Short Abstract:

Short abstract is the same as the long abstract (it is short as the results are forthcoming)

Long Abstract:

On February 1st, 2021, the Burmese military staged a violent military coup in Myanmar, driving the country into social, political, and economic turmoil. At present, an estimated 26,202 people have been arrested since the coup, and an estimated 4,603 have been killed in relation to the conflict (AAPPB, 2024). The UN now estimates that 18.6 million people in Myanmar need humanitarian support (OCHA, 2023).

The health, safety and overall wellbeing of adolescents across Myanmar have been adversely impacted both directly and indirectly from the ongoing conflict. For example, access to education, social support systems, and safe work have broken down, and adolescents’ physical and mental health have suffered as a result (Mendelson, 2022). Moreover, many non-governmental organisations and vital health and social care services have been restricted or removed, exacerbating the negative impact of the crisis on the health and wellbeing of adolescents and young people across Myanmar.

Although reliable evidence for this is limited, anecdotal evidence suggests that the conflict is disproportionately impacting the health and well-being of women and girls. Our recent qualitative research with a sample of adolescent girls and young women from low socioeconomic populations in urban and peri-urban settings across Myanmar found that the recent conflict was negatively impacting key dimensions of wellbeing. Most prominently, the participants expressed that the conflict was negatively affecting their mental health due to the reduction in access to education and increased family separation (Pearson et al., forthcoming). This previous qualitative research provided the conceptual framework needed for this current study, which aims to quantitatively assess the impact of exposure to conflict on key dimensions of the wellbeing of adolescent girls and young women from low socioeconomic populations from five regions across Myanmar.

In partnership with the local NGO Girl Determined, we conducted an in-person cross-sectional survey with 750 girls aged 12 to 18 years across Myanmar in the period of November to December 2023. This quantitative survey collected data on demographic information, conflict exposure, and the key wellbeing dimensions identified in the previous qualitative research. These dimensions of wellbeing included mental health, access to education, family separation, conflict-related injuries, agency, empowerment, hope, gender-based violence and gender-inequitable parenting. The data will be analysed using descriptive statistics and regression analyses will be conducted to test for associations between exposure to conflict and the key wellbeing outcomes. This analysis is currently ongoing and is set to be completed by early spring 2024.

Keywords: adolescents, mental health, conflict