Preventing Physical and Emotional Violence by Teachers in Public Schools in Pakistan

ConditionViolence

Trial statusRecruiting

Trial phaseNot applicable

Trial typeInterventional

Biological sexAll

Age11-62

SponsorBielefeld University

About this trial

Violence has severe and long-lasting negative consequences for children and adolescents' well-being and psychosocial functioning, thereby also hampering communities and societies' economic growth. Studies show high prevalence rates of violence by teachers against children in Pakistan. In addition to legal and structural factors (e. g. stressful working conditions for teachers), 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, 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 secondary schools in Pakistan. Previous studies have provided initial evidence on the feasibility to implement teacher violence interventions in secondary schools in Pakistan. 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 Pakistan.

Eligibility criteria

This trial does not accept healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

None

Disqualifiers

None

Trial design

Design model

Parallel

Treatments tested in this trial

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

Treatment groups

2,100 Participants

are divided into 2 treatment groups

Group A: ICC-TExperimental treatment 1 intervention

Group B: monitoring conditionNo intervention 0 interventions

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

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.

Time frame

The CTS will be used at T0 (baseline, prior to intervention), T1 (first follow-up, 6 months after intervention) and T2 (second follow-up, 18 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.

Time frame

The CTS will be used at T0 (baseline, prior to intervention), T1 (first follow-up, 6 months after intervention) and T2 (second follow-up, 18 months after intervention)

Secondary outcomes

Change of teachers' positive attitudes towards emotional and physical violence

Teacher's attitudes towards emotional and physical violence will be assessed with an adapted version of the Conflict Tactic Scale (CTS). Higher scores indicate higher levels of positive attitudes towards violence. We hypothesize a stronger decrease of positive attitudes towards violence in the intervention group compared to the control group.

Time frame

The adapted version of CTS will be used at T0 (baseline, prior to intervention), T1 (first follow-up, 6 months after intervention) and T2 (second follow-up, 18 months after the intervention)

Change of student's mental health

The Pediatric Symptom Checklist - Youth Report (PSC-Y) will assess students' emotional and behavioral problems. Higher scores indicate higher levels of students' mental health problems. We hypothesize a stronger reduction of mental health problems in the intervention group compared to the control group.

Time frame

The PSC-Y will be used at T0 (baseline, prior to intervention), T1 (first follow-up, 6 months after intervention) and T2 (second follow-up, 18 months after intervention)

Change of students' quality of life

The KIDSCREEN-10 will assess students' quality of life. Higher scores indicate higher levels of students' quality of life. We hypothesize an overall improvement of in the quality of life in the intervention group compared to the control group.

Time frame

The KIDSCREEN-10 will be used at T0 (baseline, prior to intervention), T1 (first follow-up, 6 months after intervention) and T2 (second follow-up, 18 months after intervention)

Change of students' cognitive functioning

Five tasks from the tablet application Inquisit will be used to assess children's cognitive abilities including selective attention (Letter Cancellation Task), working memory (Corsi Block Tapping Backwards), response inhibition (Arrow Flanker Task), planning and problem solving (Tower of London) and cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test). The test results in each test will be z-standardized and then combined to one compound score. Higher scores indicate higher levels of students' cognitive abilities. We hypothesize higher levels of cognitive functioning in the intervention group compared to the control group.

Time frame

The app-based tasks will be used at T0 (baseline, prior to intervention), T1 (first follow-up, 6 months after intervention) and T2 (second follow-up, 18 months after intervention)

Other outcomes

Change of students' academic performance

Students' grades in the previous term's exams will be obtained from the school administration. An improvement in academic performance in the intervention group is hypothesized.

Time frame

Students' grades will be collected at T0 (baseline, prior to intervention), T1 (first follow-up, 6 months after intervention) and T2 (second follow-up, 18 months after intervention).

Change of peer violence

The Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale will be used assess students' experiences of violence by peers. Higher scores indicate higher levels of students' experiences of peer violence. We hypothesize a stronger decrease of peer violence in the intervention group compared to the control group.

Time frame

he Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale will be used at T0 (baseline, prior to intervention), T1 (first follow-up, 6 months after intervention) and T2 (second follow-up, 18 months after intervention)

Sponsors and contacts

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Bielefeld University

Lead sponsor

Shifa Foundation

Collaborator

Shifa International Hospital

Collaborator

Mclean Hospital

Collaborator

University of Konstanz

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov

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