The role of economic empowerment for mental health in the Global South.

There is a great potential for carefully designed economic empowerment programmes to improve mental health in recipients and their significant others. Onono and colleagues interviewed 62 caregiver-adolescent dyads on the effect of an economic empowerment intervention consisting of microcredits to purchase farming implements and a water pump to irrigate crops throughout the year combined with agricultural and financial training. Their intersectoral economic empowerment intervention decreased parental stress, parental absenteeism as well as harsh parenting and disciplining practices. This translated to better caregiver-adolescent communication and improved household dynamics, thus increasing the psychological well-being of adolescents. The research contributes to a growing evidence base on the importance of economic empowerment interventions for mental health by generating hypotheses on mechanisms of action.