Promoting Children's Learning and Development in Conflict-Affected Countries: Testing Change Process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2016)

Date
2017-02Author
Aber, J. Lawrence
Tubbs, Carly
Torrente, Catalina
Halpin, Peter F.
Johnston, Brian
Starkey, Leighann
Shivshanker, Anjuli
Annan, Jeannie
Seidman, Edward
Wolf, Sharon
Metadata
Show full item recordImpact
Abstract
Improving children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries is critically important for breaking the intergenerational transmission of violence and poverty. Yet there is currently a stunning lack of rigorous evidence as to whether and how programs to improve learning and development in conflict-affected countries actually work to bolster children's academic learning and socioemotional development. This study tests a theory of change derived from the fields of developmental psychopathology and social ecology about how a school-based universal socioemotional learning program, the International Rescue Committee's Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom (LRHC), impacts children's learning and development. The study was implemented in three conflict-affected provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and employed a cluster-randomized waitlist control design to estimate impact. Using multilevel structural equation modeling techniques, we found support for the central pathways in the LRHC theory of change. Specifically, we found that LRHC differentially impacted dimensions of the quality of the school and classroom environment at the end of the first year of the intervention, and that in turn these dimensions of quality were differentially associated with child academic and socioemotional outcomes. Future implications and directions are discussed.
Please note: we do not have permission to upload this as a record but you can follow the link to the full document externally.
Citation
Aber, Lawrence J. et al (2017) ‘Promoting children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries: Testing change process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, Development and Psychopathology 29.1: 53-67.DOI
10.1017/S0954579416001139Is part of series
Development and PsychopathologyVol 29, Special Issue 1
More details
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579416001139Rights holder
© Cambridge University Press 2016Rights details
https://www.ids.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/IDSOpenDocsStandardTermsOfUse2018.pdfSponsor
ESRC-DFIDCollections
- Security [49]
- Governance [137]
- Children and Young People [69]
- Education [103]