About

OVERVIEW OF THE INTERRUPT_VIOLENCE STUDY:

Purpose of the study: The Interrupt_Violence study is seeking to identify the mechanisms promoting and interrupting the intergenerational transmission of family challenges. It is seeking to understand how multiple forms of challenges are experienced by young people and the effect they have on their health and behaviours, as well as explore how challenges and associated factors are experienced by young children. The study aims to explore if and how structural factors—including poverty, poor service access and delivery, and HIV burden—contribute to transmission of family challenges across generations and whether any social protection policies—child grants, free schooling, service access and provision—seem to buffer this transmission.

Methods: Interrupt_Violence is a mixed-methods three-generational longitudinal study. It builds on a two-wave existing cohort study of 1665 adolescents in South Africa interviewed in 2010–11 and 2011–12. For Wave III and possible future waves, the original participants (now young adults), their oldest child (aged ≥6) and their former primary caregiver will be recruited. All participants (children, young adults, former caregivers) will complete an interviewer-led questionnaire asking about challenges and support they experience in their home and families, as well as in their communities. Child questionnaires include art- and play-based methods to allow children to participate and engage meaningfully in the interviews. Additionally, qualitative in-depth interviews utilizing arts-based methods will be carried out with a subset of 30 young adults, their child, and their former primary caregiver. Qualitative data will be collected alongside the quantitative data collection, and triangulation will be used to deepen interpretation of findings. (For more information on the questionnaires, interview guides, or study tools used, please contact the principal investigator, Dr. Meinck: franziska.meinck@ed.ac.uk)

Baseline data from Waves I and II of the study: More information on the original data collected in Waves I and II can be found here. Waves I and II provided baseline information for the young adult sample of the current Interrupt_Violence study who were originally surveyed as adolescents. Baseline data from Waves I and II provided information on adolescents’ health, education, community, and family. Findings from this data have been used to inform programs and policy in South Africa improve the response around meeting the needs of adolescents and their families.

Funding

The Interrupt_Violence study is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [Grant Agreement Number 852787] and the UK Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund [ES/S008101/1]. The original Young Carers Study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and the National Research Foundation (RES-062-23-2068), the National Department of Social Development, the Claude Leon Foundation, the Nuffield Foundation (OPD/31598), the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (R14304/AA002), the John Fell Fund (103/757), the University of Oxford Impact Acceleration Account (1602-KEA-189, 1311-KEA-004 & 1069-GCRF-227) and the Leverhulme Trust (PLP-2014-095).

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval was granted by the University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Sciences (No: 264227), University of the Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics Committee (M190949), North-West University Health Research Ethics Committee (NWU-00329-20-S1), and the Provincial Department of Health Mpumalanga (MP-202012-003). Results will be shared with local government, international organisations, and the public through diverse engagement activities including social media, radio, presentations, and the community advisory board. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, at scientific meetings, and policy briefs.