ABSTRACT
In the Philippines, community health workers (CHWs) face psychosocial difficulties as they deliver health services to communities with limited access to healthcare, yet they receive no support for their well-being. To maintain their psychological strengths, we adapted the Locus-of-Hope Enhancement Program (LEAP), a positive intervention that strengthens hope of CHWs from urban-poor communities in Metro Manila. Using a double-blind, parallel randomized alternative-treatments experiment, LEAP’s effects on locus-of-hope and other psychological resources across three time-points were tested in Manila. Group contrast estimates indicate improvements in external-peer and family locus-of-hope, and psychological well-being. LEAP boosted external-peer and family locus-of-hope after 1 month via peer and family hope at posttreatment. LEAP also increased psychological well-being, civic engagement attitudes, and behaviors posttreatment, and civic engagement attitudes at follow-up through peer locus-of-hope at posttreatment. Findings suggest how LEAP empowers CHWs from urban-poor communities by fortifying hope, thus sustaining their role in community health.
Trial Registration: Open Science Framework (OSF) Registries (https://osf.io/egtju)