School-based prevention of teacher and parental violence against children: Study protocol of a cluster-randomized controlled trial in Tanzania.

Background: Violence against children at home and at school is particularly prevalent in Africa and is associated with adverse and persistent health effects on children. The violence prevention intervention Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T) is an effective tool to reduce violence against children by fostering teachers' non-violent communication and interaction skills. To enhance these effects, in the present study, ICC-T will be extended to parents (ICC-P) aiming to increase children's experience of consistent behavior and application of non-violent discipline strategies between teachers and parents.

Sustainability of effects and secondary long-term outcomes: One-year follow-up of a cluster-randomized controlled trial to prevent maltreatment in institutional care.

Background: Many orphans in East Africa are living in institutional care facilities where they experience poor quality of care and ongoing maltreatment. We report on the extension of a cluster-randomized controlled trial aiming to replicate and show sustainability of previous found effects and to discover long-term effects of the intervention Interaction Competencies with Children-for Caregivers (ICC-C) 12-months after the intervention's conclusion.

Methods: Conducting a robust 2x3 analysis of variance, we investigated the changes over time in the waitlist orphanages (n = 75, 62.

Preventing maltreatment in institutional care: A cluster-randomized controlled trial in East Africa.

An increasing number of orphans in low- and middle-income countries are living in institutional care facilities where they experience poor quality of care and ongoing maltreatment. To prevent maltreatment, we tested the effectiveness and feasibility of the intervention . In a two-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial, 203 caregivers (65.

Reducing physical and emotional violence by teachers using the intervention Interaction Competencies with Children - for Teachers (ICC-T): study protocol of a multi-country cluster randomized controlled trial in Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Background: Violence has severe and long-lasting negative consequences for children's and adolescents' well-being and psychosocial functioning, thereby also hampering communities' and societies' economic growth. Positive attitudes towards violence and the lack of access to alternative non-violent strategies are likely to contribute to the high levels of teachers' ongoing use of violence against children in sub-Saharan African countries. Notwithstanding, there are currently very few school-level interventions to reduce violence by teachers that a) have been scientifically evaluated and b) that focus both on changing attitudes towards violence and on equipping teachers with non-violent discipline strategies.

A socio-ecological analysis of risk, protective and promotive factors for the mental health of Burundian refugee children living in refugee camps.

Children and adolescents' mental health risk and resilience arise from a complex interplay of factors on several socio-ecological levels. However, little is known about the factors that shape the mental health of refugee youth living in refugee camps close to ongoing conflict. We conducted a cross-sectional study with a representative sample of 217 Burundian refugee children aged 7-15 and their mothers residing in refugee camps in Tanzania to investigate associations between risk, protective and promotive factors from various ecological levels (individual, microsystem, exosystem), and children's post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, internalizing and externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior.

Fuel to the fire: The escalating interplay of attachment and maltreatment in the transgenerational transmission of psychopathology in families living in refugee camps.

Maltreatment by parents can be conceptualized as pathogenic escalations of a disturbed parent-child relationship that have devastating consequences for children's development and mental health. Although parental psychopathology has been shown to be a risk factor both for maltreatment and insecure attachment representations, these factors` joint contribution to child psychopathology has not been investigated. In a sample of Burundian refugee families living in refugee camps in Western Tanzania, the associations between attachment representations, maltreatment, and psychopathology were examined by conducting structured interviews with 226 children aged 7 to 15 and both their parents.

Improving care quality and preventing maltreatment in institutional care - a feasibility study with caregivers.

Institutionalized children in low-income countries often face maltreatment and inadequate caregiving. In addition to prior traumatization and other childhood adversities in the family of origin, abuse and neglect in institutional care are linked to various mental health problems. By providing a manualized training workshop for caregivers, we aimed at improving care quality and preventing maltreatment in institutional care.