Chakrabarti Averi, Handa Sudhanshu, Angeles Gustavo, Seidenfeld David
Department of Global Health and Population, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, 90 Smith Street, Boston, MA 02120.
Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH).
World Dev. 2020 Oct;134. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105037. Epub 2020 Jul 1.
Violence against children and adolescents, a highly prevalent problem, is a clear violation of child rights and has detrimental effects on later life outcomes. Programs that alleviate poverty address a structural determinant of child vulnerability and can thereby reduce child abuse. This paper investigates whether the Government of Zimbabwe's Harmonized Social Cash Transfer (HSCT) Program, which combines cash transfers with complementary services, affects youth exposure to physical violence. The analysis uses data from a non-experimental impact evaluation and a difference-in-differences approach. Results show a 19-percentage point decline in the incidence of physical violence among youth four years into the program. HSCT-induced enhancements in beneficiary households' purchasing capacity and food security, improvements in caregiver subjective well-being, and reductions in youth participation in economic work for pay could be mediating the program's effects on youth abuse. This paper adds to the relatively scarce evidence on the impacts of anti-poverty policies on young people's susceptibility to physical violence in developing countries.
暴力侵害儿童和青少年是一个非常普遍的问题,这明显侵犯了儿童权利,并对其未来生活产生不利影响。缓解贫困的项目解决了儿童易受伤害的一个结构性决定因素,从而可以减少虐待儿童的现象。本文研究了津巴布韦政府的统一社会现金转移支付(HSCT)项目(该项目将现金转移与补充服务相结合)是否会影响青少年遭受身体暴力的情况。分析使用了来自非实验性影响评估的数据和差分法。结果显示,在该项目实施四年后,青少年遭受身体暴力的发生率下降了19个百分点。HSCT带来的受益家庭购买力和粮食安全的提升、照料者主观幸福感的改善以及青少年从事有偿经济工作的参与度降低,可能在调解该项目对青少年虐待行为的影响。本文补充了相对稀缺的关于发展中国家反贫困政策对年轻人遭受身体暴力易感性影响的证据。