Government of Malawi's unconditional cash transfer improves youth mental health.
Cash transfers
Malawi
Mental health
Poverty
RCT
Youth
Journal
Social science & medicine (1982)
ISSN: 1873-5347
Titre abrégé: Soc Sci Med
Pays: England
ID NLM: 8303205
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
03 2019
03 2019
Historique:
received:
10
08
2018
revised:
07
01
2019
accepted:
17
01
2019
pubmed:
4
3
2019
medline:
9
4
2020
entrez:
4
3
2019
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
We explore the impacts of Malawi's national unconditional cash transfer program targeting ultra-poor households on youth mental health. Experimental findings show that the program significantly improved mental health outcomes. Among girls in particular, the program reduces indications of depression by about 15 percentage points. We investigate the contribution of different possible pathways to the overall program impact, including education, health, consumption, caregiver's stress levels and life satisfaction, perceived social support, and participation in hard and unpleasant work. The pathways explain from 46 to 65 percent of the program impact, advancing our understanding of how economic interventions can affect mental health of youth in resource-poor settings. The findings underline that unconditional cash grants, which are used on an increasingly large scale as part of national social protection systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, have the potential to improve youth mental wellbeing and thus may help break the vicious cycle of poverty and poor mental health.
Identifiants
pubmed: 30826585
pii: S0277-9536(19)30031-0
doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.037
pmc: PMC6829911
mid: NIHMS1045134
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
108-119Subventions
Organisme : NICHD NIH HHS
ID : P2C HD050924
Pays : United States
Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.
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