Fabbri Camilla, Powell-Jackson Timothy, Leurent Baptiste, Rodrigues Katherine, Shayo Elizabeth, Barongo Vivien, Devries Karen M
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Pl, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
University College London, London, UK.
Confl Health. 2022 Jul 23;16(1):42. doi: 10.1186/s13031-022-00475-9.
Forcibly displaced children are at increased risk of violence and mental health disorders. In refugee contexts, schools are generally perceived as protective environments where children can build a sense of belonging and recover from trauma. Evidence shows that positive school climates can support student skills development and socio-emotional wellbeing and protect them against a host of adverse outcomes. However, schools are also places where children may experience violence, from both teachers and peers. Prevalence estimates of violence against children in humanitarian settings are scarce and evidence on the relationship between school climate and student outcomes in these contexts is non-existent. The aim of the study is to estimate the prevalence of school-based violence against children and to explore the association between perceptions of school climate and students' experiences and use of violence and their depression symptoms. We relied on data from a cross-sectional survey of students and teachers in all primary and secondary schools in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in Tanzania, conducted as part of a cluster randomised controlled trial, to compute prevalence estimates and used mixed logistic regression analysis to assess the association between school climate and students' outcomes. We found that students in Nyarugusu experienced high levels of violence from both peers and teachers in both primary and secondary schools in the camp, with little difference between boys and girls. Nearly one in ten students screened positive for symptoms of depression. We found that opportunities for students and teachers to be involved in decision-making were associated with higher odds of violent discipline and teachers' self-efficacy was a significant protective factor against student depression symptoms. However, generally, school-level perceptions of school climate were not associated with student outcomes after adjusting for potential confounders. Our findings suggest that interventions to prevent and respond to teacher and peer violence in schools and to support students' mental health are urgently needed. Our results challenge the assumption that education environments are inherently protective for children and call for further investigation of norms around violence among students and teachers to better understand the role of school climate in refugee settings.
被迫流离失所的儿童遭受暴力和心理健康障碍的风险更高。在难民环境中，学校通常被视为保护性环境，孩子们可以在其中建立归属感并从创伤中恢复。有证据表明，积极的学校氛围可以支持学生技能发展和社会情感健康，并保护他们免受一系列不良后果的影响。然而，学校也是儿童可能遭受教师和同伴暴力的地方。关于人道主义环境中暴力侵害儿童行为的流行率估计很少，而且在这些背景下，关于学校氛围与学生成绩之间关系的证据并不存在。本研究的目的是估计校内暴力侵害儿童行为的流行率，并探讨对学校氛围的认知与学生的暴力经历、暴力行为及抑郁症状之间的关联。我们依靠对坦桑尼亚尼亚鲁古苏难民营所有中小学的学生和教师进行横断面调查的数据（该调查是整群随机对照试验的一部分）来计算流行率估计值，并使用混合逻辑回归分析来评估学校氛围与学生成绩之间的关联。我们发现，尼亚鲁古苏难民营中小学的学生遭受同伴和教师暴力的程度都很高，男孩和女孩之间差异不大。近十分之一的学生抑郁症状筛查呈阳性。我们发现，学生和教师参与决策的机会与暴力惩戒的较高几率相关，教师的自我效能感是预防学生抑郁症状的一个重要保护因素。然而，总体而言，在调整潜在混杂因素后，学校层面的学校氛围认知与学生成绩并无关联。我们的研究结果表明，迫切需要采取干预措施来预防和应对校内教师和同伴暴力，并支持学生的心理健康。我们的研究结果挑战了教育环境对儿童具有固有保护作用这一假设，并呼吁进一步调查学生和教师之间暴力行为的规范，以更好地了解学校氛围在难民环境中的作用。
