Mother and Child Education Program in Palestinian Refugee Camps

Implementation and Impact Evaluation of the Mother and Child Education Program (MOCEP) Among Children and Families in Palestinian Refugee Camps in Beirut, Lebanon

The purpose of the Mother Child Education Program (MOCEP)-a group-based early childhood development parenting education program-is to provide school-readiness and parenting skills to mothers of young children who do not have access to preschool education services. The MOCEP intervention also provides a setting in which caregivers can model pro-social behaviors and practice conflict resolution techniques directly with young children.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Parenting
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: MOCEP

Detailed Description

The purpose of the evaluation study is to rigorously evaluate the impact of MOCEP on child and parent outcomes among Palestinian refugees in Beirut, Lebanon. This evaluation employs an innovative, mixed-methods bio-behavioral approach to investigate the associations among social contexts; maternal, child and family functioning; and reduction in violence through the promotion of harmonious family relationships. The results of this study have implications for improving the lives of and reducing violence for the hundreds of thousands of families with young children living in fragile contexts. We hypothesize that when MOCEP is implemented with fidelity (i.e., delivered as intended by design), participating families will experience reduced violence in their homes and have better individual and intra-family outcomes than families who do not participate in the program.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 106
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Lebanon
  • Beirut, Lebanon
    • Bourj el-Barajneh refugee camp
  • Beirut, Lebanon
    • Charila
  • Beirut, Lebanon
    • Mar Elias Refugee Camp

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 3 years to 6 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Child must be between 3 and 6 years of age (children age 7 may be accepted under special circumstances)
2. Mother must be able to read and write in Arabic (although skills may not be well-developed)
3. Mothers must commit to participate in the 25-week MOCEP Intervention program

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: MOCEP; MOCEP is implemented over a period of 25 weeks, through weekly group meetings that last approximately three hours.	Behavioral: MOCEP; Through parent support and an evidence-based curriculum, MOCEP uses education to reduce risk factors that hinder children's health and wellbeing.
Active Comparator: Waitlist Control Group; For ethical reasons, no one recruited will be excluded from the opportunity to benefit from the intervention. MOCEP group will be the primary intervention group and the second group will act as the wait-listed control group. Although the families in the wait-listed control group will start out as a control group (not receiving the intervention), they will have the opportunity to participate in the intervention in a later round of implementation, after the intervention group has completed the program.	Behavioral: MOCEP; Through parent support and an evidence-based curriculum, MOCEP uses education to reduce risk factors that hinder children's health and wellbeing.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Disciplinary Style Questionnaire	Parent report measure of parental disciplinary style assesses the frequency with which parents engage in seven forms of discipline when dealing with children's undesirable behavior	25 weeks
Better Parenting Questionnaire	11 Item questionnaire that measures parental knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding education and learning, child development and discipline / child rearing.	25 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Socio-Emotional Status: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (child assessment)	Parent report measure assesses children's emotional and conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer relations.	25 weeks
Parental Stress Index	Assessment of maternal stress	25 weeks
Duke Social Support Index	Addresses social support in two domains: social interaction and subjective support	25 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Yale University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Ponguta LA, Issa G, Aoudeh L, Maalouf C, Hein SD, Zonderman AL, Katsovich L, Khoshnood K, Bick J, Awar A, Nourallah S, Householder S, Moore CC, Salah R, Britto PR, Leckman JF. Effects of the Mother-Child Education Program on Parenting Stress and Disciplinary Practices Among Refugee and Other Marginalized Communities in Lebanon: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2020 Jun;59(6):727-738. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2019.12.010. Epub 2020 Jan 31.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: May 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2016
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 25, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 27, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): March 30, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): December 2, 2016
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 1, 2016
• Last Verified: December 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 1403013605