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环境之一；新出现的证据表明，在某些环境中，学校工作人员可能是最常见的施暴者之一。这在人们流离失所的紧急情况下可能更加常见，因为创伤史可能会增加暴力的可能性。这项研究旨在了解以学校为基础的干预措施是否可以减少坦桑尼亚难民营Nya ugusu学校对儿童的暴力行为，该难民营为逃离刚果民主共和国和布隆迪的冲突人口提供避难所。Empateach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，以探讨Empateach干预措施如何减少学校对青少年的暴力行为；哪些因素使干预措施更容易实施和更难实施；以及干预措施是否具有成本效益。这项研究将与一项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的随机对照试验并行进行。我们将与学生、教师、家长、校长、学科教师和其他主要利益攸关方的个人和团体交谈，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，并深入了解教师、学生和学校行政部门在干预中的经验，以了解参与者认为哪些有效，哪些无效，并深入了解干预的作用(或缺乏作用)机制。我们还将对调查数据进行量化分析，以探索干预在具有某些特点的学校中是否更有效，哪些是按计划实施的，哪些是按计划实施的。教师个人和学校在多大程度上参与了计划的活动，哪些教师个人参与了干预，哪些教师完成了高比例的活动。我们还将使用变化干预理论中的一些中间指标来了解个别教师和学生结果的变化路径。这项研究还将包括一项经济评估，以估计Empateach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.