The importance of providing psychosocial support and preventing violent extremism to improve children's wellbeing in conflict-affected contexts

• In Event: Teaching and learning experiences during COVID-19

Proposal

Northeast Syria sits at the intersection of the COVID_19 pandemic that has resulted in the interruption of education and the resurgence of a violent extremist organization (VEO) that shapes the population’s narrative and hinders its psychosocial wellbeing. Since its inception in 2018, the Chemonics Injaz program in northeast Syria has integrated social and emotional learning into educational programming. In 2021, Injaz piloted two programs: a psychosocial support (PSS) program focused on trauma-recovery for both children and their caregivers and a social reintegration program for children focused on preventing violent extremism. Our presentation will demonstrate how the two programs have positively affected psychosocial wellbeing among other indicators.

Trauma Recovery Pilot

Building off an initial social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum designed exclusively for children, Injaz developed a PSS curriculum centered on trauma-recovery. The curriculum was designed with thematic sessions for learners and corresponding sessions for their caregivers, followed by joint sessions with both learners and their caregivers. Partnering with a Syrian community-based organization (CBO), Injaz delivered an eight-week pilot in August and September 2021 to 191 children and 107 caregivers in a large formal IDP camp.

Measuring Impact

Using a bespoke tool, Injaz interviewed 152 children (80%) and 71 caregivers (66%) both prior to and after their participating in the program. The tool looked at fifteen measures of SEL and five measures of trauma. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-tests. The October 2021 endline assessment showed improvement across all 20 indicators measured for both children and caregivers as compared to the September baseline, with all but two indicators (and only for caregivers) found to be statistically significant.

Key Findings

Injaz will summarize for the audience the findings (graphics in presentation). Ninety-four percent of caregivers said that they felt the program had helped improve their own psychosocial wellbeing and 92% felt that it had improved the psychosocial wellbeing of their participating child/children. Additionally, 90% of caregivers reported that it had helped improve the situation in their household. Children were equally enthusiastic about improvements with 95% saying that participating had improved their psychosocial wellbeing and 91% that it had improved the situation in their household.

A few of the SEL indicator examples include children and caregivers reporting feeling less often unhappy, depressed, or tearful after having participated in the Injaz trauma recovery program. They reported seeing greater levels of communication between children and their caregivers, decreasing occurrences of families using corporal punishment, a greater ability of both children and caregivers to self-regulate, an improved ability to concentrate on things, greater confidence in their own problem-solving skills, and greater hope for their futures.

As for trauma, while at the baseline 73%-80% of children reported experience each of the five symptoms of trauma – sleep disruption; jitteriness; avoiding people, places, or things; and intrusive thoughts and images – three times in the previous week, this decreased to only 5%-10% saying the same at the endline. For adults, we saw a drop from 79-80% of caregivers at the baseline to 6%-47% at the endline.

Preventing Violent Extremism Pilot

Beyond children and adults housed in IDP camps across northeast Syria, communities are also receiving returnees some of whom were directly exposed to ISIS ideology and terminology. Some participating children had a family member who was either a believer or an adherent. Other children had direct exposure when temporarily held in an ISIS-controlled IDP camp and who were later relocated to a coalition camp for ISIS members and their families. Two Syrian CBOs offered the Injaz PVE curriculum for children who remained in the communities and those with direct exposure to ISIS ideology who returned home. The seven-week program delivered in September and October 2021 covered four themes: SEL, critical thinking, peacebuilding, and resilience.

Measuring Impact

Using a bespoke tool that consists of 52 questions that integrate questions or components of already validated tools utilized for displaced, Arabic-speaking youth populations, Injaz drew on the Social-Emotional Response and Information Scenarios (SERAIS), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale, the Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (RISC-10), My Learning Mind, and the Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents. The endline will be concluded the last week of October 2021, with findings available mid November 2021.

Key Findings

Baseline data was disaggregated by sex, age, direct exposure to ISIS, and literacy level. Overall, the respondents reported an average of 2.5 years of education. Boys and girls performed differently: boys were more likely to report emotional dysregulation due to anger and also had less mental focus but were reportedly more adept with interpersonal negotiation strategies. Girls had overall higher resilience but used fewer interpersonal negotiation strategies and fewer critical thinking skills. The results show that ISIS-exposed children struggle with emotional regulation, lower critical thinking skills, empathy, and positive self-attitude. Conversely, these children were just as resilient as their non-ISIS affiliated peers and more proactive in developing interpersonal negotiation strategies, as they report higher than average skills in this area. Overall, these results suggest that children learn and cope in the face of adversity. Non-readers as a group consistently reported lower-than-average scores in SEL, critical thinking, and resilience. As returnees and participants with ISIS exposure were less likely to be readers and reported less educational attainment overall, it is not clear whether non-reader low scores are related to social, physical, and emotional upheaval, or because of their poor educational access. It is likely to be an interplay between the two.

Recommendations

In addition to our quantitative research, we will share insights gleamed from focus group discussions with facilitators who delivered both curricula including how to improve the inclusion of participants with disabilities. Finally, we offer a number of recommendations – interspersed with our experiences – on how to scale up the pilots, integrate elements of the two curricula, and how to embed trauma recovery and elements of preventing violent extremism into the formal education system, with implications for education programs in similar conflict- and VEO-affected countries.

Authors

• Mary Beth Wilson, Chemonics

• Michele Bradford, Chemonics International