Can an Evidence-Based Mental Health Intervention Indirectly Benefit Caregivers and Peers of Intervention Participants in Rural Sierra Leone?

Alethea Desrosiers (), Kathryn Noon, Matias Placencio-Castro, Nathan B. Hansen, Musu Moigua and Theresa S. Betancourt
Additional contact information
Alethea Desrosiers: Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University, 345 Blackstone Blvd, Providence, RI 02906, USA
Kathryn Noon: School of Social Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02496, USA
Matias Placencio-Castro: School of Social Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02496, USA
Nathan B. Hansen: College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Musu Moigua: Caritas-Freetown, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Theresa S. Betancourt: School of Social Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02496, USA

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: This study explored potential indirect mental health benefits of the Youth Readiness Intervention (YRI) among peers and caregivers of YRI participants and control participants via a networks psychometrics approach. We recruited and enrolled index participants who participated in an implementation trial in Sierra Leone (N = 165 control index participants; N = 165 YRI index participants). Index participants nominated three of their closest peers (N = 879) and one cohabitating caregiver (N = 284) to complete quantitative assessments on mental health and functioning. We used network psychometrics to explore patterns of association between mental health outcomes and risk/protective factors among YRI participants’ peers and caregivers and those of non-participants. Models of network structures showed several strong associations between mental health symptoms and risk/protective factors. There was a strong association between higher social support and positive coping skills. Additionally, models reflected stronger associations between higher depression symptoms and worse emotion regulation for peers of non-participants only. For caregivers of non-participants, a higher burden of care was strongly associated with worse emotion regulation, which was associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety. On a broader scale, the findings may provide support for wider societal benefits that evidence-based mental health interventions can offer in resource-constrained settings.

Keywords: networks; caregivers; peer group; Sierra Leone; mental health; rural (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/6/844/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/6/844/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:6:p:844-:d:1666439

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().