Evaluation report
Decision: Improving psychosocial well-being and parenting practices among refugees in Uganda: Results of the journey of life effectiveness trial — R1/PR6
Lindsay Stark, Melissa Meinhart, Sabrina Hermosilla, Rehema Kajungu, Flora Cohen et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study evaluated a 12-session group-based parenting curriculum called Journey of Life delivered to refugee caregivers in Uganda's Kiryandongo settlement. Using a waitlist-control design with over 1,300 participants, the programme significantly improved caregiver mental health, social support, and parenting practices. The intervention reduced parental rejection and violence attitudes, and increased parental warmth and affection. These findings provide evidence that structured parenting programmes can help refugee families manage the psychological impacts of displacement.
Key points
- Journey of Life reduced caregiver mental distress by 2.33 points on the Kessler-6 scale (p < 0.001)
- Parental warmth and affection increased significantly with a large effect size of 0.74
- Social support improved substantially (coefficient 1.45, p < 0.001)
- Attitudes toward violence against children improved with an effect size of 0.68
- Parental rejection behaviours decreased significantly (coefficient 0.49, p < 0.001)
Limitations
The study did not measure direct impacts on child outcomes or longer-term sustainability of effects. The evaluation was conducted in a single refugee settlement, limiting generalisability to other refugee contexts.
Abstract
Caregivers play a critical role in mediating the impacts of forced displacement on children; however, humanitarian programming remains hampered by a lack of evidence-based programming. We present findings from an evaluation of a group-based curriculum delivered over the course of 12 sessions, journey of life (JoL). A waitlist-control quasi-experimental design was implemented in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement (intervention n = 631, control n = 676). Caregiver mental distress, measured using the Kessler-6, was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included (a) functioning, (b) social support and (c) caregiving attitudes and behaviors. Propensity score matching (PSM) and Cohen’s d estimates were used to examine the intervention effects. According to our primary PSM analysis, JoL led to significant improvements in mental distress (coef.: 2.33; p < 0.001), social support (coef.: 1.45; p < 0.001), functioning (coef.: 2.64; p < 0.001), parental warmth/affection (coef.: 2.48; p < 0.001), parental undifferentiated rejection (coef.: 0.49; p < 0.001) and attitudes around violence against children (VAC) (coef.: 1.98; p < 0.001). Evidence from Cohen’s d analysis underscored the value of the intervention’s effect on parental warmth/affection (0.74), mental distress (0.70) and VAC attitudes (0.68). This trial adds to the evidence on holistic parenting programming to improve the mental health and parenting outcomes among refugee caregivers.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Journey of Life: a 12-session group-based parenting curriculum delivered to refugee caregivers
- Population
- Refugee caregivers in Kiryandongo refugee settlement, Uganda (intervention n=631, control n=676)
Key finding
Mental distress reduced by 2.33 points (p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.70)
Stark et al. · Prof. Lindsay Stark (OpenAlex works) · 19 Mar 2024