Professor Lucie Cluver

lucie cluver july 2020
Professor of Child and Family Social Work
01865 280370
lucie.cluver@spi.ox.ac.uk

Lucie Cluver is a Professor of Child and Family Social Work, in the Centre for Evidence-Based Social Intervention in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, and an Honorary Professor in Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. She works closely with the South African government, UNDP, USAID-PEPFAR, UNICEF, UNAIDS, Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, the World Health Organisation and with other international agencies, to provide evidence that can improve the lives of children and adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa.

PI Professor Cluver has an exceptional track record of impact, and in the past three years has been awarded the European Union Horizon 2020 Impact Award in 2019, the UNICEF Women Leaders in the HIV response for Children in 2018 and the ESRC Outstanding International Impact Prize in 2017. In 2019 she was recognised as one of UKRI’s 15 Women with Impact in Research. 

Lucie is lucky to work with an incredible and dedicated team of PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and colleagues. Together they lead large-scale longitudinal surveys and randomised controlled trials of interventions, combined with participatory qualitative research.

From February 2019, Lucie is the Principal Investigator for the new £20 million UKRI GCRF Accelerating Achievement for Africa's Adolescents Hub. Find out more here.

Research

The UKRI GCRF Accelerate Hub

The goal of this new research programme is to promote success for Africa’s adolescents, and the children of adolescent parents. The Hub works in 34 countries across Africa to identify effective services with synergies across multiple Sustainable Development Goals: ‘Accelerators’. It responds to requests from policymakers for evidence that helps them to make the best, cost-effective policies for their adolescents. Partners include the African Union Development Agency, UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, UNAIDS, & UN Women, regional NGOs providing direct services, and is led by 11 African and 3 UK research institutions. It works closely with adolescents themselves as co-leaders in design and impact. The Hub has a particular focus on capacity-sharing for early-career African academics (co-Directors Prof Lorraine Sherr, Prof Chris Desmond).   

Supporting parents and preventing violence against children

Lucie co-leads the Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) Initiative – a collaboration between the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and academics to provide evidence-based non-commercialised child violence prevention programmes for LMIC. Since 2012, the PLH team has developed and tested programmes in randomised controlled trials in Southern Africa, Eastern Europe, the Philippines and Thailand. Since 2018 these programmes are They are now being scaled up in 25 countries across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, India and Latin America, and are available free on the WHO website. The PLH team is now working with implementing partners to pool data collected routinely across these locations so that we can better understand programme delivery and effectiveness at scale (co-leads Prof Cathy Ward, Prof Frances Gardner, Prof Mark Tomlinson, Dr Daniel Oliver, Dr Jamie Lachman, Dr Inge Wessels).

Preventing violence during COVID-19

Lucie Cluver's group leads a coalition of WHO, UNICEF, the Global Partnership to End Violence, USAID and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in co-developed open-source COVID-19 parenting resources, condensing evidence from our multiple RCTs of child abuse prevention programmes in Africa, Asia and Europe, which were started with ERC-supported PACCASA and continued with CAPITA and HEY BABY. Worksheets were endorsed by all collaborating agencies, and released onto the WHO and UNICEF COVID-19 websites, alongside a letter in The Lancet. In 7 weeks these child abuse prevention resources reached 34 million families in 178 countries. They have been translated into 100+ languages and disseminated by governments including Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Montenegro, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uganda, Vanuatu, and Vietnam. Social media includes reach to 12 million people through WHO’s WhatsApp system. 

Cash plus care for adolescents in Africa

Working with a dedicated team in close collaboration with policymakers, Lucie has pioneered research on ‘cash plus care’ – examining the impacts of social protection and psychosocial care on adolescent health. This has led to UNAIDS and UNICEF guidance and delivery of cash + care programs to an estimated 2.5 million children and adolescents in Southern and Eastern Africa (with Prof Mark Orkin, Prof Lorraine Sherr, Dr Mark Boyes, Dr Franziska Meinck).

Supporting success for adolescents living with HIV (Mzantsi Wakho) and young parents (HEY BABY)

With Dr Elona Toska (University of Cape Town), Lucie co-leads the first community-based large panel of HIV-positive adolescents and community controls, including 1500 adolescents in South Africa over four years, and integrating qualitative research led by Dr Rebecca Hodes (University of Cape Town).

Also with Dr Elona Toska, Lucie co-leads the first known longitudinal study in Africa to assess pathways to resilience amongst adolescent parent families living with and without HIV. This ongoing study includes 1,000+ adolescent parents and child dyads.

Previous work

Lucie has led major longitudinal studies: the ‘Young Carers Study’ (2008-2012, with Dr Mark Boyes) was the world’s largest study of risk and resilience amongst AIDS-affected children, including 6000 children with longitudinal follow-up in South Africa, the ‘Orphan Resilience Study’ (2005-2009 with Prof Frances Gardner) followed 1000 children over four years to identify impacts of orphanhood.

