Peer-reviewed article
The Impact of Family Economic Empowerment Intervention on Psychological Difficulties and Prosocial Behavior Among AIDS-Orphaned Children in Southern Uganda
Nhial T. Tutlam, Lindsey M. Filiatreau, William Byansi, Rachel Brathwaite, Proscovia Nabunya et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study tested whether a family economic empowerment program called Suubi-Maka could reduce psychological problems and improve prosocial behavior in AIDS-orphaned adolescents in Uganda. The program was compared to standard care in 10 schools with 346 children total, followed for 24 months. Both the intervention and control groups showed similar improvements in emotional symptoms and behavior over time, but the intervention did not produce better results than the control group.
Key points
- AIDS-orphaned children typically experience higher rates of psychological and emotional problems linked to poverty
- Both intervention and control groups showed modest to significant declines in emotional symptoms, hyperactivity, and peer relationship difficulties over 12 months (effect sizes -1.00 to -2.11)
- Both groups also showed declines in total difficulties over 24 months (effect sizes -4.85 to -4.89)
- No meaningful differences were found between the intervention group and control group at baseline, 12 months, or 24 months
- The study suggests future research should examine which specific components of economic empowerment interventions may be most effective
Limitations
The study cannot determine whether the economic empowerment intervention was effective, as both groups improved similarly, possibly due to secular trends, regression to the mean, or benefits of being in any school program. The study does not explain why both groups improved or identify which intervention components, if any, contributed to observed changes.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Children orphaned by AIDS are more likely to have psychological and emotional problems compared to their counterparts. Poverty resulting from orphanhood is linked to the negative psychological outcomes experienced by AIDS-orphaned adolescents. No studies have investigated the impact of an economic empowerment intervention on child psychological and emotional problems and prosocial behavior. Therefore, we aimed to examine the impact of a family economic empowerment intervention on psychological difficulties and prosocial behavior among AIDS-orphaned adolescents. METHODS: We analyzed data from a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in 10 primary schools in southern Uganda. Schools were randomized to either bolstered usual care (n = 5 schools; 167 participants) or a family-economic empowerment intervention (Suubi-Maka; n = 5 schools; 179 individuals). We used t-test and multi-level mixed effects models to examine the impact of Suubi-Maka on psychological and behavioral outcomes. RESULTS: No differences were observed between intervention and control groups in almost all the outcomes at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months. Simple main effects comparisons of 12 months versus baseline within each condition indicate modest to significant declines in emotional symptoms, hyperactivity, peer relationships (Δs = -1.00 to -2.11, all p < .001), and total difficulties (Δs = -4.85 to -4.89, both p < .001) across both groups. DISCUSSION: Our analysis found no meaningful difference between intervention and control groups in child psychological difficulties and prosocial behavior postintervention. However, improvements were observed across both control and treatment groups following the intervention. Future studies should investigate the impact of different components of the intervention.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Suubi-Maka family economic empowerment intervention
- Population
- AIDS-orphaned adolescents in 10 primary schools in southern Uganda (n=346; 179 intervention, 167 control)
Key finding
No differences between intervention and control groups in psychological difficulties or prosocial behavior at baseline, 12 months, or 24 months
Tutlam et al. · Prof. Fred M. Ssewamala (OpenAlex works) · 14 Apr 2023