Reducing physical and emotional violence by teachers using the intervention Interaction Competencies with Children – for Teachers (ICC-T): study protocol of a multi-country cluster randomized controlled trial in Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda

Abstract

Background Violence has severe and long-lasting negative consequences for children’s and adolescents’ well-being and psychosocial functioning, thereby also hampering communities’ and societies’ economic growth. Positive attitudes towards violence and the lack of access to alternative non-violent strategies are likely to contribute to the high levels of teachers’ ongoing use of violence against children in sub-Saharan African countries. Notwithstanding, there are currently very few school-level interventions to reduce violence by teachers that a) have been scientifically evaluated and b) that focus both on changing attitudes towards violence and on equipping teachers with non-violent discipline strategies. Thus, the present study tests the effectiveness of the preventative intervention Interaction Competencies with Children – for Teachers (ICC-T) in primary and secondary schools in Tanzania, Uganda, and Ghana. Methods The study is a multi-site cluster randomized controlled trial with schools (clusters) as level of randomization and three data assessment points: baseline assessment prior to the intervention, the first follow-up assessment 6 months after the intervention and the second follow-up assessment 18 months after the intervention. Multi-stage random sampling will be applied to select a total number of 72 schools (24 per country). Schools will be randomly allocated to the intervention and the control condition after baseline. At each school, 40 students (stratified by gender) in the third year of primary school or in the first year of secondary/junior high school and all teachers (expected average number: 20) will be recruited. Thus, the final sample will comprise 2880 students and at least 1440 teachers. Data will be collected using structured clinical interviews. Primary outcome measures are student- and teacher-reported physical and emotional violence by teachers in the past week. Secondary outcome measures include children’s emotional and behavioral problems, quality of life, cognitive functioning, academic performance, school attendance and social competence. Data will be analyzed using multilevel analyses. Discussion This study aims to provide further evidence for the effectiveness of ICC-T to reduce teacher violence and to improve children’s functioning (i.e., mental health, well-being, academic performance) across educational settings, societies and cultures. Trial registration The trial was registered at clinicaltrials.org under the ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT04948580 on July 2, 2021.

The Relationship between the Outdoor School Violence Distribution and the Outdoor Campus Environment: An Empirical Study from China

“…Teacher-student conflict tends to occur in areas with high In and low MD, and in the light of the relevant literature [78,79,103], it can be speculated that this may be related to the teachers' activity phenomenon that tends to revolve around spaces with good accessibility, such as teaching buildings. In addition to social interventions such as ICC-T [104], the campus environmental design needs to strengthen the monitoring capacity, and activity inclusion of teachers to reduce the violence occurrence. For example, teacher management stations can be set up in areas of frequent student-teacher activity, including sports fields and courtyards, to reduce the violence incidence such as corporal punishment as a result of student rebellion [94].…”

Interaction Competencies with Children – Entwicklung und Wirkmechanismen einer präventiven Intervention für Lehrkräfte im Kontext gesellschaftlich akzeptierter Gewalt

“…Aktuell wird die Intervention in einer Multi-Center Cluster-randomisierten kontrollierten Studie in Tansania, Uganda und Ghana untersucht. In dieser Studie sind 72 Schulen, mehr als 1'000 Lehrkräfte und mehr als 2'500 Schüler/innen in Grund-und weiterführenden Schulen eingeschlossen [Scharpf et al, 2021]. Damit ist ein einzigartiger Vergleich in drei verschiedenen kulturellen Settings in West-und Ostafrika möglich, in denen die Rechtslage zu Gewalt an Schulen unterschiedlich ist -gesellschaftlich aber in allen Ländern akzeptiert ist.…”

“…Aus psychologischer Sicht gibt es verschiedene zusammenhängende und interagierende Aspekte, die zu Gewalt gegen Kinder führen oder diese aufrechterhalten [Antonowicz, 2010;Maternowska und Fry, 2018]. Das Modell des Kreislaufes der Gewalt beschreibt den Zusammenhang zwischen der erlebten Gewalt in der Kindheit und der ausgelebten Gewalt im Erwachsenenalter und wie dieser individuelle Kreislauf zu einem generationenübergreifenden Kreislauf wird [Widom und Wilson, 2015;Masath et al, 2021]. Dadurch entstehen Systeme und Gesellschaften, in denen Gewalt gegen Kinder zur sozialen Norm wird [Wright und Fagan, 2013].…”

“…Ein weiterer Faktor, der Gewalt gegen Kinder begünstigt, ist Stress [Hecker et al, 2018;Masath et al, 2021]. Die Arbeitsbedingungen von Lehrer/innen, besonders in ressourcenschwachen Kontexten, sind geprägt von langen Arbeitszeiten, überfüllten Klassenräumen (mit Klassenstärken von über 100 Schüler/innen in einer Klasse), dem parallelen Unterrichten mehrerer Klassenstufen, schlechter Bezahlung und mangelhafter Ausstattung [Masath et al, 2021;Ssenyonga und Hecker, 2021]. Laut der Frustrations-Aggressions-Hypothese steigt die Wahrscheinlichkeit für aggressives Verhalten, je mehr Frust empfunden wird [Berkowitz, 1989].…”

“…In Tansania zum Beispiel berichteten 96% der Lehrer/innen an Grundschulen und 97% an Sekundarschulen in repräsentativen Studien, Gewalt gegen Schüler/innen im vergangenen Monat bzw. im vergangenen Jahr angewendet zu haben [Hecker et al, 2018;Masath et al, 2021]. Selbst in Ländern, in denen Gewalt gegen Kinder verboten wurde, bleibt sie oft unverändert hoch [Gershoff, 2017].…”