A new school-based intervention program aimed at preventing violence against children by teachers and parents is set to be implemented in primary schools in Morogoro, Tanzania. The study, a two-armed cluster-randomized controlled trial (CRCT), will involve 16 public primary schools, with half receiving the intervention and the other half serving as a control group. This initiative seeks to address and reduce the prevalence of violence against children in both school and home environments.
Study Design and Setting
The intervention will be conducted in the urban district of Morogoro, Eastern Tanzania. Eight schools will be randomly assigned to the intervention group, receiving the Interaction Competencies with Children for Teachers (ICC-T) and Interaction Competencies with Children for Parents (ICC-P) training. The remaining eight schools will form the control group and will not receive any intervention during the study period. Data collection will occur at baseline and approximately three months post-intervention to assess changes in violence levels and related factors.
Participants and Recruitment
The study will include students from the fifth grade, their parents, and teachers. A total of 45 students from each school will be selected, along with their parents, and all teachers employed at the participating schools. Inclusion criteria for students include enrollment in the fifth grade, being between 9 and 13 years old, and living with their caregiver or parents. Exclusion criteria involve severe mental disabilities that would impede their ability to participate in interviews. Teachers must be employed at the school to be included, while parents must have a child participating in the study and reside within a reasonable distance from the school.
Intervention Details
The interventions, ICC-T and ICC-P, are based on childcare guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the principles of Dreikurs et al., focusing on non-violent interaction strategies and fostering warm, sensitive adult-child relationships. ICC-T involves a five-day training for teachers, while ICC-P consists of a three-weekend-day training session for parents, followed by a refresher day six weeks later. The content is designed to be highly similar between the two programs, adapted to the school and family contexts, respectively.
Data Collection and Outcomes
Data will be collected through structured interviews using Android tablets with the survey tool OfflineSurveys Pro. The primary quantitative outcomes include the assessment of violence by teachers in schools and by parents at home, measured using adapted versions of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS). Secondary outcomes encompass parents’ and teachers’ attitudes towards violence, children’s mental health problems (assessed via the Pediatric Symptom Checklist – Youth Report, PSC-17-Y), children’s quality of life (using the KIDSCREEN-10 Index), peer violence experienced by children, parent-child and teacher-child relationship quality (using the People In My Life (PIML) scale), perceived stress of participants, school climate, teachers’ self-efficacy, decision-making, normative beliefs about violence, and intimate partner violence experienced by female parents.
Measures Against Bias and Ethical Considerations
To minimize bias, schools will be randomly sampled, and data collectors will remain blind to the treatment conditions. The study has been designed to adhere to strict ethical guidelines, including obtaining informed consent from all participants and ensuring the confidentiality and pseudonymization of collected data. Participants will also be informed about the potential for psychological stress due to the sensitive nature of the interview questions, with psychological support available if needed.
