School-based Prevention of Teacher Violence Against Children: A Cluster-randomized Controlled Trial in Zambia | NCT07773961 | Trialant

RecruitingInterventionalNot ApplicableUpdated Aug 19, 2026

School-based Prevention of Teacher Violence Against Children: A Cluster-randomized Controlled Trial in Zambia

Overview

Key facts that identify this study and show where it stands today.

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT07773961
Lead Sponsor: Tobias Hecker, PhDOTHER
Overall Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Phase: Not Applicable
Enrollment: 700Estimated
Last Update Posted: Aug 19, 2026Actual
Start Date: May 18, 2026Actual
Primary Completion Date: Mar 31, 2027Estimated
Completion Date: Dec 31, 2027Estimated

Description

What the study is about and why it is being run, in the researchers' own words.

Official Title: School-based Prevention of Teacher Violence Against Children: A Cluster-randomized Controlled Trial in Zambia
Brief Summary: 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.

Conditions

The medical conditions and diseases this study investigates.

Violence by Teachers

Interventions

The treatments and procedures being evaluated in this study.

Interaction Competencies with Children

Participation

Who can join this study and the criteria used to decide.

Ages Eligible for Study: Child (0-17)Adult (18-64)Older Adult (65+)
Sexes Eligible for Study: All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
Eligibility Criteria: 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.

Design

How the study is designed and how its participant groups are organized.

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

Contacts

The people to reach with questions about this study or how to join it.

Tobias Hecker, Prof. Dr.Contact

tobias.hecker@uni-bielefeld.de+49 521 106-3105

Locations

Where the study is run and whether each site is currently recruiting.

Field Office Petauke - Save the Children ZambiaRecruiting

Petauke, Eastern Province, Zambia

Collaborators

The organizations and people involved in this study.

Lead Sponsor: Tobias Hecker, PhDOTHER
Collaborators

Similar Studies

Other registered studies that closely resemble this one.

Detailed Description

We will use a two-armed school-based CRCT including up to 30 primary schools in the Eastern Province of Zambia (Petauke and Lusangazi). The schools will be combined into 12 school clusters, 6 of the 12 school clusters will be randomly allocated to the intervention group, which will receive the ICC-T workshop, and the remaining schools will be allocated to the control group without any intervention. The study will include two data collection phases: (1) a baseline assessment before the intervention allocation, and (2) a follow-up assessment approximately six months after the allocation and delivery of the intervention.

The study will begin with the baseline assessment involving teachers and students in all schools (May-July 2026). Then the intervention period, follows during school holidays (August 2026). The intervention will involve the Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T). Teachers from the selected schools will be trained in ICC-T on 5,5 days consecutively. A local team of ICC-T trainers, trained extensively by our research team, will implement the interventions. Also, all training will take place within school premises. A follow-up assessment with teachers and students will be conducted at all schools approximately six months after the intervention.

Approximately 30-35 randomly selected students from the third year of formal schooling per school cluster will be invited to participate. In addition, 20 to 25 teachers per school cluster will be invited to participate in the present study. This results in a baseline sample size of approximately 400 students and approximately 300 teachers across the 12 school clusters.

Primary outcome measures are student-, and teacher-reported physical and emotional violence by the teachers in the past week. Secondary outcome measures include adult-child relationship quality, attitudes and norms towards violence, children's emotional and behavioral problems, quality of life, peer victimization, teachers' and children's stress level, teachers empathy change in perspective and self-efficacy.