Children’s schooling experiences and child hope in South Sudan

Abstract

The study aims to understand corporal violence in schools among students 10–20 in a conflict-affected community in South Sudan, and how violence, mental health, and perception of safety influence hope using baseline data from a school wellbeing training evaluation. In univariate logistic regressions, child hope was significantly associated with perception of safety (β = 0.10, p < 0.001) and mental health (β = -0.04, p < 0.001), and association with past-week violence was significant but mixed (emotional: β = -0.10, p = 0.006; physical: β = 0.13, p = 0.004). Girls had significantly lower hope overall. Child hope is influenced by experiences and environments both within and outside of school, and girls may be particularly vulnerable to external factors. Resilience may explain the relationship between violence and hope.