Recognition

The team’s work has won a number of awards, including a European Union Horizon 2020 Impact Award, European Union Council Conference Social Sciences and Humanities Impact Award (2019), ESRC Oxford University Excellence in Impact Award (2018), ESRC's Outstanding International Impact Prize (2017), the Philip Leverhulme Prize (2015), the International AIDS Society Young Investigator Award (2014), and the Discovery Clinical Excellence Award (2013). Prof Cluver was included in UKRI’s ‘Women with Impact’ (2019) and in UNICEF’s ‘Women at the heart of the HIV response for Children’ (2018).

Working together and promoting early-career authorship, they have published over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals including the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, the Lancet Global Health, BMJ Global Health, AIDS, JAIDS, J Child Psychiatry and Psychology, Social Science and Medicine, AIDS Care and Prevention Science.

This research has been generously supported by:

UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund, Medical Research Council (MRC), UK Department for International Development (DFID), UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) National Institutes of Health Research (NIHR), the Oak Foundation, European Research Council (ERC), the Nuffield Foundation, Research England, Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V., part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Leverhulme Trust, Evidence for HIV Prevention in Southern Africa (EHPSA), a UK aid programme managed by Mott MacDonald, the National Research Foundation (South Africa), UNICEF, USAID-PEPFAR, Ilifa Labantwana, the Claude Leon Foundation, the National Department of Social Development South Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the John Fell Fund, University of Oxford’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, Regional Inter-Agency Task Team for Children Affective by AIDS – Eastern and Southern Africa (RIATT-ESA), Gates Foundation, Wellspring Advisors, The Wellcome Trust, ELMA philanthropies, Rockefeller Foundation, HEARD at UKZN, the International AIDS Society through the CIPHER grant, FHI360, the University of Oxford’s’ Clarendon Scholarship Fund, HelpAge, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency,  South African National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund , UNFPA South Africa, The LEGO Foundation, COVID 19 Research Response Fund. Medical Sciences, HEFCE-GCRF Support Fund.

Selected publications

Cluver, L, Lachman, J, Sherr, L, Wessels, I, Krug, E, Rakotomalala, S, Blight, S, Hillis, S, Bachman, G, Green, O, Butchart, A, Tomlinson, M, Ward, C, Doubt, J, McDonald, K (2020) Parenting in a time of COVID-19. The Lancet. (letter) 

Toska, E, Cluver, L, Laurenzi, C, Zhou, S, Langwenya, N, Wittesaele, C, Sherr, L (in press) Reproductive aspirations, contraception use and dual protection among adolescent girls and young women: the effect of motherhood and HIV status. Journal of the International AIDS Society.

Sherr, L, Cluver, L, Desmond, C, Toska, E, Aber, L, Dhaliwal, M, Webb. D, Dugbazah, J (in press) A new vehicle to accelerate the UN Sustainable Development Goals’. Lancet Global Health (commentary). 

Steinert, J, Cluver, L et al (in press) Opening the Black Box: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Social and Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Changes in Financial Behaviour. Journal of Development Studies.  

Cluver, L, Orkin, M, Campeau, L, Toska, E, Sherr, L, Webb, D, Carlqvist, A (2019) Improving lives by accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals for adolescents living with HIV: a prospective analysis. The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. 3: 245-54.

Toska, E, Campeau, L, Cluver, L, Orkin, FM, Berezin, M, Sherr, L (2019) Dreams of an AIDS-free generation: Which supportive factors delay onset of adolescent sexual HIV-risk behaviours in South Africa. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 22 18-19.

Casale, M., Cluver, L., Pantelic, M., Toska, E., & Boyes, M. (2019). Suicidal thoughts and behaviour among South African adolescents living with HIV: can social support buffer the impact of stigma? Journal of Affective Disorders, 245, 82-90. Doi: 10.1016/J.JAD.2018.10.102 

Haghighat, R, Cluver, L, Bungane, N, Toska, E (2018) 90-90-48 The reality of viral suppression among ART-initiated adolescents in South Africa. Journal of the International AIDS society.21. 144-144.

Cluver, L., Meinck, F., Steinert, J., Shenderovich, Y., Doubt, J., Romero, R., Gardner, F. (2018) Parenting for Lifelong Health: A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of a non-commercialised parenting programme for adolescents and their families in South Africa. BMJ Global Health, 3:e000539 PMID:29564157

Cluver, L., Pantelic, M., Orkin, M., Toska, E., Medley, S., & Sherr, L. (2018). Sustainable Survival for adolescents living with HIV: do SDG‐aligned provisions reduce potential mortality risk? Journal of the International AIDS Society, 21(1, Suppl.):e25056 

Cluver, L., Pantelic, M., Toska, E., Orkin, M., Casale, M., Bungane, N., & Sherr, L. (2018). STACKing the odds for adolescent survival: Health service factors associated with retention in care and adherence amongst adolescents living with HIV in South Africa. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 21, e25176. PMID:30240121.

