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

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

• Violence by Teachers

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Interaction Competencies with Children

Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T) Core training components include teacher-student interaction, maltreatment prevention, effective discipline strategies, identifying and supporting burdened students and implementation of the training materials into the school setting.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Mkwawa University College of Education

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Save the Children Zambia

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Save the Children

  collaborator OTHER

• Save the Children International

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Zambia

  collaborator OTHER

• SEPA - Safeguarding & Ethical Programming & Advocacy (Save the Children)

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• CUBIC - Center for Utilizing Behavioral Insights for Children (Save the Children)

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Tobias Hecker, PhD

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

8 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-05-18

Primary Completion

2027-03-31

Completion

2027-12-31

Countries

• Zambia

Study Locations