Skhokho Supporting Success: A Cluster RCT of a Multi-faceted, School-based IPV Prevention Intervention in South Africa

Medical Research Council, South Africa

Status: Completed

Conditions: Partner of Victim of Physical Abuse

Treatments: Behavioral: Skhokho Supporting Success for Families; Behavioral: Skhokho Supporting Success for Schools

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02349321

ECO22-9

Details and patient eligibility

About

Development and evaluation of a multi-faceted school-based intervention to prevent intimate partner violence among Grade 8 high school students in South Africa

Full description

Primary prevention of intimate partner violence among young men and women requires an intervention which addresses the underlying driving factors of such violence operating at different ecological levels.That is, interventions need to address factors impacting directly on youth and their family relationships, school as an institutional setting. In the school, holistic interventions strengthen the curriculum and teaching, but also the broader environment of learning, including addressing positive discipline and the culture of the school. In order to prevent violence, interventions need to build gender equality, challenge the normative use of violence in schools and homes (e.g., corporal punishment), strengthen teen-adult relationships and communication, and build negotiation and conflict resolution skills, as well as addressing stress and coping.

A three-arm, cluster randomised controlled trial based in high schools in Gauteng, South Africa is evaluating such a multi-faceted primary prevention intervention. This intervention includes school strengthening components for learners and educators, which includes providing a teaching materials for the grade 8 life orientation (LO) curriculum (which covers gender and violence), training teachers in LO teaching, training staff on positive discipline and establishing learner clubs. A second intervention seeks to strengthen families and is a workshop based intervention delivered over 4 day long sessions for a parent or caregiver and their grade 8 adolescent.

The intervention is being evaluated in a three arm randomised controlled trial, with school-level randomisation involving 24 schools. One is a delayed intervention control arm, two arms have the school strengthening intervention and one arm additionally have the family strengthening intervention.

The outcomes will be addressed using qualitative and quantitative methods with data collected from Grade 8 learners (the primary outcome group), school educators and administrators, and parents/caregivers of Grade 8s. These measures will be conducted pre-intervention and at 6, 12, and 18 month follow up periods. In addition, an economic costing evaluation will be conducted.

Enrollment: 3,192 estimated patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• LEARNER/TEEN PARTICIPANTS: enrolled in Grade 8 in one of the study schools; informed consent from parent/guardian to participate in study
• EDUCATOR PARTICIPANTS: currently employed/working as an educator (of any group of learners) at one of the study schools
• PARENT/CAREGIVER PARTICIPANTS: the male or female parent/caregiver/guardian of a Grade 8 learner in Arm 2 schools

Exclusion criteria

NONE

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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3,192 participants in 3 patient groups

School Strengthening

Experimental group

Description:

Skhokho Supporting Success for Schools: (a) Full year Grade 8 Life Orientation Learner Workbook (following the national curriculum), Educator Guide, and LO Educator support workshops; (b) Educator workshops including values, positive discipline skills, adolescent development, and stress and coping; (c) Learner club workshops (Grade 8s-11s) including creating change for a safe and vibrant school community, human rights at school, communication and conflict resolution skills, and stress and coping.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Skhokho Supporting Success for Schools

School + Family Strengthening

Experimental group

Description:

Skhokho Supporting Success for Schools: See description above. Skhokho Supporting Success for Families: Participatory four-day workshop for parents/caregivers and their young adolescent children including parallel and joint dialogue sessions. This workshop aims to promote supportive, open relationships between parents/caregivers and their teens and includes communication, negotiation and conflict resolution skills; positive discipline skills; challenging traditional gender constructions; understanding the impact of child abuse; stress and coping.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Skhokho Supporting Success for Schools

Behavioral: Skhokho Supporting Success for Families

Arm 3: Control (Delayed Intervention)

No Intervention group

Description:

This group will continue with "treatment as usual" (i.e: school services, activities, and textbooks without specialised intervention). At the end of primary data collection, these schools will be eligible to receive the Schools Strengthening Intervention.