With the growing awareness of the nature and scope of the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in the United States, a few state child welfare agencies have started to develop and implement training on CSEC for their social service staff. Since other state child welfare agencies may adopt a similar training model, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of these CSEC trainings. Therefore, in the present study, we used a randomized, control group design to evaluate the effectiveness of a CSEC webinar training program for child protective service (CPS) employees. We discuss our findings and make recommendations for child welfare agencies interested in providing CSEC training to their staff. Given the lack of sophisticated research evaluating the effectiveness of child welfare training programs, in general, and CSEC training programs, more specifically, this study fills a gap in the literature and offers a training model that could be replicated with child protection systems in other states. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Treatment group and control group Commercial sexual exploitation of children Child welfare training Pretest-posttest design

education Child Abuse, Sexual training human Cohort Studies research work middle aged commercial sexual exploitation of children Social Work Professional Competence United States Young Adult Humans Adolescent Child welfare training male Pretest-posttest design Treatment group and control group female efficiency measurement Child Welfare Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice child sexual abuse Article organization and management model test program evaluation adult cohort analysis in service training Inservice Training attitude to health child care Child