Event Report: Can schooling decrease HIV infection among Malawian teenagers? Survey and experimental evidence
Özler, Baird and McIntosh Outline Their Research Project to Students and Faculty
Oct 19, 2007
By Lesley Pettigrew
At a full-capacity lunch event on October 18th, Visiting Scholar Berk Özler, CPE Postgraduate Scholar Sarah Baird and Professor Craig McIntosh presented their latest research project to IR/PS students and faculty.
The project is funded in part by a CPE research grant and is interested in looking at the impact of staying in school on HIV rates among young rural women in Malawi. The researchers explained the process of designing the study, and described the pitfalls and challenges they have faced so far. For this research, conditional cash transfers will be used to encourage young women who have recently dropped out of high school and are unmarried to return to school. The cash transfers will also be used to encourage other young women to stay in school. The researchers hope to see what difference the cash transfers have on schooling rates, and then to see what effect staying in school has on HIV rates.
Özler and Baird recently went to Malawi to begin the research process. The first stage of the process was surveying households to identify young women who fit the research parameters. Preliminary results of the surveys have already resulted in a refining of the research design. For example, one group the researchers were hoping to track was young women who remained unmarried some months after dropping out of school. Initial surveys showed that there were basically no young women who remained unmarried a significant amount of time after dropping out of school, so the research design was adjusted to reflect that reality.
After the thought-provoking and informative presentation, students and faculty engaged the researchers in a lively discussion.
Click here to listen to a podcast of the event.
The project is funded in part by a CPE research grant and is interested in looking at the impact of staying in school on HIV rates among young rural women in Malawi. The researchers explained the process of designing the study, and described the pitfalls and challenges they have faced so far. For this research, conditional cash transfers will be used to encourage young women who have recently dropped out of high school and are unmarried to return to school. The cash transfers will also be used to encourage other young women to stay in school. The researchers hope to see what difference the cash transfers have on schooling rates, and then to see what effect staying in school has on HIV rates.
Özler and Baird recently went to Malawi to begin the research process. The first stage of the process was surveying households to identify young women who fit the research parameters. Preliminary results of the surveys have already resulted in a refining of the research design. For example, one group the researchers were hoping to track was young women who remained unmarried some months after dropping out of school. Initial surveys showed that there were basically no young women who remained unmarried a significant amount of time after dropping out of school, so the research design was adjusted to reflect that reality. After the thought-provoking and informative presentation, students and faculty engaged the researchers in a lively discussion.
Click here to listen to a podcast of the event.
