Clinical trial NCT05869864: Schools Championing Safe South Africa
Official title: Schools Championing Safe South Africa: An Intervention Engaging Teachers and Students in Adolescent Prevention of HIV Risk and Intimate Partner Violence
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: PHASE1
Conditions: Prevention or Reduction of HIV Risk Behavior
Prevention or Reduction of Intimate Partner Violence
Lead sponsor: Brown University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-05-22
Enrollment: 282
Sex: MALE
Minimum age (years): 15
Maximum age (years): 17
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: The primary goal of this study is to assess acceptability of the behavioral intervention in a small group of participants and to determine feasibility of the study design for a future fully-powered clinical trial. The secondary goal of this study is to evaluate under-powered directions of behavior change relating to prevention or reduction of HIV risk behavior and intimate partner violence.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This study explores the acceptability and feasibility of a school-based intervention called Schools Championing Safe South Africa that engages teachers and students in an integrated approach for preventing risk behavior related to acquisition of HIV and perpetration of IPV among adolescents in South Africa. Teachers and students are agents of change who can transform the school social environment to promote HIV and IPV prevention behaviors for adolescents.

Detailed description: Adolescence presents an ideal developmental transition period for an integrated intervention targeting prevention of HIV risk behaviors and intimate partner violence (IPV) including sexual violence. Adolescent boys in particular, are at high risk for HIV and perpetration of IPV. Yet, few behavioral interventions integrate HIV-IPV prevention and are tailored for the unique developmental needs of adolescent boys. Educational environments play a vital role in shaping behavioral choices among adolescent boys. Specifically, teachers and student peers serve as agents of change for adolescent boys' HIV and IPV prevention needs in four important ways. First, teachers and student peers influence community norms for appropriate adolescent male behaviors relating to dating, relationships, and sexual violence within the school ecology. Second, teachers and student peers have persistent contact with adolescents and thus, can play an influential role in adolescents' lives as role models for healthy norms. Third, teachers and student peers substantively motivate and reinforce protective behaviors relating to prevention of HIV and IPV. Fourth, teachers are ideally prepared to deliver age- and developmentally-tailored preventive interventions to adolescents because they are professionally trained to engage with adolescents in age and developmentally appropriate teaching. Despite the important role of teachers and student peers in promoting the health of adolescents, there are currently no HIV-IPV interventions in global priority settings for these epidemics that target teachers and student peers in school environments. In this study, we will develop and then investigate the acceptability and feasibility of Schools Championing Safe South Africa, an integrated HIV-IPV intervention where teachers and student peers engage adolescent boys in a developmentally-tailored approach to prevent adolescent HIV risk behavior and IPV using a social norms approach. Investigators work in South Africa, a country with the largest HIV epidemic and some of the highest rates of IPV in the world. This study explores the acceptability and feasibility of a school-based intervention called Schools Championing Safe South Africa that engages teachers and students in an integrated approach for preventing risk behavior related to acquisition of HIV and perpetration of IPV among adolescents in South Africa. Teachers and students are agents of change who can transform the school social environment to promote HIV and IPV prevention behaviors for adolescents.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* identifies as boy
* 15-17 years of age inclusive
* attends school where study is occurring

Exclusion Criteria:

* unable to secure parental consent
* unable to secure parental consent child assent

Primary outcomes:
measure: Number of Participants Who Expressed Satisfaction With the Intervention
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Number of Participants Who Were Retained At the 6-month Time Point
timeFrame: 6 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Prevention or Reduction of Sexual Behavior Related to HIV Acquisition Risk as Measured Through the Percent of Participants Engaged in Lifetime Condom Use.
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Prevention or Reduction of Attempted or Completed Acts of Intimate Partner Violence Using Mary Koss's Short Form Sexual Violence Perpetration Scale At the 1-month Time Point
timeFrame: 1 month
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Cape Town
country: South Africa
facility: South African Medical Research Council
Study officials:
References: