Impact of Mentorship Program on well-being of Youth-headed households in Rwanda

Background: Youth-headed households (YHH) are common in Rwanda: AIDS and the genocide left many children living with limited adult care. The scale of the YHH problem requires innovative solutions. Using trained adult volunteers from the community to develop a stable relationship with children through regular home visits is one potentially scalable approach. However, there is little empirical evidence on the effectiveness of mentoring programs. Methods: A quasi-experimental study of 692 YHHs residing in four districts was conducted from 2004-2006. All households received basic needs assistance (e.g., school fees) from World Vision. Following the 2004 baseline survey an adult mentorship program was implemented in two districts. The comprehensive survey instrument was developed, extensively piloted and administered by trained interviewers to YHHs. Primary outcome measures include Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Rating Scale (CES-D) and indexes of social marginalization, grief and adult support. Logistic regression was conducted to assess the impact of the program on these outcomes. Results: Survey subscales had good psychometric properties. The proportion of survey respondents reporting high adult support in the intervention group was significantly higher at time two than time one; there was no difference in the comparison group. The intervention group also reported modest, though significant decreases in depressive symptoms, marginalization and grief. Conclusions: The mentorship program resulted in increased adult support among the YHH. However, the impact of the program on emotional well-being was more modest. More intensive interventions may be needed for those with high levels of depressive symptoms.