Pathways From Poverty to Child Mental Health in Burkina Faso: Longitudinal Mediation Analyses in a Cluster-Randomized Clinical Trial.

Purpose: The study applies the Family Stress Model to examine the impact of an integrated intervention on the mental health of children facing chronic adversity in Burkina Faso. Its primary goal is to enhance understanding of individual and relational factors at the family level as mediators and specific mechanisms through which poverty reduction can impact child well-being.

Methods: Cross-lagged autoregressive longitudinal mediation analyses tested the intervention effect on child mental health, examining maternal depression, maternal anxiety, harsh parenting, and child exposure to abuse as potential mediators.

Trauma of separation: the social and emotional impact of institutionalization on children in a post-soviet country.

Background: In the former Soviet Union (fSU) region, which has the highest rate of institutional care worldwide, 'social orphans' -indigent children who have one or both parents living-are placed in publicly run residential institutions to receive education, food, and shelter. Few studies have focused on understanding the emotional effects of separation and life in an institutional environment on children who grow up with their families.

Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews (N = 47) were conducted with 8- to 16-year-old children with a history of institutional care placement and their parents in Azerbaijan.

A gender-focused analysis of structural and social precipitators to child institutionalization in Azerbaijan: A qualitative study.

Deinstitutionalization reforms in the post-Soviet region-the region with the highest rate of institutional care worldwide-are aimed at reducing the number of children in institutions. To develop context-specific gatekeeping strategies and prevent new cohorts of children from entering institutions, it is crucial to understand the local factors that contribute to institutional placement. Using a phenomenological approach, this qualitative study explores the contexts of institutional placement of children in Azerbaijan from their caregivers' perspectives.

Computerized intervention to prevent drug use among at-risk adolescents in Central Asia: Preliminary family-level findings from a pilot mixed methods trial.

Background: The rapidly growing rates of HIV infection in Kazakhstan are largely driven by injection drug use. The study adapts a family-focused evidence-based HIV and substance use prevention intervention for at-risk adolescents from communities in Almaty that have been greatly affected by heroin trade and use.

Methods: This NIDA-funded pilot feasibility trial included 181 at-risk adolescents (ages 14-17) recruited through local schools and 181 of their parents or other adult family members.

Harsh Parenting and Violence Against Children: A Trial with Ultrapoor Families in Francophone West Africa.

Few culturally congruent interventions are available to reduce abusive practices in families living in abject poverty in francophone West Africa. This study tests the effects of economic intervention-alone and in combination with a family-focused component-on parenting outcomes and children's reports of violence in rural Burkina Faso. Female caregivers and their 10- to 15-year-old children from 360 ultrapoor families were recruited to participate in a parallel cluster randomized control trial with 3 study arms: the waitlist (control) group, the economic intervention group (Trickle Up [TU]), and the economic intervention plus family coaching group (TU+).

Building Competencies to Prevent Youth Substance Use in Kazakhstan: Mixed Methods Findings From a Pilot Family-Focused Multimedia Trial.

Purpose: The knowledge-based approach to substance use and HIV prevention, commonly used in Central Asia, does not equip at-risk adolescents with risk reduction skills. This pilot study aims to adapt and test the feasibility and estimate the effect size parameters of a skill-based and family-focused intervention for at-risk adolescents from communities affected by heroin trade and use in Kazakhstan, located on the major drug trafficking route from Afghanistan.

Methods: This National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded pilot trial used a mixed-methods approach and included 181 adolescents (ages 14-17) that reported at least one risk factor (e.

An Integrated Approach to Increasing Women's Empowerment and Reducing Domestic Violence: Results of a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in a West African Country.

Objective: This is the first experimental study testing the effects of an economic intervention alone and in combination with a family-focused component, on women's empowerment status and family violence in Burkina Faso.

Method: The three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial with baseline and one-year follow-up included 360 ultra-poor married women from 12 villages. Villages were randomized to the three study arms: (Trickle Up/TU), a (Trickle Up Plus), and waitlist (Control arm).

Improving mental health among ultra-poor children: Two-year outcomes of a cluster-randomized trial in Burkina Faso.

