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Sponsor: Tobias Hecker, PhD
Conditions: Violence by Teachers
Interventions: Interaction Competencies with Children
Countries: Zambia
The United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child UN General Assembly, 1989), outlawed violence against children worldwide. Yet, 75% of all children worldwide - experience violence while growing up (Know Violence in Childhood, 2017). In Low- and Middle-Income countries prevalence rates at home and at school are higher (Hoeffler, 2017), with particularly high rates in Africa (Hecker et al., 2018; Nkuba, Hermenau, \& Hecker, 2018; Hillis et al., 2016). Violence against children is related to negative mental health outcomes, lower quality in the child-adult relationship, lower cognitive functioning, and emotional and behavioural problems that begin in childhood and may persist through adolescence until adulthood (Berlin et al., 2009; Gershoff \& Grogan-Kaylor, 2016; Hecker et al., 2016; Kim \& Cicchetti, 2010; Majer et al., 2010; Mills et al., 2011; Newbury et al., 2018; Wilson et al., 2009). The present study focuses on violent discipline in schools, as (1) many children are subjected to violent discipline at school on a regular basis, and (2) teachers justify violent discipline since they want to encourage better academic performance and maintain children's discipline (Masath et al., 2022). As in other African countries (Hecker et al., 2018; Nkuba, Hermenau, \& Hecker, 2018; Hillis et al., 2016), violent discipline is prevalent in Zambian schools, despite its prohibition in 2022 (End Corporal Punishment, 2025). With this study we test the intervention Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T; Kirika \& Hecker, 2022) to alleviate violence against children. ICC-T is a manualised 5,5 days training workshop focusing on the basic competencies in the work with children, including non-violent action alternatives. Previous cluster randomized controlled trail studies on ICC-T in Tanzania and Uganda showed that teachers who participated in ICC-T, used significantly less violent discipline measures against children compared to teachers in the control group. The transferability of the intervention to and the effectiveness in the Zambian context remains unclear. Evidence from our research may guide policy makers to implement further measures aiming at ending violence against children.
Sex: ALL
Age: 8 Years to 80 Years
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Inclusion Criteria: Schools: * public primary school (state owned schools, guided by Zambian education policy) * at least 35 students in the selected grade (3th school grade). o if it has less than 35 students in a grade, then it will be combined with nearby selected public primary school which must be within 15 km from the respective and an equal number from each school cluster will be selected to participate in the study. * at least 8 but no more than 50 employed teachers. o in case of less than 25 teachers, the selected school will form a school cluster together with another near-by (i.e., within 15 km) public primary school. All participants: • Written informed consent (if underaged by parents (written) \& minors themselves (orally) Students: * being enrolled in third school grade of public primary school. * being of age between 8 and 13 years. Teachers: * being employed at an eligible school. * being open to participate in the intervention during school holidays. Facilitators: * Ideally people holding a BA degree in psychology, social work, social sciences * Interest in the work with children * Being open minded and motivated * Balance of gender in the team of enumerators Exclusion Criteria: Schools: • Schools participating in the sponsorship program of Save the Children will be excluded. Students: • severe mental disabilities that make it impossible to follow the interview questions. Teachers: • acute intoxication of alcohol, drugs or any other substance which make it impossible to follow the interview questions.
- Petauke, Eastern Province, Zambia