09:30 - 11:10
P11-S270
Room: -1.A.02
Chair/s:
Bernd Beber
Discussant/s:
Lauren Young
Depression in the Time of Conflict: A RCT on Building Civilian Resilience in Conflict-Affected Myanmar
P11-S270-2
Presented by: Alexandra Hartman
Alexandra Hartman 1, Jonathan Weigel 2, Nicolas Cerkez 3
1 UCL
2 Berkeley
3 Oxford
How can civil society best support conflict-affected communities to manage the psychological toll of violence and displacement? We use a large-scale randomized control trial (RCT) to study the impact of community-based interventions on mental health, resilience, and social cohesion in communities in the conflict-affected Myanmar-Thai border region. Our study is designed to identify specialist technical knowledge, social capital, or culturally appropriate spiritual support are most effective in building resilience in the face of conflict. We use a panel survey in 90 communities with 1100 participants to understand the impact of an internationally validated psycho-social first aid curriculum, a group-based social capital only intervention, as well as a cross-randomized spiritual reflection and meditation to understand how civil society can build resilience in hard-to-reach areas in the face of ongoing civil conflict.
Keywords: Experiment, civil war, resilience, civilians, mental health

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