On the control condition: yes, in principle the control programme could itself affect gender norms or related outcomes. We tried to minimise that risk by choosing a control programme with no gender, relationship or violence content at all (it's about how to declare taxes mostly).
On reporting: our primary IPV measures reduce this problem by asking about specific acts within a defined window rather than asking whether someone experienced or perpetrated "abuse" or "violence." That is the standard approach in the field, and it makes responses much less dependent on how people label the behaviour.
Even so, treatment-induced changes in reporting remain possible, as they do for any violence-prevention programme measured by self-report. Behaviourally specific items remove some forms of reporting bias but not all of them. So we will read the IPV results alongside attitudes, controlling behaviours, communication and other secondary outcomes.
Thanks Warner! This has not been studied well yet in the context of edutainment and violence prevention. Some studies suggest higher dosis is higher effect, but the literature is thin. Our RCT is not designed to give answers on this as well, but we will ook at listening dose against outcomes descriptively at endline.
Thanks Laura, you are right that we cannot be sure a 5% reduction would come out significant, since that depends on the baseline prevalence. We do expect prevalence in our study population to be somewhat higher than the national figure, as we are working in mostly rural areas. Thank you for mentioning SESOI! We will look into it and raise it with the study PIs.
Thanks Tony! Completely agree that the RCT are not the most helpful tools to understand ToCs. Both our first and second seasons were created through an iterative process that involved a lot of formative (qualitative research) that helped us get more insights in how listeners actually perceive the drama and its characters. See for example our (small) mix method evaluation of season 2 prior to the RCT (http://www.novah.ngo/qual-eval-twubakane-s2-infographic).
Thank you for your comment! Edutainment takes many forms, and our approach centers on storytelling that includes positive and negative role models, along with a transitional character. This character might start with harmful behaviors, such as a man who initially uses violence against his wife but gradually changes due to significant events or advice from positive influences within the story. We take inspiration from this academic study by Green, which showed three short video's in Uganda. You can view one of the video's here.
Thanks Alex, both good points.
On the control condition: yes, in principle the control programme could itself affect gender norms or related outcomes. We tried to minimise that risk by choosing a control programme with no gender, relationship or violence content at all (it's about how to declare taxes mostly).
On reporting: our primary IPV measures reduce this problem by asking about specific acts within a defined window rather than asking whether someone experienced or perpetrated "abuse" or "violence." That is the standard approach in the field, and it makes responses much less dependent on how people label the behaviour.
Even so, treatment-induced changes in reporting remain possible, as they do for any violence-prevention programme measured by self-report. Behaviourally specific items remove some forms of reporting bias but not all of them. So we will read the IPV results alongside attitudes, controlling behaviours, communication and other secondary outcomes.
Thanks Warner! This has not been studied well yet in the context of edutainment and violence prevention. Some studies suggest higher dosis is higher effect, but the literature is thin. Our RCT is not designed to give answers on this as well, but we will ook at listening dose against outcomes descriptively at endline.
Thanks Laura, you are right that we cannot be sure a 5% reduction would come out significant, since that depends on the baseline prevalence. We do expect prevalence in our study population to be somewhat higher than the national figure, as we are working in mostly rural areas. Thank you for mentioning SESOI! We will look into it and raise it with the study PIs.
Thanks Tony! Completely agree that the RCT are not the most helpful tools to understand ToCs. Both our first and second seasons were created through an iterative process that involved a lot of formative (qualitative research) that helped us get more insights in how listeners actually perceive the drama and its characters. See for example our (small) mix method evaluation of season 2 prior to the RCT (http://www.novah.ngo/qual-eval-twubakane-s2-infographic).
Thank you for your comment! Edutainment takes many forms, and our approach centers on storytelling that includes positive and negative role models, along with a transitional character. This character might start with harmful behaviors, such as a man who initially uses violence against his wife but gradually changes due to significant events or advice from positive influences within the story. We take inspiration from this academic study by Green, which showed three short video's in Uganda. You can view one of the video's here.