Schools Championing Safe South Africa

NCT ID: NCT05869864

Last Updated: 2025-06-18

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: PHASE1
• Total Enrollment: 282 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-01-31
• Study Completion Date: 2025-04-22

Brief Summary

This study explores the acceptability and feasibility of a school-based intervention called Schools Championing Safe South Africa that engages teachers and students in an integrated approach for preventing risk behavior related to acquisition of HIV and perpetration of IPV among adolescents in South Africa. Teachers and students are agents of change who can transform the school social environment to promote HIV and IPV prevention behaviors for adolescents.

Detailed Description

Adolescence presents an ideal developmental transition period for an integrated intervention targeting prevention of HIV risk behaviors and intimate partner violence (IPV) including sexual violence. Adolescent boys in particular, are at high risk for HIV and perpetration of IPV. Yet, few behavioral interventions integrate HIV-IPV prevention and are tailored for the unique developmental needs of adolescent boys. Educational environments play a vital role in shaping behavioral choices among adolescent boys. Specifically, teachers and student peers serve as agents of change for adolescent boys' HIV and IPV prevention needs in four important ways. First, teachers and student peers influence community norms for appropriate adolescent male behaviors relating to dating, relationships, and sexual violence within the school ecology. Second, teachers and student peers have persistent contact with adolescents and thus, can play an influential role in adolescents' lives as role models for healthy norms. Third, teachers and student peers substantively motivate and reinforce protective behaviors relating to prevention of HIV and IPV. Fourth, teachers are ideally prepared to deliver age- and developmentally-tailored preventive interventions to adolescents because they are professionally trained to engage with adolescents in age and developmentally appropriate teaching. Despite the important role of teachers and student peers in promoting the health of adolescents, there are currently no HIV-IPV interventions in global priority settings for these epidemics that target teachers and student peers in school environments. In this study, we will develop and then investigate the acceptability and feasibility of Schools Championing Safe South Africa, an integrated HIV-IPV intervention where teachers and student peers engage adolescent boys in a developmentally-tailored approach to prevent adolescent HIV risk behavior and IPV using a social norms approach. Investigators work in South Africa, a country with the largest HIV epidemic and some of the highest rates of IPV in the world. This study explores the acceptability and feasibility of a school-based intervention called Schools Championing Safe South Africa that engages teachers and students in an integrated approach for preventing risk behavior related to acquisition of HIV and perpetration of IPV among adolescents in South Africa. Teachers and students are agents of change who can transform the school social environment to promote HIV and IPV prevention behaviors for adolescents.

Conditions

Prevention or Reduction of HIV Risk Behavior; Prevention or Reduction of Intimate Partner Violence

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Intervention

Half of the participants in the pilot will receive the experimental behavioral intervention.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Schools Championing Safe South Africa

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The intervention consists of 2 parts - a poster campaign with social norms messages on violence and HIV risk, and 2 lessons in life orientation (a health curriculum delivered during school).

Control

Half of the participants in the pilot will receive nothing, and serve as the control.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Schools Championing Safe South Africa

The intervention consists of 2 parts - a poster campaign with social norms messages on violence and HIV risk, and 2 lessons in life orientation (a health curriculum delivered during school).

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• identifies as boy
• 15-17 years of age inclusive
• attends school where study is occurring

Exclusion Criteria

• unable to secure parental consent
• unable to secure parental consent child assent

• Minimum Eligible Age: 15 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 17 Years
• Eligible Sex: MALE
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Brown University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Caroline Kuo

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

South African Medical Research Council

Cape Town, , South Africa

Countries

South Africa

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

Schools Championing

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id