Children who are taught about sexual abuse in school are more likely to tell an adult if they have been abused themselves, compared to those who have not been taught about this topic, a new study suggests.

According to Australian researchers, an estimated one in 10 girls and one in 20 boys worldwide are sexually abused at some point in their childhood. This can have profound consequences on victims, such as depression, drug and alcohol misuse, eating disorders and suicidal ideation.

In some countries, children are taught about sexual abuse in school, including how to recognise abuse and how to report it. The researchers set out to investigate the impact of these school-based programmes.

They analysed 24 trials on this topic. The trials involved almost 6,000 children in a number of countries, including Germany, Spain, the US and China.

Different methods were used to teach the children about this sensitive topic, including the use of games, books, songs and puppets.

The study found that children who had been taught about sexual abuse in school were more likely to disclose if they had been abused themselves.

Furthermore, children who had been taught about abuse were more likely to try to protect themselves when taking part in a simulated scenario in which they were asked to leave school with a person they did not know.

The researchers acknowledged that children may behave one way in a simulated scenario, but another way in a real scenario.

"Even if a child demonstrates that they know how to behave in a certain scenario, it doesn't mean they will behave the same in a real situation where there is potential for abuse. Tests cannot mimic real abuse situations very well.

"For example, we know that most sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone known to the child whereas in the test situations, unfamiliar actors or research assistants were used," explained the study's lead author, Kerryann Walsh, of Queensland University of Technology.

However, the researchers noted that the programmes seemed to increase children's overall knowledge about sexual abuse and when questioned six months later, the children had remembered most of what they had been taught.

The researchers also pointed out that there was little evidence to suggest that the children had become unnecessarily worried as a result of what they had learned.

Details of these findings are published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2015.