Rationale: There is limited evidence about interventions improving child mental health in francophone West Africa. Behavioral mental health interventions alone may have limited effects on children's emotional well-being in families living in abject poverty, especially in low-income countries.

Objective: This study tests the effects of economic intervention, alone and in combination with a family-focused component, on the mental health of children from ultra-poor households in rural Burkina Faso.

Integrating Economic Strengthening and Family Coaching to Reduce Work-Related Health Hazards Among Children of Poor Households: Burkina Faso.

Purpose: This is the first randomized controlled trial in Burkina Faso testing the effect of economic strengthening alone and in combination with family coaching on child's hazardous work and work-related health outcomes. The study also tests the association between different forms of hazardous work and child's health outcomes.

Methods: A total of 360 households from 12 villages participated in the study.

Maltreatment and Mental Health Outcomes among Ultra-Poor Children in Burkina Faso: A Latent Class Analysis.

Objectives: Research about the mental health of children in Francophone West Africa is scarce. This paper examines the relationships between adverse childhood experiences, including exposure to violence and exploitation, and mental health outcomes among children living in ultra-poverty in rural Burkina Faso.

Methods: This paper utilizes baseline data collected from 360 children ages 10-15 and 360 of their mothers recruited from twelve impoverished villages in the Nord Region of Burkina, located near the Sahel Desert and affected by extreme food insecurity.

The Silk Road Health Project: How Mobility and Migration Status Influence HIV Risks among Male Migrant Workers in Central Asia.

Objectives: We examined whether mobility, migrant status, and risk environments are associated with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV risk behaviors (e.g. sex trading, multiple partners, and unprotected sex).

Spousal Violence in 5 Transitional Countries: A Population-Based Multilevel Analysis of Individual and Contextual Factors.

Objectives: I examined the individual- and community-level factors associated with spousal violence in post-Soviet countries.

Methods: I used population-based data from the Demographic and Health Survey conducted between 2005 and 2012. My sample included currently married women of reproductive age (n = 3932 in Azerbaijan, n = 4053 in Moldova, n = 1932 in Ukraine, n = 4361 in Kyrgyzstan, and n = 4093 in Tajikistan).

Intimate Partner Physical and Sexual Violence and Outcomes of Unintended Pregnancy Among National Samples of Women From Three Former Soviet Union Countries.

The article examines the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and unintended pregnancy among nationally representative samples of women in three former Soviet Union countries. Women who experienced physical and/or sexual IPV from their current or most recent husband or living together partner demonstrated higher risks of unintended last pregnancy, either terminated through abortion (in Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Ukraine) or resulting in unintended live birth (in Ukraine). IPV prevention components should be integrated into reproductive health programs to reduce the risk of unintended births and abortions among women living with abusive partners in these former Soviet Union countries.

Effects of a couple-based intervention to reduce risks for HIV, HCV, and STIs among drug-involved heterosexual couples in Kazakhstan: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Project Renaissance is a randomized controlled trial of an HIV/hepatitis C virus (HCV)/sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention intervention conducted in Almaty, Kazakhstan. We hypothesized that couples assigned to the intervention of interest will have lower incidence of HIV, HCV, STIs, rates of unprotected sex, and unsafe injection over the 12-month follow-up period compared with those assigned to an attention control arm.

Design: A total of 300 couples (600 participants) where one or both partners reported injecting drugs in the past 90 days were randomized to 1 of 2 arms: (1) a 5-session HIV/HCV/STI prevention intervention (risk reduction: RR) or (2) a 5-session Wellness Promotion (WP) intervention.

HIV risks among injecting and non-injecting female partners of men who inject drugs in Almaty, Kazakhstan: implications for HIV prevention, research, and policy.

Background: Kazakhstan and other countries in Central Asia are experiencing a rapidly growing HIV epidemic, which has historically been driven by injection drug use, but is more recently being fueled by heterosexual transmission.

Methods: This paper examines HIV and HCV infection, as well as sexual and drug-related risks among female partners of men who inject drugs (MWID), comparing females who inject drugs (FWID) to non-injecting female partners on socio-demographic, relationship context, and structural characteristics.

Results: The prevalence rate of HIV was 30.

Mental health and migration: depression, alcohol abuse, and access to health care among migrants in Central Asia.

