Government of Malawi's unconditional cash transfer improves youth mental health
Open accessAbstract
We explore the impacts of Malawi's national unconditional cash transfer program targeting ultra-poor households on youth mental health. Experimental findings show that the program significantly improved mental health outcomes. Among girls in particular, the program reduces indications of depression by about 15 percentage points. We investigate the contribution of different possible pathways to the overall program impact, including education, health, consumption, caregiver's stress levels and life satisfaction, perceived social support, and participation in hard and unpleasant work. The pathways explain from 46 to 65 percent of the program impact, advancing our understanding of how economic interventions can affect mental health of youth in resource-poor settings. The findings underline that unconditional cash grants, which are used on an increasingly large scale as part of national social protection systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, have the potential to improve youth mental wellbeing and thus may help break the vicious cycle of poverty and poor mental health.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Malawi has developed public mental health policies, including ambitious and targeted unconditional cash transfers to ultra-poor households in order to improve youth mental health, an intervention that shows promise.
“Malawi has developed public mental health policies, including ambitious and targeted unconditional cash transfers to ultra-poor households in order to improve youth mental health, an intervention that shows promise.”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [89]
The Abstract reports that Malawi’s unconditional cash transfer program targets ultra-poor households and improved youth mental health. But the “Malawi Social Cash Transfer Program” section states that its objectives are to reduce poverty and hunger and increase school enrolment—not to improve youth mental health. The paper therefore supports the intervention’s promise, but not its characterization as a policy designed for that purpose. (LLM, conf=0.90)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn Malawi, a cluster randomised trial of an unconditional cash transfer programme targeted to very poor households statistically significantly reduced depressive symptoms in young people, especially young women.
“In Malawi, a cluster randomised trial of an unconditional cash transfer programme targeted to very poor households statistically significantly reduced depressive symptoms in young people, especially young women. 89”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [89]
Workplace interventions using CBT-based techniques typically report small benefits.
“Workplace interventions that increase employee control and promote physical activity appear to be associated with mental health benefits; 445 those using CBT-based techniques typically report small benefits. 446”
From Time for united action on depression: a Lancet–World Psychiatric Association Commission (2022) · cites this paper as [446]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
A Global Measure of Perceived Stress
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.2307/2136404 · Cited by 32,807 · see citing works
The satisfaction with life scale
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 · Cited by 31,768 · see citing works
The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support
Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G., & Farley, G. K. (1988) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa5201_2 · Cited by 13,339 · see citing works
A general approach to causal mediation analysis.
Imai, K., Keele, L., & Tingley, D. (2010) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/a0020761 · Cited by 4,143 · see citing works
The Whoqol Group (1998) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00009-4 · Cited by 3,802 · see citing works
Mental health of young people: A global public-health challenge
Patel, V., Flisher, A. J., Hetrick, S., & McGorry, P. (2007) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)60368-7 · Cited by 3,126 · see citing works
Haushofer, J., & Fehr, E. (2014) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1232491 · Cited by 1,638 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Yet, we know little about the policies and interventions that help to address poor mental health outcomes of young people (Haushofer and Fehr, 2014; Lund et al., 2011; Patel et al., 2007).”
Poverty and common mental disorders in developing countries.
Patel, V., & Kleinman, A. M. (2003) · Europe PMC (PubMed Central) · Cited by 1,099 · see citing works
Health for the World’s adolescents: A second chance in the second decade
Dick, B., & Ferguson, B. J. (2015) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.10.260 · Cited by 959 · see citing works
Poverty and mental disorders: breaking the cycle in low-income and middle-income countries
Lund, C., De Silva, M., Plagerson, S., Cooper, S., Chisholm, D., Das, J., Knapp, M., & Patel, V. (2011) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60754-x · Cited by 929 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Yet, we know little about the policies and interventions that help to address poor mental health outcomes of young people (Haushofer and Fehr, 2014; Lund et al., 2011; Patel et al., 2007).”
