Session: Rigorous Inquiry for Building Youth Capabilities: Evidence on Psychosocial Wellbeing, Agency, Life Skills and Peer Support from Ghana, South Africa, and Zambia. (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Background and Purpose:
Advancing social work research in service of democracy requires a focus on the capacities that enable individuals—particularly marginalized youth and young mothers—to participate meaningfully in social and economic life. Across global contexts, structural inequalities limit not only access to opportunities but also the psychosocial resources—such as self-efficacy, social support, and agency—needed to engage those opportunities. This symposium brings together three rigorously designed studies from sub-Saharan Africa that examine how interventions targeting psychosocial wellbeing, life skills, and peer support contribute to broader outcomes aligned with the common good, including inclusion, resilience, and economic participation.

Papers and Methods:
The first paper evaluates a peer-delivered mental health intervention (ABCD Thinking Healthy Groups) among 400 adolescent girls and young women living with HIV in Zambia using a pre–post design with standardized measures of depression, anxiety, social support, and self-efficacy. The second paper uses longitudinal data from 1,809 youth in South Africa enrolled in eight employability programs, applying mixed-effects regression models over 36 months to assess how life and soft skills influence psychosocial outcomes. The third paper employs a quasi-experimental, matched comparison design with 661 youth in Ghana to estimate the impact of an integrated livelihoods program (REAP) on psychosocial wellbeing and economic behaviors using difference-in-differences and mediation analyses.

Collectively, these studies employ rigorous quantitative and mixed-methods approaches—including longitudinal modeling, quasi-experimental designs, and standardized psychosocial measures—to generate actionable evidence across diverse populations and intervention models.

Key Findings:
Across all three studies, psychosocial wellbeing emerges as a central mechanism linking interventions to broader outcomes. In Zambia, peer-delivered support significantly reduced depression, anxiety, and stress while increasing social support and self-efficacy. In South Africa, program features emphasizing life and soft skills and alignment with employment opportunities were associated with sustained improvements in self-esteem and self-efficacy over time. In Ghana, integrated interventions that combined psychosocial support with economic strengthening produced significant gains in self-efficacy, social capital, and entrepreneurial confidence, which in turn mediated improvements in income and livelihood outcomes.

Despite variation in context and intervention design, findings converge on a common insight: psychosocial capacities—confidence, agency, social connectedness—are not secondary outcomes but foundational drivers of inclusion and participation.

Implications for Social Work Research and Practice:
Together, these papers advance a unifying argument that rigorous social work research must center human capabilities as essential to the common good. By integrating mental health, life skills, and economic interventions, the studies demonstrate how programs can move beyond narrow sectoral goals to foster agency, resilience, and sustained engagement in social and economic systems.

For practice and policy, the findings highlight the need to design interventions that intentionally build psychosocial wellbeing alongside economic opportunity. For research, the symposium illustrates the value of rigorous, contextually grounded methodologies in identifying mechanisms of change that promote equity and inclusion.

Collectively, this body of work positions psychosocial wellbeing as a cornerstone of democratic participation and underscores the role of social work research in generating evidence that advances inclusive, sustainable development globally.