Economic vulnerabilities, mental health, and coping strategies among Tanzanian youth during COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated struggles for youth living in poor households. Youth in rural Tanzania are particularly vulnerable given widespread poverty, lack of formal sector employment opportunities, and health risks. We examine influences of the pandemic on economic insecurity and mental health and explore the coping strategies employed by youth and their households. METHODS: We conducted mixed-method data collection with youth (N = 760 quantitative and N = 44 qualitative interviews) and households (n = 542) via mobile phone among a sub-set of a cohort from an on-going longitudinal sample in two rural regions in Tanzania. In addition to phone interviews, we collected data bi-weekly via SMS messaging. We present mixed-methods, descriptive analysis of the outcomes and longitudinally compare quantitative outcomes pre- and post-COVID-19, within the same individuals. RESULTS: Adverse economic impacts were most salient, and to cope, youth engaged in more labor and domestic chores. Compared to prior the COVID-19 pandemic, youth reported spending more time caring for elderly or sick household members and gathering firewood or nuts. CONCLUSIONS: These findings underscore the potential opportunity to promote policies and programs which address risks youth face. Recommended measures include expansion and adaptation of social protection policies, strengthened food and nutrition surveillance and referral systems, and scaling up community-based mental health programming.

Childhood adversity and educational attainment: Evidence from Zambia on the role of personality.

Introduction: We examine whether personality traits mediate the association between childhood adversity and educational attainment using longitudinal data from a cohort in Zambia. Methods: We fit a structural equation model using data on three forms of childhood adversity-household poverty, stunting as a measure of chronic malnutrition, and death of a parent-and data on the "Big Five" personality traits and educational attainment assessed at 15 years of age. Results: We find that childhood poverty and death of a parent are associated with lower openness to experience. Furthermore, openness to experience mediates 93% of the negative association between death of a parent and school enrollment and 19% of the negative association between childhood poverty and enrollment. Discussion: Our findings reinforce a diverse and growing body of evidence linking childhood adversity to educational attainment while also placing it in a new light. Future work should continue to examine the biological and psychosocial pathways that determine openness to experience and other personality traits, as well as their role in shaping important life outcomes.

The impact of education on sexual behavior in sub-Saharan Africa: a review of the evidence.

Many studies have attempted to determine the relationship between education and HIV status. However, a complete and causal understanding of this relationship requires analysis of its mediating pathways, focusing on sexual behaviors. We developed a series of hypotheses based on the differential effect of educational attainment on three sexual behaviors. We tested our predictions in a systematic literature review including 65 articles reporting associations between three specific sexual behaviors -- sexual initiation, number of partners, and condom use -- and educational attainment or school enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa. The patterns of associations varied by behavior. The findings for condom use were particularly convergent; none of the 44 studies using educational attainment as a predictor reviewed found that more educated people were significantly less likely to use condoms. Findings for sexual initiation and number of partners were more complex. The contrast between findings for condom use on the one hand and sexual initiation and number of partners on the other supports predictions based on our theoretical framework.

A multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis of teacher perceptions of social and emotional learning in rural Malawi.

BACKGROUND: Social and emotional learning (SEL) positively impacts children's school achievement and adult productivity. Successful implementation of SEL relies on teachers' pedagogical beliefs and practices. AIMS: We examined whether the Teachers' SEL Belief Scale designed in the United States is adoptable in low-income countries such as Malawi in response to a growing interest in teacher practices in SEL but a lack of research instruments in these countries. SAMPLES: The data used in this study were from 432 teachers working in 34 randomly selected primary schools in Zomba, a rural district in Malawi. METHODS: We used multiple-group confirmatory factory analysis to investigate the factor structure and the invariance of the adapted scale across teachers with different characteristics such as gender and training experience in SEL. When invariant, we compared group mean differences among teachers in our sample by gender and training experience. RESULTS: We found that the Teachers' SEL Belief Scale measured a similar construct of pedagogical perceptions of SEL among the sampled teachers, and it functioned equivalently across teachers with different genders and training experiences. Female teachers had lower perceived institutional support for SEL instruction compared to male teachers. Untrained teachers had lower levels of pedagogical comfort as well as perceived support for SEL compared to trained teachers. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings validate the adaptability of the Teachers' SEL Belief Scale in low-income contexts such as Malawi. We did not find evidence of systematic bias relative to group membership. In addition, significantly lower pedagogical comfort and institutional support among female and untrained teachers suggest areas for policy intervention to improve teacher performance in SEL in Malawi.

Parenting and discipline in post-conflict Sierra Leone.

BACKGROUND: While the literature on physical punishment concludes that it has negative effects on children, the practice remains common in many countries. In post-conflict countries with nongovernmental organizations (NGO) operating in child protection, traditional disciplinary practices may conflict with international child rights agendas. The country of Sierra Leone has a unique history of conflict, abject poverty, low literacy, and weak governance - often, NGO agents are responsible for providing social services that the government is unable to consistently provide. OBJECTIVE: We examined how Sierra Leonean caregivers think about appropriate discipline for children, and whether they perceived any changes in their attitudes toward disciplinary practices since the end of the war. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: We collected data from parents and caregivers in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas of Sierra Leone's four districts. METHODS: We used focus groups (12 groups, n = 92) and individual interviews (n = 21) to collect data in 2013. Focus groups and interviews were conducted by research assistants fluent in Krio and English. We used a thematic content analysis approach. RESULTS: We found that physical discipline-"beating"-was widely acceptable and common. A few parents mentioned other means of discipline, such as withholding food. Parents widely agreed that parenting had changed since the war, and reported that child rights movements supported by NGOs had made it more difficult to discipline their children in traditional ways. CONCLUSIONS: Discipline was seen a central component of child-rearing and a means of ensuring safe and proper development. This may be a protective mechanism in the precarious, high poverty environment of post-war Sierra Leone. The negative responses of parents to NGO efforts to reduce physical punishment and other forms of child abuse suggest that grassroots approaches are needed to address this pervasive problem.

Poverty, physical stature, and cognitive skills: Mechanisms underlying children's school enrollment in Zambia.

Past research suggests robust positive associations between household socioeconomic status and children's early cognitive development in Western countries. Relatively little is known about these relations in low-income country settings characterized by economic adversity, high prevalence of malnutrition and infectious disease, and relatively lower school enrollment. The present study develops and empirically evaluates an adapted model of early childhood development using a sample of 2,711 Zambian 6-year-olds. Early learning in and out of the home was found to explain much of the relation between socioeconomic status and children's cognitive skills, including language, nonverbal reasoning, and executive function. Child height-for-age (a proxy for overall nutritional status and health) was also predictive of children's cognitive skills and both early and on-time school enrollment. Implications for global child development, intervention, and future work are discussed.