Schools Championing Safe South Africa

Schools Championing Safe South Africa: An Intervention Engaging Teachers and Students in Adolescent Prevention of HIV Risk and Intimate Partner Violence

This study explores the acceptability and feasibility of a school-based intervention called Schools Championing Safe South Africa that engages teachers and students in an integrated approach for preventing risk behavior related to acquisition of HIV and perpetration of IPV among adolescents in South Africa. Teachers and students are agents of change who can transform the school social environment to promote HIV and IPV prevention behaviors for adolescents.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Prevention or Reduction of HIV Risk Behavior; Prevention or Reduction of Intimate Partner Violence
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Schools Championing Safe South Africa

Detailed Description

Adolescence presents an ideal developmental transition period for an integrated intervention targeting prevention of HIV risk behaviors and intimate partner violence (IPV) including sexual violence. Adolescent boys in particular, are at high risk for HIV and perpetration of IPV. Yet, few behavioral interventions integrate HIV-IPV prevention and are tailored for the unique developmental needs of adolescent boys. Educational environments play a vital role in shaping behavioral choices among adolescent boys. Specifically, teachers and student peers serve as agents of change for adolescent boys' HIV and IPV prevention needs in four important ways. First, teachers and student peers influence community norms for appropriate adolescent male behaviors relating to dating, relationships, and sexual violence within the school ecology. Second, teachers and student peers have persistent contact with adolescents and thus, can play an influential role in adolescents' lives as role models for healthy norms. Third, teachers and student peers substantively motivate and reinforce protective behaviors relating to prevention of HIV and IPV. Fourth, teachers are ideally prepared to deliver age- and developmentally-tailored preventive interventions to adolescents because they are professionally trained to engage with adolescents in age and developmentally appropriate teaching. Despite the important role of teachers and student peers in promoting the health of adolescents, there are currently no HIV-IPV interventions in global priority settings for these epidemics that target teachers and student peers in school environments. In this study, we will develop and then investigate the acceptability and feasibility of Schools Championing Safe South Africa, an integrated HIV-IPV intervention where teachers and student peers engage adolescent boys in a developmentally-tailored approach to prevent adolescent HIV risk behavior and IPV using a social norms approach. Investigators work in South Africa, a country with the largest HIV epidemic and some of the highest rates of IPV in the world. This study explores the acceptability and feasibility of a school-based intervention called Schools Championing Safe South Africa that engages teachers and students in an integrated approach for preventing risk behavior related to acquisition of HIV and perpetration of IPV among adolescents in South Africa. Teachers and students are agents of change who can transform the school social environment to promote HIV and IPV prevention behaviors for adolescents.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 282
• Phase: Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• South Africa
  • Cape Town, South Africa
    • South African Medical Research Council

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• identifies as boy
• 15-17 years of age inclusive
• attends school where study is occurring

Exclusion Criteria:

• unable to secure parental consent
• unable to secure parental consent child assent

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention; Half of the participants in the pilot will receive the experimental behavioral intervention.	Behavioral: Schools Championing Safe South Africa; The intervention consists of 2 parts - a poster campaign with social norms messages on violence and HIV risk, and 2 lessons in life orientation (a health curriculum delivered during school).
No Intervention: Control; Half of the participants in the pilot will receive nothing, and serve as the control.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Participants Who Expressed Satisfaction With the Intervention	Client Satisfaction Questionnaire - Using the client satisfaction questionnaire, investigators will measure satisfaction using likert scale responses that range from 1 to 5 with 5 aligning with high satisfaction with the intervention. Investigators are aiming for 80% of more of participants with rankings of satisfied or higher. The questionnaire is based off of the following measure: Larsen DL, Attkisson CC, Hargreaves WA, Nguyen TD. Assessment of client/patient satisfaction: Development of a general scale. Evaluation and Program Planning. 1979;2:197-207. Only participants in the intervention arm answer questions on satisfaction with the intervention.	6 months
Number of Participants Who Were Retained At the 6-month Time Point	There is no scale for feasibility. Investigators will look at retention rates. Feasibility will be aligned with 75% or higher retention rates at the 6 month timepoint.	6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Prevention or Reduction of Sexual Behavior Related to HIV Acquisition Risk as Measured Through the Percent of Participants Engaged in Lifetime Condom Use.	This is an underpowered outcome because the primary goal of this study is not to evaluate efficacy. There is no scale for these behaviors. For this secondary outcome, investigators will examine the percent of participants who engaged in lifetime condom use. This will be reported for each arm, comparing percentages engaged in lifetime condom use at the 6-month time point for each arm separately.	6 months
Prevention or Reduction of Attempted or Completed Acts of Intimate Partner Violence Using Mary Koss's Short Form Sexual Violence Perpetration Scale At the 1-month Time Point	This is an underpowered outcome because the primary goal of this study is not to evaluate efficacy. For this secondary outcome, investigators will examine if there is a decrease in incidents of attempted and completed acts of sexual violence. The percentage of participants engaged in any completed act of sexual perpetration - defined as 1 or more acts of forced touching, oral sex, anal sex, and/or vaginal sex - will be compared for the intervention arm, looking at baseline versus 1 month. Similarly, the percentage of participants engaged in any completed act of sexual perpetration - defined as 1 or more acts of forced touching, oral sex, anal sex, and/or vaginal sex - will be compared for the control arm, looking at baseline versus 1 month.	1 month

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Brown University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 31, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 18, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): April 22, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 11, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 19, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): May 22, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 18, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 3, 2025
• Last Verified: June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: Schools Championing

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No