Clinical trial NCT05958225: SEE Change Evaluation - Impacts of Personal Agency Training on Ugandan Entrepreneurs
Official title: SEE Change Evaluation - Assessing Impacts of Personal Agency Training to Advance Entrepreneurial Outcomes in Uganda
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Well-Being, Psychological
Economic Hardship
Stress
Keywords: Personal agency
entrepreneurship
flourishing
Lead sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Investors Club/Enterprise Uganda
name: Innovations for Poverty Action
First posted: 2023-07-24
Enrollment: 814
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 55
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Participants will be randomly selected (using a stratified random sampling, stratified by gender) and assigned to either the intervention group (n=400) or wait-listed control group (n=400).
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: This study is proposed as an individually randomized control trial (RCT) designed to assess the short-term impacts (follow up at six months) of a personal agency training on a range of economic and health outcomes for micro and small entrepreneurs in Western and Central Uganda. Participants will be randomly selected and assigned to either the intervention group (n=400) or wait-listed control group (n=400). The intervention will include the standard Empowered Entrepreneur training curriculum which includes personal agency alongside basic business training that has been developed by the SEE Change team. This training will take place over three consecutive days (approximately 25 hours of content).

Detailed description: The investigators propose to examine the comparative impacts of a personal agency and business training curricula on outcome measures focused in three areas 1) business related outcomes; 2) personal agency and flourishing; and 3) social spillover impacts.

Aim 1: Assess changes in business related outcomes including improved sales and profit, enhanced business skills and behaviors, and business-related goal setting.

Aim 2: Assess changes in personal agency and flourishing as determined through personal goal setting and psychometric measurements of self-esteem, self-confidence, grit and flourishing.

Aim 3: Assess social spillover impacts of the training on depression, anxiety and stress, and changes in gender norms and attitudes.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Small or micro entrepreneur;
* Business has been in operation/existence for at least the past 12 months;
* Entrepreneur is between the ages of 18 and 55;
* Entrepreneur has the ability to participate in all training activities;
* Informed consent is obtained from the entrepreneur;
* The entrepreneur is not planning to leave the area in the next 12 months;
* The entrepreneur has access to a phone for contact purposes;

Exclusion Criteria:

* Entrepreneur is unable to provide informed consent or informed consent is not obtained;
* Entrepreneur is not considered a small or micro entrepreneur;
* Entrepreneur is younger than 18 years of age;
* Business has been in operation/existence for less than 12 months;
* Entrepreneur's primary business is farming (anything related to seasonal crop production);
* Entrepreneur is planning to leave the area in the next 12 months;

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Business revenue and profits as assessed by questionnaire developed by study team
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in Marketing score as assessed by questionnaire as assessed by the Micro-Enterprise survey
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in in the number of Marketing strategies adopted as assessed by questionnaire developed by study team
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in adoption of Business skills as assessed by questionnaire developed by study team
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in Self-efficacy as measured by the Chen scale for self efficacy
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in Self-esteem as measured by the Rosenberg scale
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in ability to regulate behavior as assessed by the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ)
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in perseverance assessed by the Grit scale
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in Locus of control as measured by the Internal-External Locus of Control Short Scale-4 (IE-4)
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in understanding of gender norms as assessed by the Gender norms and attitude scale
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS 8)
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in environmental mastery as assessed by the Ryff Environmental Mastery subscale
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in positive relations as assessed by the Ryff Positive Relations with Others subscale
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
measure: Change in personal initiative as assessed by the Personal Initiative Scale
timeFrame: Baseline, six months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Kampala
country: Uganda
facility: Innovations for Poverty Action
Study officials:
affiliation: Associate Scientist, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
name: Anita V Shankar, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
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