Mainstreaming a Life Skills Education Programme Right to Play- Plus to Reduce Violence Against Girls in Pakistan

Overview

Right to Play-Plus (RTP-Plus) aims to address violence against women and girls by promoting changes in social norms among young people within the school environment. The project focuses on building the capacity of young people to identify harmful gender norms and prevent violence against girls and boys by incorporating Right to Play's play-based learning methodology and Aahung's Life Skills Based Education curriculum. The strategies employed include interactive, learner-centered methodologies, curricular activities, and the development of peer educators and junior leaders. Teachers play a crucial role as key influencers and delivery agents of the curricular content. The project emphasizes capacity development for teachers, challenging their social norms, strengthening their play-based methodologies, and improving their sexual and reproductive health and rights knowledge (SRHR). The ultimate goal is to equip teachers to effectively deliver a gender transformative curriculum, empowering young people to respond to and prevent violence. The research question for this study is: What is the effectiveness of an adapted play-based life skills education that incorporates a "whole school" approach in reducing sexual harassment and abuse, peer violence experiences, mental illness (including suicidal ideation), improving resilience, and promoting gender equity, SRHR knowledge in both home and public settings? The research objective will be achieved through two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial (for girls-only, co-ed, and boys-only schools). The intervention arm participants will be able to participate in the adapted play-based life skills education intervention, which the Right to Play and Aahung will deliver. It will be provided to all eligible school children in grade 6. Moreover, a delayed intervention will be offered to the control arm upon completion of endline data collection after the comprehensive intervention is delivered in the intervention arm.

Interventions

• Behavioral Right to Play-Plus (RTP-Plus)
  The comprehensive curriculum comprises of themes: "Social and Emotional Development" and "Sexual and Reproductive Health" will be delivered by school teachers who will receive training from Right to Play and Aahung. There will be 60 sessions for two years.
• Other Control
  There will be no intervention given to control arm during two years of cluster randomised control trial (cRCT). However, a delayed intervention having teachers' training, will be provided to the control arm after the completion of endline for the duration of 3-4 months.

Primary outcome measures

• Change in physical, emotional, and sexual violence [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention after 2 years.]
• Change in cyber sexual harassment [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of the intervention after 2 years.]
• Increased self-efficacy to respond to violence [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention after 2 years.]

Secondary outcome measures (7)

• Change in attitudes towards gender equality [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention after 2 years.]
• Change in acceptability of violence against women [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention after 2 years.]
• Change in beliefs about child marriage [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention after 2 years.]
• Change in peer violence perpetration [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention after 2 years.]
• Increased resilience [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention after 2 years.]
• Change in depression [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention after 2 years.]
• Change in sexual health confidence [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention after 2 years.]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Schools will be chosen from District Malir and adjacent areas, including Korangi and East Karachi. Among the 100 selected schools, the following distribution will be maintained: 40 girls-only schools (public), 40 co-ed schools (private), and 20 boys-only schools (public).
• Schools having a minimum of 30 students enrolled in grade 6
• Private schools with low to medium fees, with monthly amounts ranging from PKR 2000 to 3500.
• Factors such as teacher availability, school management support, accessibility to research and intervention partners, and school clustering will also be considered for the selection of these hundred schools.
• Schools' willingness to adapt child protection and safeguarding/anti-harassment administrative measures and policies to improve school safety, reduce the use of corporal punishment, enhance school performance, and increase girls' retention rates, primarily apply to private schools.

Exclusion criteria

• Schools where Right to Play or Aahung have already implemented their play-based/other activities.

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Health services research

Study locations

Pakistan · 2 centers

• Korangi — Karachi
• Malir — Karachi

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06777849 · 2024-9681-30134 · 22-SC35-INT

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