Data and Code for: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Among Ghana’s Rural Poor Is Effective Regardless of Baseline Mental Distress

We study the impact of group-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for individuals selected from the general population of poor households in rural Ghana (N=7,227). Results from 1-3 months after the program show strong impacts on mental and perceived physical health, cognitive and socioemotional skills, and economic self-perceptions. These effects hold regardless of baseline mental distress. We argue that this is because CBT can improve well-being for a general population of poor individuals through two pathways: reducing vulnerability to deteriorating mental health, and directly increasing cognitive capacity and socioemotional skills.

This project folder contains the data and code needed to replicate the results in this paper. Low-income adults in Northern, Upper East, Ashanti, Bono and Bono East regions of Ghana, between the ages of 18 and 65. Data was collected by Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) for the randomized evaluation data, and by the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research at the University of Ghana, Legon, for the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey data. Full details of sampling are described in Appendix A.