Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on children’s mental health worldwide. Existing studies suggest that children with greater levels of hope are more likely to be resilient in the face of disaster. While social support at the family and community level is proposed as an important factor in sustaining and fostering hope, the children of underprivileged households in developing countries tend to lack this support. We investigate whether development projects run by international NGOs are able to fill this gap and help children to remain hopeful during the pandemic. Using original survey data from 834 children in adolescence (aged between 10 and 18) in Kenya and Zambia, we show that children participating in Good Neighbors’ child sponsorship programs and community development projects exhibit higher scores on the Children’s Hope Scale than do non-participating children. These projects appear to foster hope by providing emotional and informational support.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1307-1326 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Youth and Society |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2023 Oct |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Good Neighbors Global Partnership Center (GN GPC) under the project title “The Psychological and Socio-economic Impact of COVID-19 on Children in Kenya and Zambia” in 2021.
Funding Information:
We want to express our gratitude to Ilha Yi (Chairperson) and Minho Choi (Secretary-General) at GN GPC. We also thank Namun Heo (Country Representative) and Sunyul Jeun (Project Manager) from Good Neighbors Kenya, and Jaewoong Lee (Country Representative) from Good Neighbors Zambia. We appreciate the valuable comments from Hyunjin Choi, Hyo Won Lee, two anonymous reviewers, and the editor. While the paper shares some content with a project report (in Korean) prepared for the GN GPC that the authors and Hyeran Hong, Hyojung Kim, and Chaewon Sohn contributed to, it is entirely rewritten in an academic style. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Good Neighbors Global Partnership Center (GN GPC) under the project title “The Psychological and Socio-economic Impact of COVID-19 on Children in Kenya and Zambia” in 2021.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
Keywords
- COVID-19
- child sponsorship program
- community development project
- hope
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
- Sociology and Political Science
- Social Sciences(all)
