Legal-Education Plus Trauma-informed Therapy to Improve Community Acceptance and Reintegration of Repentant Terrorists in Nigeria

NCT05397483 | Unknown DMC

• 1 other identifier: 0000-0001-5034-0335d
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 150
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

Terrorism is an issue of global concern, and reintegrating repentant terrorists, including their families, has often proved challenging considering the damages done by the terrorist group. Despite Boko Haram atrocities in Nigeria, the focus seems directed toward the repentant terrorists with limited attention to the communities, the trauma they suffered, and their involvement in the design of reintegration programmes. There is also limited community awareness of legal support channels to foster positive reintegration (Ike et al., 2021). The implication is that it risks undermining the social context that informs successful reintegration, improves acceptance, and reduces reoffending. However, there appears to be limited research on this important policy problem in Nigeria. Our study proposes to fill this gap by contributing to the research initiative through a novel cross-disciplinary intervention drawing on law and psychology entitled Legal Education plus Trauma-informed Therapy (LETiT) to improve community acceptance and reintegration of repentant terrorists in Nigeria.

Conditions

Trauma, Psychological; Legal Education

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (7)

• Trauma Screening Questionnaire

  Change in traumatic experience is being assessed

  Change is being assessed at baseline, at 12 weeks end of intervention, at 3-months, and at 6-months post-intervention

• Adaptive Stress Index

  Change in stress is being assessed

  Change is being assessed at baseline, at 12 weeks end of intervention, at 3-months, and at 6-months post-intervention

• Patient Health Questionnaire

  Change in depression is being assessed

  Change is being assessed at baseline, at 12 weeks end of intervention, at 3-months, and at 6-months post-intervention

• Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale

  Change in anxiety is being assessed

  Change is being assessed at baseline, at 12 weeks end of intervention, at 3-months, and at 6-months post-intervention

• Legal-Education Awareness Scale

  Change in awareness of human right is being assessed

  Change is being assessed at baseline, at 12 weeks end of intervention, at 3-months, and at 6-months post-intervention

• Attitude Towards Repentant Terrorists and their Reintegration Scale

  Change in of attitude towards repentant terrorists is being assessed

  Change is being assessed at baseline, at 12 weeks end of intervention, at 3-months, and at 6-months post-intervention

• brief Verona Service Satisfaction Scale

  Change in service satisfaction is being assessed

  Change is being assessed at 12 weeks end of intervention, at 3-months, and at 6-months post-intervention

Study Arms (2)

LETiT

EXPERIMENTAL

The LETiT intervention will cover (a) Legal education with numerous aspects relating to human rights, access to legal support and tackling traumatic experiences. (b) The Trauma-informed Therapy component will involve addressing trauma, dispelling negative thoughts and building more positive thinking. It is worth adding that the LETiT intervention has undergone standardisation of procedure by adopting a coherent manual (e.g., the Legal Education plus Trauma-informed Therapy manual) specifically designed for the proposed intervention. For example, the legal education contents are collated from extant laws, including the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Behavioral: Legal Education plus Trauma-informed Therapy (LETiT)

Intervention As Usual (IAU)

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The Intervention As Usual (IAU) component of the proposed project is designed through a systematic collation of numerous government and non-governmental organisations' support information (e.g., news information and basic re-orientation of community members affected by terrorism). Thus, the IAU group will receive the government intervention involving media messages from the National Orientation Agency devoid of legal education or trauma-informed therapy. The training materials are organised to address key aspects of care such as (a) acknowledgement of the severity of lived experiences (b) reflection of current help received from the government and humanitarian services (c) essential aspects of self-care and caring for the vulnerable family and community members (d) inspiration for the future etc.

Behavioral: Intervention As Usual (IAU)

Interventions

Legal Education plus Trauma-informed Therapy (LETiT) BEHAVIORAL

Group-1: Experimental (n=75 participants) will receive the LETiT which consists of a total of 12-group integrated sessions lasting approximately 60-90 minutes per session every week with 20-25 persons per sub-group.

LETiT

Intervention As Usual (IAU) BEHAVIORAL

Group-2: Controlled (n=75 participants) will receive the IAU which consists of a total of 12-group integrated sessions lasting approximately 60-90 minutes per session every week with 20-25 persons per sub-group.

Intervention As Usual (IAU)

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 85 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• ages 18 - 85 years
• able to give consent
• able to understand and speak English
• score a minimum of 5 on Trauma Screening Questionnaire
• residents of designated communities of intervention (Adamawa, Maiduguri, and Plateau states)
• available for the study and follow up at 3- and 6-months post-intervention

You may not qualify if:

• less than 18 or above 85 years
• unable to give consent
• clinically diagnosed with severe PTSD/suicidal ideations or undergoing treatment
• temporary or non-residents who are unlikely to be available for follow up

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Nottingham Trent University: lead

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Psychological Trauma

Interventions

Methods

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Mental Disorders

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Investigative Techniques

Study Officials

• Dung Jidong, PhD

  Nottingham Trent University, UK

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Dung Jidong, PhD

CONTACT

+44 115 84 86478; dung.jidong@ntu.ac.uk

Tarela Ike, PhD

CONTACT

+44 1642 34 2316; t.ike@tees.ac.uk

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Senior Lecturer

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 25, 2022
• First Posted: May 31, 2022
• Study Start: June 20, 2022
• Primary Completion: June 19, 2023
• Study Completion: September 30, 2023
• Last Updated: May 31, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share