Reducing violence against children by implementing the preventative intervention Interaction Competencies with Children for Teachers (ICC-T): study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial in Southwestern Uganda

Abstract

BackgroundAn adolescent's school is often the second most important place for his development and education after the home. However, reports highlight the recurrence of the use of violent discipline in schools. There are few school-based interventions that aim at reducing violence at school that have been implemented and evaluated in sub-Saharan Africa. To reduce violent disciplinary measures used at school, we aim to implement and evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of the preventative intervention Interaction Competencies with Children for Teachers (ICC-T).Methods/designThe study will be conducted in six randomly selected districts of the Ankole region in southwestern Uganda. We shall randomly select two mixed-day secondary schools from each district that fulfill our inclusion criteria. Schools will be randomly assigned to the intervention condition, where ICC-T will be implemented, and control schools (no intervention). Sixty students between the ages of 12 and 17 years and at least 15 teachers per school will be included in the trial. We aim to collect pre-assessment data directly before the intervention (t1) and 3 months after the intervention (t2) in both intervention and control schools.Using self-administered questionnaires, we will measure students’ exposure to violence using the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS), their psychological well-being using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and teachers’ positive attitudes towards violent disciplining and teachers’ use of violent disciplinary methods (CTS). The implementation feasibility of ICC-T in the cultural context of southwestern Uganda will be assessed with purpose-built measures that follow the guidelines for feasibility studies assessing the demand, applicability, acceptability, and integration of core elements in the daily work.DiscussionThe proposed study will allow us to test the feasibility and efficacy of a preventative intervention seeking to reduce violent disciplinary measures in school settings using a scientifically rigorous design. The proposed study provides the opportunity to contribute to the attainment of goal number 16.2 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Agenda 2015–2030, which aspires to end all forms of violence against children.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03051854. Registered on 14 February 2017.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-018-2827-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Reducing violent discipline by teachers using Interaction Competencies with Children for Teachers (ICC-T): Study protocol for a matched cluster randomized controlled trial in Tanzanian public primary schools

“…Use of violent discipline We will use a modified version of the CTS which was initially developed to assess parents' reports on their use of violence to assess teachers' use of physical and emotional violence in schools (see above for more details on subscales and answer categories). The scale has been implemented in similar studies in East Africa [1,2]. The CTS presented with acceptable internal consistency of 0.76 in a Ugandan teacher sample [22].…”

“…measures for ICC-T training evaluation We will adopt the purpose-built measures as used in previous studies conducted by our team [1,2,6]. We will follow the guidelines for feasibility studies by Bowen et al [53] in assessing the demand, applicability, acceptability, and integration of ICC-T training techniques into teachers' daily work.…”

“…Violent discipline by teachers at school entails the use of different forms of physical and emotional acts that violate children's dignity and inflict pain with the intention of correcting a child's misconduct [1]. Violent discipline takes diverse forms, including the use of hands or objects, such as a cane, whip, or stick, by teachers and school staff [2]. Despite the existence of different national and international intervention strategies to end violent discipline by teachers, the prevalence of the use of violent discipline by teachers is still reported globally [3][4][5].…”

Construção da escala de violência psicológica contra estudantes universitários

“…Inclusive, o uso da violência física e psicológica por parte dos professores como ferramenta disciplinar é permitida em 68 países, e 40% destes estão no continente africano (Ssenyonga, Hermenau, Nkuba & Hecker, 2018). E apesar de o Brasil ser um dos países que proíbe a violência contra estudantes de qualquer nível, ainda encontramos casos onde esta persiste em acontecer.…”

Reducing violent discipline by teachers using Interaction Competencies with Children for Teachers (ICC-T): Study protocol for a matched cluster randomized controlled trial in Tanzanian public primary schools

“…Violent discipline by teachers at school entails the use of different forms of physical and emotional acts that violate children's dignity and inflict pain with the intention of correcting a child's misconduct (1). Violent discipline takes diverse forms, including the use of hands or objects by teachers and school staff, such as a cane, whip, or stick (2). Despite the existence of different national and international intervention strategies to end violent discipline by teachers, the prevalence of the use of violent discipline by teachers is still reported globally (3)(4)(5).…”