Clinical trial NCT05081622: Preventing Violence by Teachers in Primary Schools in Haiti
Official title: Preventing Violence by Teachers in Primary Schools in Haiti: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of Interaction Competencies With Children - for Teachers (ICC-T)
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Violence by Teachers
Keywords: school violence
teacher violence
teachers
intervention
students
primary schools
Lead sponsor: Bielefeld University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Konstanz
name: P4H Global
First posted: 2021-10-18
Enrollment: 1064
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 7
Maximum age (years): 70
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Violence has severe and long-lasting negative consequences for children's and adolescents' well-being and academic functioning, which can hinder communities' and societies' economic growth. According to the Human Development Index, Haiti is one of the least developed countries in the world and the least developed in the Western hemisphere. Although Haiti has officially signed international and national laws aiming to protect children, preliminary reports suggest high rates of violence against children at schools. In addition to a lack of adequate training and supervision of teachers and an underdeveloped education system, attitudes favoring violence against children as an effective and acceptable discipline method and the lack of access to alternative non-violent strategies are likely to contribute to teachers' ongoing use of violence against children.

Notwithstanding, no school-level interventions addressing these factors to reduce violence by teachers have been scientifically evaluated in Haiti so far.

Thus, the present study tests the effectiveness of the preventative intervention Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T) in primary schools in Haiti. Previous studies have provided initial evidence on the feasibility and effectiveness of ICC-T to reduce teacher violence in primary and secondary schools in Tanzania and secondary schools in Uganda. This study aims to provide first evidence for the effectiveness of ICC-T to reduce violence and to improve children's functioning (i.e. mental health, well-being, academic performance) in a cultural setting outside of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Detailed description: The study is designed as a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial with schools (clusters) as level of randomization. The study will be conducted in the Northern department of Haiti. Six schools in each of the 6 included communes will be randomly selected, resulting in a total number of 36 schools.

In each commune, three schools will be randomly allocated to the intervention group (that will receive the ICC-T intervention) and three schools to the control group (that will receive no intervention). At each school, 28 students (stratified by gender) in the 4th grade of primary School (between 9 and 11 years of age) and all teachers (at least 13) will be recruited. Thus, the final sample will comprise at least 1008 students and at least 468 teachers.

The study will have two data assessment points: baseline assessment prior to the intervention and follow-up assessment six to 12 months after the intervention. In addition, feasibility data will be assessed in the intervention group at the beginning and the end of the intervention. Primary outcome measures are student- and teacher-reported physical and emotional violence by teachers in the past week. Secondary outcome measures include teachers' attitudes towards violence against students, children's emotional and behavioral problems, quality of life, and cognitive functioning.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Written informed consent (if underaged by parents \& minors themselves)

Students: Enrollment in class 4 of primary school

Teachers: All teachers employed at the school

Schools:

* Public or community schools
* Mixed-gender schools
* Day schools
* At least 40 students in selected class/stream

Exclusion Criteria:

Students and teachers:

* Acute drug or alcohol intoxication
* Acute psychotic disorder

Schools:

• Previous training on violence prevention

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change of students' exposure to emotional and physical violence by teachers
timeFrame: The CTS will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)
measure: Change of teachers' use of emotional and physical violence
timeFrame: The CTS will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change of teachers' positive attitudes towards emotional and physical violence
timeFrame: The adapted version of CTS will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)
measure: Change of student's mental health
timeFrame: The PSC-Y will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)
measure: Change of students' quality of life
timeFrame: The KIDSCREEN-10 will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)
measure: Change of students' cognitive functioning
timeFrame: The app-based tasks will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)
Other outcomes:
measure: Change of students' academic performance
timeFrame: he standardized achievement tests will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention).
measure: Change of Students' social competence
timeFrame: The Social Cognitive Map Technique - peer nomination will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention).
measure: Change of peer violence
timeFrame: The Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention).
Locations:
city: Cap-Haitien
country: Haiti
facility: P4H Global
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Konstanz
name: Anke Hoeffler, Prof. Dr.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: