@article{ref1,
title="Building caregivers' emotional, parental and social support skills to prevent violence against adolescent girls: findings from a cluster randomised controlled trial in Democratic Republic of Congo",
journal="BMJ global health",
year="2018",
author="Stark, Lindsay and Seff, Ilana and Asghar, Khudejha and Roth, Danielle and Bakamore, Theresita and MacRae, Mairi and Fanton D'Andon, Cecile and Falb, Kathryn L.",
volume="3",
number="5",
pages="e000824-e000824",
abstract="INTRODUCTION: Parenting programmes are increasingly popular for reducing children's exposure to interpersonal violence in low/middle-income countries, but there is limited evidence on their effectiveness. We investigated the incremental impact of adding a caregiver component to a life skills programme for adolescent girls, assessing girls' exposure to violence (sexual and others) and caregivers' gender attitudes and parenting behaviours. <br><br>METHODS: In this two-arm, single-blinded, cluster randomised controlled trial, we recruited 869 adolescent girls aged 10-14 and 764 caregivers in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Following a baseline survey, participants were divided into 35 clusters based on age, language and location. Eighteen clusters were randomised to the treatment arm and 17 clusters to the wait-list control arm. Adolescent girls in both arms received 32 life skills sessions; caregivers in the treatment arm received 13 complementary caregiver sessions. The primary outcome was girls' self-reported exposure to sexual violence in the last 12 months; secondary outcomes included self-reports of specific forms of sexual violence, physical and emotional violence, transactional sex, child marriage for girls and parenting behaviours for caregivers. Intent-to-treat and per-protocol analyses were conducted. <br><br>RESULTS: At 12 months of follow-up, the intervention showed no impact on sexual violence (adjusted OR=0.95; 95% CI 0.65 to 1.37) or any secondary outcomes for girls. The intervention was associated with improved supportive parenting behaviours. Protocol adherence was also associated with improvements in these outcomes. <br><br>CONCLUSION: While the caregiver curriculum improved some parenting outcomes, additional programmatic adaptations may be needed to reduce adolescent girls' violence exposure in humanitarian settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02384642.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2059-7908",
doi="10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000824",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000824"
}