Young people, mental health, and civil conflict: Preliminary findings from Ethiopia's Tigray region

This paper examines the association between mental health and violent conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region.

• From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
• Published: 31 March 2022

• Country: Ethiopia
• Document Type: Journal Article
• Theme: Governance and Conflict
• Authors: Favara, M, Hittmeyer, A, Porter, C, Singhal, S, Woldehanna, T

Abstract

We examine the association between mental health and violent conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Two longitudinal phone-surveys (08/2020–10/2020; 11/2020–01/2021) interviewed 122 young people in Tigray. We use t-tests for the difference in means outcomes between calls to investigate how their mental health evolved before and after the outbreak of conflict (11/2020). Post-outbreak rates of anxiety (34%) were three times higher than 2–3 months before. Similarly, rates of depression increased significantly from 16% to 25%. Males experienced greater increases in anxiety, females in depression. Mental health issues have likely worsened further during the ongoing conflict, making mental health support urgently needed.

This is an output of the Young Lives at Work programme

Citation

Marta Favara, Annina Hittmeyer, Catherine Porter, Saurabh Singhal, Tassew Woldehanna, Young people, mental health, and civil conflict: Preliminary findings from Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Psychiatry Research Communications, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psycom.2022.100025.

Link

Young people, mental health, and civil conflict: Preliminary findings from Ethiopia’s Tigray region

Published 31 March 2022