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

Overview

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.

The study is a multi-site cluster randomized controlled trial with schools (clusters) as level of randomization. Three districts in each site of the four sites (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Sindh province, the State of Azad Jammu \& Kashmir, and the federal capital Islamabad+Punjab province) will be purposely selected to ensure diversity of schools in terms of geographical, economical, social, and politically background. In each site, 12 public schools will be randomly selected, resulting in a total number of 48 schools (12 per sites). Schools will be stratified based on school type (girls or boys school). In each site, 6 schools (3 girls and 3 boys schools) will be randomly allocated to the intervention group (that will receive the ICC-T intervention) and the control group (that will receive no intervention). At each school, 30 students in the first year of secondary and all teachers (expected average number: 15) will be recruited. Thus the final sample will comprise 1440 students and at least 720 teachers at baseline. The study will have three data assessment points: baseline assessment prior to the intervention, the first follow-up assessment six months after the intervention and the second follow-up assessment 18 months after the intervention. In addition, feasibility data will be assessed in the intervention group at the beginning and the end of the intervention. Primary outcome measures are student- and teacher-reported physical and emotional violence by teachers in the past week. Secondary outcome measures include children's emotional and behavioral problems, quality of life, cognitive functioning, academic performance, and school attendance.