Peer-reviewed article
Effects of a Combination Economic Empowerment and Family Strengthening Intervention on Psychosocial Well-being Among Ugandan Adolescent Girls and Young Women: Analysis of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (Suubi4Her)
Lindsey M. Filiatreau, Nhial T. Tutlam, Rachel Brathwaite, William Byansi, Flavia Namuwonge et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study tested whether economic empowerment and family strengthening interventions could improve mental health outcomes for adolescent girls and young women in Uganda. Over 1,260 girls aged 14-17 in 47 schools were randomly assigned to receive either a youth development account programme, the same programme plus family group sessions, or standard care. Girls who received both interventions together showed the greatest improvements in hopelessness and self-esteem after 12 months, while those with just the economic programme also improved compared to the control group.
Key points
- Youth development account (YDA) plus multiple family group (MFG) intervention significantly reduced hopelessness compared to control
- YDA + MFG group showed significantly greater improvements in self-esteem compared to bolstered standard of care
- YDA alone also produced significant reductions in hopelessness compared to control
- 1,260 adolescent girls aged 14-17 were enrolled across 47 Ugandan secondary schools
- Effects were measured at 12 months using Beck's Hopelessness Scale, Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
Limitations
The document does not provide effect sizes or confidence intervals for the reported outcomes, limiting assessment of the magnitude of improvements. It also does not report sustained effects beyond 12 months or implementation costs.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Economic empowerment and family strengthening interventions have shown promise for improving psychosocial well-being in a range of populations. This study investigates the effect of a combination economic and family strengthening intervention on psychosocial well-being among Ugandan adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). METHODS: We harnessed data from a three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial among AGYW aged 14-17 years in 47 Ugandan secondary schools. Schools were randomized to either a youth development account intervention (YDA) [N = 16 schools], YDA plus a multiple family group intervention (YDA + MFG) [N = 15 schools], or bolstered standard of care (BSOC) [N = 16 schools]. We estimated the effect of each intervention (BSOC = referent) on three measures of psychosocial well-being: hopelessness (Beck's Hopelessness Scale), self-concept (Tennessee Self-Concept Scale), and self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) at 12 months following enrollment using multi-level linear mixed models for each outcome. RESULTS: A total of 1,260 AGYW (mean age, 15.4) were enrolled-471 assigned to YDA (37%), 381 to YDA + MFG (30%), and 408 to usual care (32%). Over the 12-month follow-up, participants assigned to the YDA + MFG group had significantly greater reductions in hopelessness and improvements in self-esteem outcomes compared to BSOC participants. Those enrolled in the YDA arm alone also had significantly greater reductions in hopelessness compared to BSOC participants. DISCUSSION: Combination interventions, combining economic empowerment (represented here by YDA), and family-strengthening (represented by MFG) can improve the psychosocial well-being of AGYW. The long-term effects of these interventions should be further tested for potential scale-up in an effort to address the persistent mental health treatment gap in resource-constrained settings.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Youth development account combined with multiple family group intervention (YDA + MFG), or youth development account alone (YDA)
- Population
- Adolescent girls and young women aged 14-17 enrolled in 47 secondary schools in Uganda (N=1,260; mean age 15.4)
Key finding
YDA + MFG group had significantly greater reductions in hopelessness compared to BSOC at 12 months
Filiatreau et al. · Prof. Fred M. Ssewamala (OpenAlex works) · 14 Apr 2023