Good Schools Study (GSS)

December 17, 2015 updated by: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

The Good Schools Study: Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of a Program to Prevent Violence Against Children in Schools

The purpose of this study is to determine whether use of the Good Schools Toolkit is effective in reducing violence against children in primary schools.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Violence against children has profound effects on both children's health and their ability to do well at school. Fear, anxiety and injuries caused by violence may play a large role in both children's absenteeism and low educational achievement, and there is increasing interest from large bilateral donors in investigating this link in low income countries. The Good School Toolkit has been developed and refined for 6 years in Uganda by Raising Voices. The toolkit takes a systemic approach, involving an entire school in a process of change to reduce violence and improve teaching techniques. The Toolkit draws on the Transtheoretical Model and incorporates standard behaviour change techniques such as setting a goal and making an action plan, which are effective in modifying behaviour. This study aims to determine whether use of the Good School Toolkit reduces children's experience of violence by school staff. The investigators will also examine the effects of the Toolkit on children's educational outcomes, mental health and well-being.

The investigators will conduct a cluster randomised controlled trial in 40 primary schools in Luwero District, Uganda. More than 3500 children in Primary 5, 6 and 7 will be surveyed (aged about 11-16 years). Half of the schools will receive the Toolkit, and other half will be put on a waiting list to receive the Toolkit at the end of the study. The results from this evaluation will be used to brief policy-makers within the Ministry of Education and Sports involved in developing country-wide policy and practice around violence against children in schools.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

3820

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Uganda
    • Luwero District
      • Multiple, Luwero District, Uganda
        • District-wide

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

  1. Inclusion Criteria:

    • Schools

      • in Luwero District, Uganda
      • more than 40 students registered in Primary 5

    • Participants

      • registered as a Primary 5, 6 or 7 pupil
      • any school staff member

  2. Exclusion Criteria:

    • Schools

      -- existing program related to prevention of violence against children or school governance

    • Participants -- not able to understand consent and study procedures

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Good School Toolkit
Schools in the intervention arm will receive the Good Schools Toolkit materials and implementation support.
Behavioral: Good School Toolkit
The Toolkit uses a six step process to create a school wide intervention that engages teachers, students, administration, and parents to reflect on how they can promote quality of education in their school. The Toolkit articulates complex ideas (what is a good learning environment, a good teacher, how to create positive discipline without using violence) through booklets, posters and school initiated learning processes. Specific modules on alternative discipline techniques and how staff can use positive discipline are included in the Toolkit. The intervention includes sessions on knowledge, attitudes and opportunities to practice new behavioural skills. Work is led by teachers and students, and supported by visits from Raising Voices staff. The Toolkit can be reviewed at (http://www.raisingvoices.org/children/good_school_toolkit.php).
No Intervention: Control
Schools in this arm will receive the Good Schools Toolkit materials and some implementation support after the end of the trial.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Physical Violence From School Staff
Time Frame: 2-year follow-up
past week experience of any physical violence from school staff
2-year follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Child Mental Health
Time Frame: 2-year follow-up
score on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): 20 questions. Total difficulties score, divided by the number of completed items. Modelled as a continuous variable. Range 0 (no difficulties) to 2 (high difficulties).
2-year follow-up
Educational Achievement: Word Recognition in English
Time Frame: 2-year follow-up
Word recognition in English(words per minute). Early Grade Reading Assessment, Uganda version. Calculated as number of words read correctly (out of a maximum of 50), divided by the time (out of a maximum of 60 seconds).
2-year follow-up
Safety and Well-being at School
Time Frame: At 2 year follow-up

Five questions. Each question asked with response options: all the time, most of the time, sometimes, never:

I feel that my teachers care about me. I feel safe in school. I feel like I belong at school. I like to spend time at school. I am scared of my teachers (reverse coded). Scores summed, modelled as a continuous variable. Range 0 (low) to 15 (high). Higher score is better safety and well-being at school.
At 2 year follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Collaborators

Makerere University
Raising Voices
Institute of Education, UK

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Karen M Devries, PhD, LSHTM

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

June 1, 2012

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2014

Study Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 24, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 4, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

September 5, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 26, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 17, 2015

Last Verified

June 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • LSHTM_6183

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Mental Health

Clinical Trials on Good School Toolkit

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Burkina Faso

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe