Post-intervention assessment of the work in Dungarpur:
During February 2022, ICDP parenting sessions were conducted with 128 caregivers and life skills sessions with 177 children. After these sessions, a post-intervention assessment was conducted with caregivers and children through the globally validated tools on the social emotional learning in children and the behaviour of caregivers towards their children. An evaluation study consisting of pre and post intervention assessment exercises was carried out for treatment and control groups in 2022, over a period of 13 months, to observe the impact of the parenting and life skills sessions on the caregivers and children. The study revealed that the children’s social-emotional learning (SEL) skills (measured on empathy, relationships, stress management, perseverance, and self-concept domains) improved for the treatment group. Caregivers’ interactions with their children also became more empathic and encouraging, with a decrease in maltreatment practices and increase in positive engagement in the treatment group. On the other hand, children in the control group did not show the same improvement in SEL skills. The average caregiver engagement score reported by the children shows a significant increase from 1.71 to 3.04 in a scale of 1 to 5 points, which is a clear predictor of change in the behaviour of caregivers towards their children. In the study, the various forms of maltreatment were grouped in four sub-domains: non-violent discipline, psychological aggression, physical violence, and neglect. It was observed that psychological aggression (shouting, threatening, giving insulting remarks) which was used by caregivers to control their child’s behaviour was reduced during the post-intervention assessment. The average psychological aggression reported by children in the pre-intervention assessment (baseline) to post-intervention assessment (endline) shows a clear decrease, which went down from 1.75 to 0.6. The physical violence measures (such as hitting, spanking, slapping) used by the caregivers also showed significant decrease, which declined from 1.21 to 0.15. To measure the children’s social-emotional learning skills, the International Social Emotional Learning Assessment (ISELA) tool was used that covered five social-emotional learning competencies: relationships: use of social supports, self-concept, stress management, perseverance, empathy and conflict resolution.
