Preventing Violence by Teachers in Primary Schools in Haiti

NCT05081622 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: ICC-T_CRCT_Haiti
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,064
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

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.

Conditions

Violence by Teachers

Keywords

school violence; teacher violence; teachers; intervention; students; primary schools

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Change of students' exposure to emotional and physical violence by teachers

  The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) will be used to assess students' self-reported experiences of emotional and physical violence by teachers at school in the past week. Higher scores indicate higher levels of violence that is used by teachers. We hypothesize a stronger reduction of exposure to violence in the intervention group compared to the control group.

  The CTS will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)

• Change of teachers' use of emotional and physical violence

  The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) will be used to assess teachers' use of emotional and physical violent discipline measures against students in the past week. Higher scores indicate higher levels of violence that is used by teachers. We hypothesize a stronger reduction of the use of violence in the intervention group compared to the control group.

  The CTS will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Change of teachers' positive attitudes towards emotional and physical violence

  The adapted version of CTS will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)

• Change of student's mental health

  The PSC-Y will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)

• Change of students' quality of life

  The KIDSCREEN-10 will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)

• Change of students' cognitive functioning

  The app-based tasks will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention)

Other Outcomes (3)

• Change of students' academic performance

  he standardized achievement tests will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention).

• Change of Students' social competence

  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).

• Change of peer violence

  The Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale will be used at T1 (baseline, prior to intervention) and T2 (follow-up, 6-12 months after intervention).

Study Arms (2)

ICC-T

EXPERIMENTAL

5 days with 9 hours of training for teachers. Core training components include teacher-student interaction, maltreatment prevention, effective discipline strategies, identifying and supporting burdened students and implementation of the training materials into the school setting

Behavioral: Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T)

Monitoring condition

NO INTERVENTION

No intervention

Interventions

Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T) BEHAVIORAL

Core training components include teacher-student interaction, maltreatment prevention, effective discipline strategies, identifying and supporting burdened students and implementation of the training materials into the school setting. A one-day ICC-T refresher workshop aiming to refresh and re-emphasize the key aspects of the intervention is implemented about 6 to 12 months after the initial intervention.

ICC-T

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 7 Years - 70 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• 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

You may not qualify if:

• Students and teachers:
• Acute drug or alcohol intoxication
• Acute psychotic disorder
• Schools:
• Previous training on violence prevention

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Bielefeld University: lead
• University of Konstanz: collaborator
• P4H Global: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

P4H Global

Cap-Haïtien, Haiti

Location

Study Officials

• Anke Hoeffler, Prof. Dr.

  University of Konstanz

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Assistant Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 5, 2021
• First Posted: October 18, 2021
• Study Start: November 15, 2021
• Primary Completion: September 30, 2024
• Study Completion: September 30, 2024
• Last Updated: February 6, 2025

Record last verified: 2024-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

HA (1)