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Young people, mental health, and civil conflict: Preliminary findings from Ethiopia's Tigray region

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Article number100025
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>31/03/2022
<mark>Journal</mark>Psychiatry Research Communications
Issue number1
Volume2
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date2/02/22
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

We examine the association between mental health and violent conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Two longitudinal phone-surveys (08/2020-10/2020; 11/2020-01/2021) interviewed 122 young people in Tigray. We use t-tests for the difference in means outcomes between calls to investigate how their mental health evolved before and after the outbreak of conflict (11/2020). Post-outbreak rates of anxiety (34%) were three times higher than 2-3 months before. Similarly, rates of depression increased significantly from 16% to 25%. Males experienced greater increases in anxiety, females in depression. Mental health issues have likely worsened further during the ongoing conflict, making mental health support urgently needed.