Cluver, L., Meinck, F., Toska, E., Orkin, F., M., Hodes, R., & Sherr, L. (2018). Multitype violence exposures and adolescent antiretroviral nonadherence in South Africa. AIDS, 32(8), 975-983  

Steinert, J., Cluver, L., Meinck, F., Doubt, J., & Vollmer, S. (2018). Household economic strengthening through financial and psychosocial programming: Evidence from a field experiment in South Africa. Journal of Development Economics, 134, 443-466. 

Oliveras, C., Cluver, L., Bernays, S., & Armstrong, A. (2018). Nothing About Us Without RIGHTS-Meaningful Engagement of Children and Youth: From Research Prioritization to Clinical Trials, Implementation Science, and Policy. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, 78(1, Suppl.), S27-S31   

Cluver, L., Meinck, F., Toska, E., Orkin, F. M. Hodes, R. Sherr, L. (2018). Violence exposure and adolescent antiretroviral non-adherence in South Africa. AIDS. 

Cluver, L, Pantelic, M, Orkin, M, Toska, E, Medley, S, Sherr, L (2018) Sustainable Survival: Which SDGs protect against mortality risk for adolescents living with HIV? Journal of the International AIDS Society.

Cluver, L., Pantelic, M., Orkin, M., Toska, E., Medley, S., & Sherr, L. (2018). Sustainable Survival for adolescents living with HIV: do SDG-aligned provisions reduce potential mortality risk?. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 21 Suppl 1. doi:10.1002/jia2.25056

Cluver LD, Meinck F, Steinert JI, et al. Parenting for Lifelong Health: a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of a non-commercialised parenting programme for adolescents and their families in South Africa. BMJ Glob Heal 2018;3.http://gh.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000539.abstract

Cluver, L., Meinck, F., Steinert, J., Shenderovich, Y., Doubt, J., Herrero Romero, R., . . . Gardner, F. (n.d.). Parenting for Lifelong Health: A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of a non-commercialised parenting programme for adolescents and their families in South Africa. BMJ Global Health.

Cluver, L., & Sherr, L. (2017). Integrating disclosure support into family HIV care.. The Lancet. HIV, 4(12), e534-e535. doi:10.1016/s2352-3018(17)30153-4

Cluver, L. D., Lachman, J. M., Ward, C. L., Gardner, F., Peterson, T., Hutchings, J. M., . . . Redfern, A. A. (2017). Development of a Parenting Support Program to Prevent Abuse of Adolescents in South Africa: Findings From a Pilot Pre-Post Study. Research on Social Work Practice, 27(7), 758-766. doi:10.1177/1049731516628647

Cluver, L. D., Orkin, F. M., Yakubovich, A. R., & Sherr, L. (2016). Combination Social Protection for Reducing HIV-Risk Behavior Among Adolescents in South Africa.. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (1999), 72(1), 96-104. doi:10.1097/qai.0000000000000938

Cluver, L. D., Lachman, J. M., Ward, C. L., Gardner, F., Peterson, T., Hutchings, J. M., . . . Redfern, A. A. (2017). Development of a Parenting Support Program to Prevent Abuse of Adolescents in South Africa. Research on Social Work Practice, 27(7), 758-766. doi:10.1177/1049731516628647

Cluver, L, Orkin, M, Boyes, M, Yakubovich, A, Sherr, L (2016) Can Social Protection Improve Sustainable Development Goals for Adolescent Health?. PLOSOne. 11(10): e0164808 

Cluver, L, Meinck, F, Shenderovich, Y, Ward, C, Herrero Romero, R, Redfern, A, Lombard, C, Doubt, J, Steinert, J, Catanho, R, Wittesaele, C, De Stone, S, Salah, N, Mpimpilashe, P, Lachman, J, Loening, H, Gardner, F, Blanc, D, Nocuza, M, Lechowicz, M (2016). A parenting programme to prevent abuse of adolescents in South Africa: a study protocol for a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial. Trials. 17. 328.

Cluver, L, Meinck, F, Yakubovich, A, Doubt, J, et al (2016). Reducing child abuse amongst adolescents in low- and middle-income countries: A pre-post trial in South Africa. BMC Public Health. 13;16(1):567 
Cluver, L, Orkin, M, Yakubovich, A, Sherr, L (2016). Combination social protection for reducing HIV-risk behaviour amongst adolescents in South Africa. JAIDS. 72: 96-104    

Cluver, L, