Participatory evaluation of psychosocial interventions for children

Abstract

In the past decade, evidence-based practice has led to a more critical approach towards professional practice in the humanitarian working ¢eld. Many agencies have increased their capacity and resources to research intervention e¡ectiveness and programme impact.When evaluating psychosocial interventions, practitioners and researchers are often not only interested in intervention outcomes, but also in the external factors that in£uence e¡ectiveness, the intervention process and the views of its bene¢ciaries. This requires a practice-driven approach that takes into account the (cultural) reality in the ¢eld, collects relevant process information and provides a framework to re£ect the views of the participants. This paper explains howWar Child Holland developed a participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) tool to evaluate I DEAL, its psychosocial life-skills intervention. The aim of the tool was to research intervention e¡ectiveness by collecting process information with children as the key informants. The participatory M&E tool comprises a range of qualitative and quantitative measures, such as setting personal goals, themed quizzes, module evaluations and impact mapping. The tool was piloted with 510 children and 120 parents in Northern Uganda. It was found that the M&E tool has potential to strengthen ' evidence-based' evaluative practice and to involve children in meaningful evaluation, but it was found to be di⁄cult to gather more data for impact evaluation without further quantifying and expanding the tool.

Delivering mental health and psychosocial support interventions to women and children in conflict settings: a systematic review

“…Of the 643 potentially relevant publications screened in full text, 125 were identified as eligible for this review. The grey literature search identified another 25 eligible publications, and a further seven were identified through reference list of previous reviews, with a total of 157 publications finally included in the review 24–154Table 1. summarises the characteristics of all included publications.…”

Interventions for Children Affected by Armed Conflict: a Systematic Review of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

“…Female non-abducted greatest improvement and male non-abducted had a negative impact. d = 1.06 (female non-abduction) d = −0.02 (male non-abduction) 2 = high 3 = low 4 = low 5 = high 6 = unclear 7 = low Claessens (2012) [ 30 ], Uganda 10–15, not stated, N = 510 Level 2, well-being Group sessions for 17 weeks delivered by non-specialist (social worker) 3 1 = high T = social worker 1 day S = not stated Intervention specifically for conflict-affected areas but adaptations not stated Instruments used not clinical, mixed-methods approach PO = well-being C = school-based recreational and connectivity exercises R = 54.3 % children achieved their goal. Themed quiz children got 87 % answers correct.…”

“…All publications reported positive promotion, prevention, and treatment effects on a range of indicators. Eighteen studies (78 %) reported positive effects on their primary outcomes [ 16 , 18 , 22 ••, 23 ••, 25 ••, 26 - 35 , 36 ••, 37 , 38 ], and eight (44 %) of these 18 showed positive impacts on specific subgroups [ 16 , 18 , 26 - 28 , 30 , 31 , 36 ••]. Therefore, only ten publications (43 %) reported positive overall promotion, prevention, and treatment effects on symptom reduction and improved well-being for their primary outcomes.…”

“…Fifty-two percent of the publications recommended that future interventions should apply multi-levelled approaches [ 15 , 17 , 20 , 22 ••, 23 ••, 24 , 25 ••, 26 - 28 , 33 , 36 ••]. Eight studies used intervention approaches with a focus beyond children’s individual symptomology, incorporating community/caregiver aspects [ 21 , 22 ••, 23 ••, 25 ••, 29 , 30 , 32 , 33 ]. The community/caregiver aspects included helping the elderly, planting trees, psycho-educational classes for parents, a graduation ceremony attended by key figures in the community, and the creation of a community advisory board to assist with implementation.…”

The first decade of Intervention

“…Starting with the sixth volume (Van der Veer, 2008), there were increasing calls for establishing an evidence base for MHPSS, a ¢eld that has often been critiqued for their lack of rigorous evaluation of e¡ectiveness (Cardozo, 2008). Such tools often use participatory methods to identify appropriate approaches in psychosocial intervention, within a wide range of populations, such as war a¡ected children in Sri Lanka (Hart et al, 2007), former child soldiers in Sierra Leone and Nepal (Karki et al, 2009), war a¡ected mothers in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda (McKay et al, 2011), and children in Uganda (Claessens et al, 2012). Such tools often use participatory methods to identify appropriate approaches in psychosocial intervention, within a wide range of populations, such as war a¡ected children in Sri Lanka (Hart et al, 2007), former child soldiers in Sierra Leone and Nepal (Karki et al, 2009), war a¡ected mothers in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda (McKay et al, 2011), and children in Uganda (Claessens et al, 2012).…”