Transcript Correlation Between Faith and Risky Behavior in OVC Population

Correlation Between
Faith and Risky
Behavior in OVC
Population
Catholic Relief Services
Tanzania
May 5, 2008
Do faith values matter?
Is this a quality of life area that
should be considered?
Or
Is Religiosity in OVC Protective
Against Risky Behaviors?
Problem Statement
There is a suggestion that
religiosity or attitudes and
behaviors that come from
being socialized in a religious
community, serve to protect
OVC from undesirable
outcomes.
Many OVC support programs in subSaharan Africa who incorporate faith
values in their prevention programs
rely on anecdotal accounts of the
extent of protection afforded by the
participation in an active religious
community.
2007 OVC Evaluation
Design and Method

Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and
Haiti.

Education, health, nutrition, HIV education,
religiosity, and overall quality of life.

Examined the vulnerability of children to
adverse outcomes by background
characteristics so that the CRS programs
target OVC at higher risks.
Design/Methods
OVC aged 13-17 and guardians of OVC
aged 7-12.
 Random selection of 225 respondents from
each group.
 A two-stage sampling approach was adopted
using PPS.
 Rwanda and Tanzania included control
groups of OVC.

Results

Over 90% of OVC 13-17 and guardians
of OVC 7-12, stated that “faith in God
helps me”.

Risky behavior, which includes sexual
activity, alcohol consumption, and drug
use, were all less commonly reported by
OVC that regularly attended religious
services.
Results

Kenya was the only country where religious
attendees did not uniformly report less risky
behaviors than their counterparts.

The oldest (15-17) Kenyan OVC and
younger (13-14) OVC from Tanzania were
significantly less likely to have engaged in
sexual activity if they attended religious
services regularly.
Results

Older OVC from Haiti and Rwanda that
attended religious services regularly were
significantly less likely to consume alcohol.

Rwandan OVC that did not attend religious
services regularly were significantly more
likely to report drug use.
Conclusions and Application to
Improve Implementation

The study demonstrates the perceived
importance of religion and the possible
contribution of faith to well-being of OVC .

Religiosity is consistently associated with the
positive outcome variables used in this analysis.
Whether it is OVC assisted by CRS or OVC from
the control group, the children that attend
religious services regularly are doing better than
the children who do not.
Actions Taken
Based on these findings the program
implementers have reassessed and where
appropriate, modified the OVC lifeskills
curricula to include faith values.
 The findings also suggest the potential
importance of incorporating spiritual wellbeing as a domain in OVC quality of life
assessments tools such as the CSI.