BackgroundBeyond baseline and follow-up: The case for more T in experiments
McKenzie, D. (2012) · Journal of Development Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.01.002 · Cited by 871 · see citing works
Kilburn, K., Thirumurthy, H., Halpern, C. T., Pettifor, A., & Handa, S. (2016) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.09.023 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Self-citationKilburn, K., Prencipe, L., Hjelm, L., Peterman, A., Handa, S., & Palermo, T. (2018) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-018-1774-z · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Self-citationAlves, F. J. O., Machado, D. B., & Barreto, M. L. (2018) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-018-1627-6 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Cash Transfers, Microentrepreneurial Activity, and Child Work: Evidence from Malawi and Zambia
de Hoop, J., Groppo, V., & Handa, S. (2019) · The World Bank Economic Review · doi:10.1093/wber/lhz004 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Self-citationRock, A., Barrington, C., Abdoulayi, S., Tsoka, M., Mvula, P., & Handa, S. (2016) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.10.005 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Self-citationCash Transfers, Young Women’s Economic Well-Being, and HIV Risk: Evidence from HPTN 068
Kilburn, K., Hughes, J. P., MacPhail, C. L., Wagner, R. G., Gómez-Olivé, F. X., Kahn, K., & Pettifor, A. E. (2018) · AIDS and Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10461-018-2329-5 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Baird S, de Hoop J, Özler B, 2013. Income shocks and adolescent mental health. J. Hum. Resour 48 (2), 370– 403.
- Kassebaum N, Kyu HH, Zoeckler L,, 2017. Child and adolescent health from 1990 to 2015: findings from the global burden of diseases, injuries and risk factors 2015 study. JAMA Pediatrics 171, 573– 592. 28384795 PMC5540012
- Keele L, Tingley D, Yamamoto T, 2015. Identifying mechanisms behind policy interventions via causal mediation analysis. J. Pol. Anal. Manag 34 (4), 937– 963.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Poverty, depression, and anxiety: Causal evidence and mechanisms
Ridley, M., Rao, G., Schilbach, F., & Patel, V. (2020) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aay0214 · Cited by 1,220 · see citing works
Time for united action on depression: a Lancet–World Psychiatric Association Commission
Herrman, H., Patel, V., Kieling, C., Berk, M., Buchweitz, C., Cuijpers, P., Furukawa, T. A., Kessler, R. C., Kohrt, B. A., Maj, M., et al. (2022) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(21)02141-3 · Cited by 1,104 · see citing works
Kola, L., Kohrt, B. A., Hanlon, C., Naslund, J. A., Sikander, S., Balaji, M., Benjet, C., Cheung, E. Y. L., Eaton, J., Gonsalves, P., et al. (2021) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(21)00025-0 · Cited by 835 · see citing works
The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health
McGorry, P. D., Mei, C., Dalal, N., Alvarez-Jimenez, M., Blakemore, S.-J., Browne, V., Dooley, B., Hickie, I. B., Jones, P. B., McDaid, D., et al. (2024) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(24)00163-9 · Cited by 663 · see citing works
- Authors
- Angeles, G., de Hoop, J., Handa, S., Kilburn, K., Milazzo, A., & Peterman, A.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- United Nations Children's Fund (US)
- Venue
- Social Science & Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-03
- Volume
- 225
- Pages
- 108-119
- ISSN
- 0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6829911
- OpenAlex
- W2913478111
- Cited by
- 100
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 24.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- SCTP
- European Union
- UK Department for International Development and UNICEF
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Keywords
- unconditional cash transfers, youth mental health, depression, ultra-poor households, social protection, poverty and mental health, caregiver stress, life satisfaction, social support, child labor, girls, Malawi
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Depression, Female, Government Programs, Humans, Malawi, Male, Mental Health, Poverty, Public Assistance, Program Evaluation, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
