex acts, using technology to facilitate in-person meetings with minors for the purpose of sex);

1. Organizational policy approaches focused on primary prevention of CSA or PSB in youth-serving organizations (e.g., community centers, youth development organizations, juvenile residential care facilities, faith-based organizations, group foster care).