School-based Prevention of Teacher Violence Against Children: A Cluster-randomized Controlled Trial in Zambia
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 招募中
- 发起方
- 入组人数
- 700
- 试验地点
- 1
- 主要终点
- Reduction of teachers' use of emotional and physical violence
研究概览
简要总结
The United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child UN General Assembly, 1989), outlawed violence against children worldwide. Yet, 75% of all children worldwide - experience violence while growing up (Know Violence in Childhood, 2017). In Low- and Middle-Income countries prevalence rates at home and at school are higher (Hoeffler, 2017), with particularly high rates in Africa (Hecker et al., 2018; Nkuba, Hermenau, & Hecker, 2018; Hillis et al., 2016). Violence against children is related to negative mental health outcomes, lower quality in the child-adult relationship, lower cognitive functioning, and emotional and behavioural problems that begin in childhood and may persist through adolescence until adulthood (Berlin et al., 2009; Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016; Hecker et al., 2016; Kim & Cicchetti, 2010; Majer et al., 2010; Mills et al., 2011; Newbury et al., 2018; Wilson et al., 2009).
The present study focuses on violent discipline in schools, as (1) many children are subjected to violent discipline at school on a regular basis, and (2) teachers justify violent discipline since they want to encourage better academic performance and maintain children's discipline (Masath et al., 2022). As in other African countries (Hecker et al., 2018; Nkuba, Hermenau, & Hecker, 2018; Hillis et al., 2016), violent discipline is prevalent in Zambian schools, despite its prohibition in 2022 (End Corporal Punishment, 2025).
With this study we test the intervention Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T; Kirika & Hecker, 2022) to alleviate violence against children. ICC-T is a manualised 5,5 days training workshop focusing on the basic competencies in the work with children, including non-violent action alternatives. Previous cluster randomized controlled trail studies on ICC-T in Tanzania and Uganda showed that teachers who participated in ICC-T, used significantly less violent discipline measures against children compared to teachers in the control group. The transferability of the intervention to and the effectiveness in the Zambian context remains unclear. Evidence from our research may guide policy makers to implement further measures aiming at ending violence against children.
详细描述
We will use a two-armed school-based CRCT including up to 30 primary schools in the Eastern Province of Zambia (Petauke and Lusangazi). The schools will be combined into 12 school clusters, 6 of the 12 school clusters will be randomly allocated to the intervention group, which will receive the ICC-T workshop, and the remaining schools will be allocated to the control group without any intervention. The study will include two data collection phases: (1) a baseline assessment before the intervention allocation, and (2) a follow-up assessment approximately six months after the allocation and delivery of the intervention.
The study will begin with the baseline assessment involving teachers and students in all schools (May-July 2026). Then the intervention period, follows during school holidays (August 2026). The intervention will involve the Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T). Teachers from the selected schools will be trained in ICC-T on 5,5 days consecutively. A local team of ICC-T trainers, trained extensively by our research team, will implement the interventions. Also, all training will take place within school premises. A follow-up assessment with teachers and students will be conducted at all schools approximately six months after the intervention.
Approximately 30-35 randomly selected students from the third year of formal schooling per school cluster will be invited to participate. In addition, 20 to 25 teachers per school cluster will be invited to participate in the present study. This results in a baseline sample size of approximately 400 students and approximately 300 teachers across the 12 school clusters.
Primary outcome measures are student-, and teacher-reported physical and emotional violence by the teachers in the past week. Secondary outcome measures include adult-child relationship quality, attitudes and norms towards violence, children's emotional and behavioral problems, quality of life, peer victimization, teachers' and children's stress level, teachers empathy change in perspective and self-efficacy.
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Interventional
- 分配方式
- Randomized
- 干预模型
- Parallel
- 主要目的
- Prevention
- 盲法
- Single (Outcomes Assessor)
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 8 Years 至 80 Years（Child, Adult, Older Adult）
- 性别
- All
- 接受健康志愿者
- 是
入选标准
- •public primary school (state owned schools, guided by Zambian education policy)
- •at least 35 students in the selected grade (3th school grade). o if it has less than 35 students in a grade, then it will be combined with nearby selected public primary school which must be within 15 km from the respective and an equal number from each school cluster will be selected to participate in the study.
- •at least 8 but no more than 50 employed teachers. o in case of less than 25 teachers, the selected school will form a school cluster together with another near-by (i.e., within 15 km) public primary school.
- •All participants:
- •Written informed consent (if underaged by parents (written) & minors themselves (orally)
- •being enrolled in third school grade of public primary school.
- •being of age between 8 and 13 years.
- •being employed at an eligible school.
- •being open to participate in the intervention during school holidays.
- •Facilitators:
- •Ideally people holding a BA degree in psychology, social work, social sciences
- •Interest in the work with children
- •Being open minded and motivated
- •Balance of gender in the team of enumerators
排除标准
- •Schools participating in the sponsorship program of Save the Children will be excluded.
- •severe mental disabilities that make it impossible to follow the interview questions.
- •acute intoxication of alcohol, drugs or any other substance which make it impossible to follow the interview questions.
研究组 & 干预措施
Control
no intervention
Interaction Competencies with Children
ICC-T: 5,5 days of training for teachers. Core training components include teacher-student interaction, maltreatment prevention, effective discipline strategies, identifying and supporting burdened students and implementation of the training materials into the school setting.
干预措施: Interaction Competencies with Children (Behavioral)
结局指标
主要结局
Reduction of teachers' use of emotional and physical violence
时间窗: The CTS will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention)
The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) will be used to assess teachers' use of emotional and physical violent discipline measures against children in the past week. Higher scores indicate higher levels of violence that is used by teachers. A stronger reduction of violence used by teachers of the intervention group compared to the control group is hypothesized.
Reduction of children's exposure to emotional and physical violence by teachers
时间窗: The CTS will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention)
The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) supported by pictures will be used to assess children's self-reported experiences of emotional and physical violence by teachers at school in the past week. Higher scores indicate higher levels of violence that is used by teachers. A stronger reduction of exposure to violence in the children of teachers of the intervention group compared to the control group is hypothesized.
次要结局
- Change of teachers' attitudes towards emotional and physical violence(The adapted version of CTS will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Reduction of teachers' perceived stress(The Teacher Stress Inventory will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Improvement of teachers' relationships with colleagues(The Teachers' Relationship with Colleagues Scale will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Improvement of teachers' relationships with students(The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Increase of empathy and change in perspective by teachers(The Empathy and Change in Perspective Scale will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Improvement of teachers' self-efficacy(The Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Decrease of favorable normative beliefs about violence(Beliefs About Punishment by Teachers will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Improvement of children's mental health(The PSC-Y will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Increase of children's quality of life(The KIDSCREEN-10 will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Reduction of children's perceived stress(The Perceived Stress Scale for Kids will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Reduction of children's experienced peer victimization(The Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale for Kids will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
- Improvement of students' relationships with teachers(The Teacher-Child Relationship Subscale of People In My Life will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6 months after intervention))
研究者
Tobias Hecker, PhD
Professor
Bielefeld University