Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 101, August 2017, Pages 84-90
Preventive Medicine

Effect of the good school toolkit on school staff mental health, sense of job satisfaction and perceptions of school climate: Secondary analysis of a cluster randomised trial

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.05.022Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The intervention reduced staff-perpetrated physical violence in 42 Ugandan schools.

  • It also led to positive perspectives of school climate by staff.

  • Thus the intervention is useful for developing supportive learning environments.

Abstract

The Good School Toolkit, a complex behavioural intervention delivered in Ugandan primary schools, has been shown to reduce school staff-perpetrated physical violence against students. We aimed to assess the effect of this intervention on staff members' mental health, sense of job satisfaction and perception of school climate. We analysed data from a cluster-randomised trial administered in 42 primary schools in Luwero district, Uganda. The trial was comprised of cross-sectional baseline (June/July 2012) and endline (June/July 2014) surveys among staff and students. Twenty-one schools were randomly selected to receive the Toolkit, whilst 21 schools constituted a wait-listed control group. We generated composite measures to assess staff members' perceptions of the school climate and job satisfaction. The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01678846). No schools dropped out of the study and all 591 staff members who completed the endline survey were included in the analysis. Staff in schools receiving the Toolkit had more positive perspectives of their school climate compared to staff in control schools (difference in mean scores 2.19, 95% Confidence Interval 0.92, 3.39). We did not find any significant differences for job satisfaction and mental health. In conclusion, interventions like the Good School Toolkit that reduce physical violence by school staff against students can improve staff perceptions of the school climate, and could help to build more positive working and learning environments in Ugandan schools.

Section snippets

Background

Violence against children is common in certain parts of the world, with devastating health and social effects, including depression, suicide attempts, poor educational attainment and increased risk of experiencing or perpetrating violence in adulthood (Boden et al., 2007, Norman et al., 2012, Fang and Corso, 2007, Ehrensaft et al., 2003, Hillis et al., 2016). Available national data indicate that over 40% of children in East Africa experience some form of life-time physical violence during

Study setting and design

We use data from the Good School Study (GSS), a cluster randomized controlled trial conducted between September 2012 and May 2014 in Luwero District, Uganda. The study was a collaboration between Raising Voices, a Ugandan-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Makerere University, the UCL-Institute of Education and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Luwero District has a population of > 450,000 and comprises both rural and urban areas. The study protocol and main trial

Staff member characteristics at baseline

The study flow-chart is presented in Fig. 1. At baseline, 577 staff participated completed the survey (control: 304, intervention: 273).

At baseline, mean staff's age was 34.5 ± 8.6 years; 59% (338/577) were female; 63% (362/577) were married, yet 51% (294/577) had more than two children. Three-quarters (76%, 441/577) were teachers, 6% (34/577) were head teachers and 18% (76/591) had other school-based roles such as administrators, cleaners, cooks and accountants. Two-thirds (68%, 386/577) had

Summary of findings

The Good School Toolkit led to a significant improvement in school staff members' perception of the school climate, including perceptions of support, respect and communication among staff and students. However, the Toolkit did not significantly improve staff mental health or sense of job satisfaction.

In previous analyses of the Good Schools Study data, we found that the intervention significantly improved students' feelings of safety and well-being at school (Devries et al., 2015). Although

Conclusions

A school-based complex behavioural intervention that reduced perpetration of physical violence against students, also improved staff members' perceptions of school climate. Although the intervention had no significant effect on staff mental health or sense of job satisfaction, it could have implications for improving staff motivation and retention, and for the development of supportive learning environments.

Declaration of interests

The Good School Toolkit was developed by Dipak Naker at Raising Voices, Kampala Uganda. Dipak Naker approached Karen Devries with the idea to do a study, was involved in the conceptualisation and design of the study, commented on the interpretation of results for pre-specified the primary and secondary outcomes, but was not involved in data collection, management, or analysis. Joshua Kayiwa was contacted as an independent statistician and researcher during the publication of these specific

Role of funding sources

This study was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), Department for International Development (DfID) (Grant ID: MR/L004321/1), and Wellcome Trust (Grant ID: MR/L004321/1) to Karen Devries. Additional funding was obtained from the Hewlett Foundation (Grant ID:2010-5557) to Dipak Naker. None of the funding sources had any direct or indirect involvement in the design, conduct, implementation, monitoring, analysis or reporting of the study results.

Acknowledgments

We are so grateful to all Raising Voices staff and the Good School implementation team including Willington Ssekadde, Jane Frank Nalubega and the CHAI-U team. The contribution made by the interviewers and supervisors team: Anna Louise Barr, Heidi Grundlingh, Jennifer Horton, is equally recognized. Recognition is also extended to the trial steering committee: Russell Viner (chair), Maria Quigley (independent statistician), Lucy Cluver, and Jo Mulligan (observer). Lastly, we are so grateful to

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