Preventing violence against adolescents in schools: understanding implementation of the Empateach intervention in Nyarugusu refugee camp

学校是儿童和青少年可能遭受暴力的最常见场所之一；新出现的证据表明，在某些情况下，学校工作人员可能是最常见的肇事者之一。在人们流离失所的紧急情况下，这种情况可能更为常见，因为创伤史可能会增加暴力的可能性。本研究旨在了解以学校为基础的干预措施是否能减少坦桑尼亚尼亚鲁古苏难民营校园内针对儿童的暴力行为。尼亚鲁古苏难民营为逃离刚果民主共和国和布隆迪冲突的人口提供避难所。移情干预利用行为科学技术来改变教师对体罚的信念和行为。在MRC的资助下，我们将进行一项混合方法的过程评估，以探索移情干预如何减少学校对青少年的暴力行为；哪些因素使干预的实施更容易，哪些因素使干预的实施更困难；以及干预是否具有成本效益。这项研究将与一项随机对照试验同时进行，旨在评估干预措施在减少针对学生的暴力水平方面的有效性。我们将与学生、教师、家长、校长、纪律教师和其他主要利益相关者的个人和团体进行交谈，以了解他们对学生、家长、教师和行政部门中的“暴力”和“纪律”的概念，并深入研究教师的经验。学生和学校管理人员通过干预来了解参与者认为“起作用”和“不起作用”的地方，并深入了解干预的作用机制（或缺乏作用）。我们还将对调查数据进行定量分析，探讨干预是否在具有特定特征的学校中效果更好，哪些是按计划实施的，哪些是没有按计划实施的，个别教师和学校在多大程度上参与了计划中的活动，哪些教师参与了干预，哪些教师完成了活动的比例高。我们还将使用干预理论中的一些中间指标来理解个别教师和学生成果的变化途径。该研究还将包括一项经济评估，以估计移情干预的成本和成本效益。

School is one of the most common settings where children and adolescents may experience violence; and emerging evidence suggests that in some settings, school staff may be one of the most common perpetrators. This may be even more common in emergency settings where people have been displaced, as histories of trauma may contribute to increased likelihood of violence. This study aims to understand whether a school based intervention can reduce violence against children in schools in Nyarugusu, a refugee camp in Tanzania, which provides refuge for populations fleeing conflict from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. The Empateach intervention leverages behavioural science techniques to change teachers' beliefs and behaviours towards corporal punishment. With funding from MRC, we will conduct a mixed-methods process evaluation to explore how the Empateach intervention reduces violence against adolescents in schools; which factors make it easier and more difficult to implement the intervention is practice; and whether the intervention is cost-effective. This research will run parallel to a randomised controlled trial aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing levels of violence against students. We will speak to both individuals and groups of students, teachers, parents, headteachers, discipline teachers and other key stakeholders to understand their conceptualisations of 'violence' and 'discipline' among students, parents, teachers and administration and delve into the experience of teachers, students and school administration with the intervention to understand what participants felt 'worked' and 'didn't work' and to gain insight into the mechanisms of action (or lack of action) of the intervention.We will also conduct quantitative analyses of survey data to explore whether the intervention works better in schools with certain characteristics, what was and was not implemented according to plan, to what extent individual teachers and schools participated in the planned activities, and which individual teachers participated in the intervention and which completed a high proportion of activities. We will also use a number of intermediate indicators in the intervention theory of change to understand pathways of change in individual teachers' and students outcomes. The study will also include an economic evaluation to estimate the costs and cost-effectiveness of the Empateach intervention.