Abstract for: What makes children in Afghanistan resilient? Evidence from an ecological analysis of mental wellbeing causal loop diagrams

The change of regime in Afghanistan, replacing the Afghan Islamic Republic by an Islamic Emirate is bound to have an important impact on child mental health through multiple channels. Literature has shown the negative effects of earlier crises, without remedial action, particularly for vulnerable children and girls, including a high risk of school dropout, early marriage or pregnancy, displacement, child labour and poor health. Methods We implemented in 40 schools of three provinces of Afghanistan (Badakhshan, Ghazni, Takhar) a series of group model building workshops looking at factors influencing child happiness, including environmental, sociocultural, and resource barriers related to common mental health disorders, in particular depressive symptoms, anxiety, chronic stress, post-traumatic stress disorders PTSD. We investigated the complex barriers to child happiness and increased risk of common mental health disorders from the perspective of separate groups of children, teachers and parents via Community Based System Dynamics (CBSD) methods [15]. In the CBSD workshops, participants work together to construct a diagram of the dynamic system to define links between factors influencing child happiness. Participants identified solutions to reduce common mental disorders risk and where in the system they could leverage the structure to improve child happiness.