A clustered randomized controlled trial to assess whether Living Peace Intervention (LPint) reduces domestic violence and its consequences among families of targeted men in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): Design and methods

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Living Peace Intervention (LPint) in terms of reduction of domestic violence and a range of secondary outcomes, including violence against children, mental health wellbeing, and social/family relations. The study aims also to determine whether LPint reduces domestic violence due to mediating effects of reduction of psychopathology, improved positive masculinity attitudes, family and social life and psychological states. This study uses a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial design, with person-level and cluster-level outcomes. The counterfactual is villages that are listed as being affected by the conflict in North and South Kivu of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Sixty villages with 1736 participants were included in the study. The primary analysis will use generalized estimating equations to compare treatments versus control groups on their mean change in domestic violence between baseline and endline one and two. The allocated group will be regarded as fixed effects whilst villages and time points are regarded as random effects in the model. This is a unique study in the context of a protracted violent humanitarian crisis notably the DRC. It uses a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (CRCT) to obtain hard empirical evidence to prove the scalability of the Living Peace intervention in close humanitarian contexts.

Keywords: Cluster randomized controlled trial; Conflict; Domestic violence; Gender-based violence; Mental health; Positive masculinity; Trauma.