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Paper short abstract

This paper analyses how disability and psychosocial vulnerabilities shape wellbeing in Ugandan households. Digital inclusion can reduce wellbeing inequalities and partially buffer the negative effects of psychosocial vulnerabilities, though these benefits vary across minoritised subgroups.

Paper long abstract

Promoting wellbeing has become central to rethinking development and social justice, particularly in contexts marked by persistent inequality, exclusion and limited social protection. Using nationally representative data from Uganda, this paper contributes to these debates by employing inequality indices and hierarchical regressions to examine how disability and social inclusion shape wellbeing in households.

Findings show that households containing a person with a disability experience substantially higher wellbeing inequality, potentially reflecting exposure to disability-related stigma and isolation. Psychosocial vulnerabilities, proxied by perceived discrimination and feeling unsafe, are strongly associated with lower wellbeing, particularly for women and caregivers, highlighting the role of favourable social environments in promoting wellbeing.

The paper also considers digital inclusion (proxied by access to mobile communication technologies) as a socially embedded input into health and wellbeing systems, shaping exposure to social and psychosocial vulnerabilities where formal systems of care and protection remain constrained. Regular mobile phone access is associated with higher average wellbeing and partially attenuates vulnerability-related wellbeing penalties. However, these benefits are uneven and considerably weaker among households facing intersecting disadvantages, highlighting the limits of informal and technology-mediated resources without robust public provision.

By centring wellbeing and psychosocial vulnerability, the paper contributes to debates on social justice, public health, and development by foregrounding dimensions of inequality often overlooked in policy design. It argues that reimagining development requires greater attention to the distribution of wellbeing within households and the everyday conditions shaping people’s capacity to live well (favourable social environments), rather than relying solely on aggregate economic/income-based factors.