Income Shocks and Adolescent Mental Health
In this paper, the authors investigate the effect of positive income shocks on the mental health of adolescent girls using experimental evidence from a cash transfer program in Malawi. They find that the provision of monthly cash transfers had a st...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110428092412 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3407 |
| Summary: | In this paper, the authors investigate
the effect of positive income shocks on the mental health of
adolescent girls using experimental evidence from a cash
transfer program in Malawi. They find that the provision of
monthly cash transfers had a strong beneficial impact on the
mental health of school-age girls during the two-year
intervention. Among baseline schoolgirls who were offered
unconditional cash transfers, the likelihood of suffering
from psychological distress was 38 percent lower than the
control group, while the same figure was 17 percent if the
cash transfers offers were made conditional on regular
school attendance. The authors find no impact on the mental
health of girls who had already dropped out of school at
baseline. The beneficial effects of cash transfers were
limited to the intervention period and dissipated quickly
after the program ended. |
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