Open AccessHelped into Harm
Author(s) -
Kara E. Rudolph,
Catherine Gimbrone,
Iván Díaz
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.901
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1531-5487
pISSN - 1044-3983
DOI - 10.1097/ede.0000000000001334
Subject(s) - voucher , mental health , receipt , psychological intervention , mediation , mood , psychiatry , medicine , psychology , adolescent health , environmental health , randomized controlled trial , clinical psychology , world wide web , computer science , political science , law , business , nursing , accounting , surgery
Interventions can have harmful effects among subgroups they intend to help. The Moving To Opportunity experiment, in which families were randomized to receive a Section 8 housing voucher, was one example. Voucher receipt generally resulted in better long-term mental health and lower substance use and risk behavior outcomes among adolescent girls, but resulted in worse outcomes among adolescent boys. Reasons for this discrepancy and the unintended harmful health effects for boys are unclear. We used mediation analysis to estimate processes through which voucher receipt was hypothesized to affect adolescent mental health and substance use.