Estimating under-reporting of teachers’ use of physical violence in schools in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp

Last registered on January 21, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Estimating under-reporting of teachers’ use of physical violence in schools in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005312
Initial registration date
January 20, 2020

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 21, 2020, 1:54 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-01-23
End date
2021-06-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Schools in refugee settings do not only provide children with opportunities to learn and play, but also represent a safe environment to recover from trauma and to re-built a sense of normality routine that allow children and adolescents to find purpose and motivation. However, schools are also a place where children are likely to experience violence; this may be even more likely in emergency settings. In Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania reports of violence in schools perpetrated by teachers and peers are common, however official estimates do not exist. The present study will employ a double list experiment to produce unbiased estimates of teacher's use of phyisical violence against students in primary and secondary schools in Nyarugusu refugee camp. The estimates from the list experiment will be compared to answers provided by teachers to direct questions about use of physical violence to assess the extent of of underreporting and therefore the extent ot social desirability bias. Further sub-group analyses will be conducted to assess whether use of physical violence and underreporting is higher among teachers with specific characteristics.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Devries, Karen and Camilla Fabbri. 2020. "Estimating under-reporting of teachers’ use of physical violence in schools in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp." AEA RCT Registry. January 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5312-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The sample includes around 700 teachers from 27 schools in Nyarugusu refugee camp. We will use a double list experiment which represent an extension of the traditional list experiment (or item list technique) which uses two sets of lists such that all respondents receive one control list and one treatment list. All participating teachers will received 2 lists (list A and list B), each containing a set of non-sensitive statements. Individuals will not be asked to to say whether they agree with each of the statements but only with how many they agree. A sensitive item will elicit use of physical violence against children: the same sensitive item will be used in the two different lists of non-sensitive items.Teachers will be individually randomised into two groups (group 1 and group 2): group 1 will receive the sensitive item in list A (and will act as control group for list B) and group 2 will received the sensitive item in list B (and will act as control group for list A). In the double list experiment each group of teachers serves sequentially as treated and control group or vice versa.
All teachers will be also asked a direct question about their use of physical violence in a subsequent section of the survey therefore use of violence will be elicited directly and indirectly in the same survey.
Intervention Start Date
2020-01-23
Intervention End Date
2020-02-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The outcome is a measured as a count of the number of items with which each respondent agrees in each list (it will not be known which items make up for this count for any individual).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The outcome of interest is the difference in the counts produced by the two groups. This difference will allow us to estimate the prevalence of use of physical violence on children by teachers.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
see above Intervention detail
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization by computer (Stata).
Randomization Unit
Individual teachers.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
n/a
Sample size: planned number of observations
700 teachers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
350 teachers group 1, 350 teachers group 2
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Assuming the following: (a) alpha = 0.05, (b) power = 0.8, and (c) prevalence of use of physical violence = 30 percent; we will be able to tected a different between groups of using Pearson's chi-squared test.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
National Institute for Medical Research
IRB Approval Date
2019-12-02
IRB Approval Number
NIMR/HQ/R.8c/Vol.I/760
IRB Name
London School of Hyigiene and Tropical Medicine
IRB Approval Date
2020-01-10
IRB Approval Number
16000 ‑ 3

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials