“Talking helps reduce pressure” MHPSS Insights and Perspectives from Participatory Workshops with Displaced Female Youth in the Kurdistan Region of the Republic of Iraq (KRI)

“Talking helps reduce pressure” is a follow-on to a joint research endeavor between Save the Children Denmark and Tufts University FIC’s research program Early Marriage Among Female Youth in Displacement.

The new study builds on the findings from the briefing The Cost of Being Female: Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) of Displaced Female Youth in South Sudan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This briefing started to unpack the MHPSS needs and challenges faced by adolescent girls and young women in displacement in connection with factors such as marital and motherhood status.

However, the briefing did not map out formal and informal sources of support, nor did it test solutions identified by the girls themselves. It was indicated that female youth in conflict have pressing MHPSS needs, and that their needs differ greatly depending on their marital status, and they have little access to formal MHPSS resources.

The objective of the new study is to support female youth in identifying and prioritizing the main mental health issues they face in relation to their experiences with early marriage, to describe which informal and formal coping strategies they rely on, and to point to potential solutions.