# Intervention to improve developmental and health outcomes for female adolescents

> **NIH NIH R21** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $198,165

## Abstract

The primary goal of this pilot study (R21) is to address the urgent need for theoretically and empirically
informed interventions that prevent poor female youth's rural-to-urban migration for child labor in low and
middle-income countries. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that 11% of children (ages 5 to
17) worldwide are child laborers. ILO recently drew attention to migrant child laborers as an underreported, but
more vulnerable group to adverse outcomes relative to children working locally. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
continues to be the continent with the highest rates of child labor, with Ghana registering one of the highest
incidence rates at 22%, including unaccompanied child migrants engaged in labor. Adolescent girls make up
the majority of unaccompanied rural-to-urban migrants in search of better economic opportunities. Studies
document the myriad of serious threats to health and emotional well-being experienced by female adolescent
migrants engaged in child labor. These threats underline the urgent need for theoretically-informed preventive
interventions, specifically tailored to address the root causes of female child migrant labor and the needs of
girls from economically insecure families and communities. Hence, this application titled ANZANSI Family
Program focuses on girls before they drop out of school, but as they begin exhibiting possibility of dropping out.
Specifically, ANZANSI is an innovative combination intervention program, combining an evidence-informed
family-level economic empowerment (EE) aimed at creating and strengthening financial stability through the
use of matched children savings accounts (CSA) and microfinance in poor households with a multiple family
group (MFG) intervention addressing family functioning and parental beliefs around gender and child labor/
education. Informed by asset theory, parental ethnotheories framework; and the investigative team's research
in SSA on child-wellbeing and poverty, the study uses a cluster randomized control design (N=10 schools;
n=100 girls ages 11-14 at risk of dropping out of school and their caregivers), assigned to two study conditions
(N= 5 schools; n=50 children at risk of dropping out of school and their caregivers in each condition). The
control group will receive bolstered usual care, including books and school lunch and treatment group will
receive a combination intervention (Family EE+MFG) called ANZANSI, to address the following specific aims:
Aim 1: Pilot test the (i) feasibility and acceptability of ANZANSI; and (ii) preliminary impact of ANZANSI by
comparing the control arm to the treatment arm on specific child development outcomes; Aim 2: Explore multi-
level factors (individual, family, and programmatic) impacting participation in and experiences with the
ANZANSI. This study is aligned with NICHD's mission to support research relevant to the psychological,
behavioral, and educational development and health of children worldwide. Ultimately,...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10017700
- **Project number:** 5R21HD099508-02
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ozge Sensoy Bahar
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $198,165
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-12 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10017700

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10017700, Intervention to improve developmental and health outcomes for female adolescents (5R21HD099508-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10017700. Licensed CC0.

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