One-fifth of Kazakhstan's population is labor migrants working in poor conditions with limited legal rights. This paper examines self-rated health, mental health and access to health care among migrant workers. Using geo-mapping, a random sample of internal and external migrant market workers was selected in Almaty (N = 450).

Predictors of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Knowledge among Jordanian Youths.

Objectives: Understanding factors associated with the level of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) knowledge acquisition is crucial to inform preventative programmes for young people. This study examines predictors of HIV knowledge among Jordanian youths.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 8,129 youths aged between 14 and 25 years randomly selected from schools representing each of the 12 governorates of Jordan.

HIV among injection drug users and their intimate partners in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

This paper examines prevalence rates of HIV, HCV, and syphilis among a sample of injecting drug users (IDUs) and their heterosexual intimate partners (N = 728) from Almaty, Kazakhstan. The study uses baseline data from Project Renaissance, a couple-based HIV prevention intervention delivered to a couple where one or both partners are IDUs. HIV prevalence rates among female and male IDUs were 28 %.

Imagining the future: Community perceptions of a family-based economic empowerment intervention for AIDS-orphaned adolescents in Uganda.

AIDS-orphaned children and adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa have inadequate access to basic services, including health and education. Using a qualitative approach, the study explores the meaning of education in rural Uganda, obstacles faced by AIDS-orphaned adolescents and their caregivers to access secondary education, and the potential of an economic empowerment intervention SEED in addressing the challenges of accessing educational opportunities for AIDS-orphaned adolescents. The findings come from 29 semi-structured interviews conducted with eleven adolescents study participants, four caregivers and fourteen community leaders involved in the pilot SEED intervention.

Prevalence and correlates of intimate partner violence by type and severity: population-based studies in Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Ukraine.

The article estimates the prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of intimate partner violence (IPV) by type and severity in population-based samples from three countries of the former Soviet Union (fSU). The article utilized nationally representative data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in Azerbaijan (2006), Moldova (2005), and Ukraine (2007). Respondents were selected using stratified multistage cluster sampling.

Extended families and perceived caregiver support to AIDS orphans in Rakai district of Uganda.

PURPOSE: To understand the role of extended family in responding to problems of AID-orphaned children and adolescents in Uganda, the study examines who are the primary caregivers of AIDS-orphaned children and adolescents, what are the types of caregiving provided to orphans and whether the quality of caregiving varies by the primary caregiver's gender and type. METHODS: The study uses bivariate analyses and mixed effects models utilizing baseline data from a cluster randomized experimental design including 283 orphaned adolescents in Uganda. RESULTS: The analysis revealed a generally dominating role of female caregivers for both single and double orphans.

Individual and community level socioeconomic inequalities in contraceptive use in 10 Newly Independent States: a multilevel cross-sectional analysis.

Introduction: Little is known regarding the association between socioeconomic factors and contraceptive use in the Newly Independent States (NIS), countries that have experienced profound changes in reproductive health services during the transition from socialism to a market economy.

Methods: Using 2005-2006 data from Demographic Health Surveys (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan), we examined associations between individual and community socioeconomic status with current modern contraceptive use (MCU) among N = 55,204 women aged 15-49 married or in a union. Individual socioeconomic status was measured using quintiles of wealth index and education level (higher than secondary school, secondary school or less).

Depressive symptoms among Jordanian youth: results of a national survey.

This study examines level of depression and factors associated with depression among female and male youth in Jordan. The study uses data from a cross-sectional survey conducted among a national sample of 14-25 year old youth attending educational institutions in Jordan (N = 8,129). On average, respondents reported frequently experiencing feelings of sadness (66 %), loss of joy (49 %) and loss of hope in living (43 %).

The impact of a comprehensive microfinance intervention on depression levels of AIDS-orphaned children in Uganda.

Purpose: By adversely affecting family functioning and stability, poverty constitutes an important risk factor for children's poor mental health functioning. This study examines the impact of a comprehensive microfinance intervention, designed to reduce the risk of poverty, on depression among AIDS-orphaned youth.

Methods: Children from 15 comparable primary schools in Rakai District of Uganda, one of those hardest hit by HIV/AIDS in the country, were randomly assigned to control (n = 148) or treatment (n = 138) conditions.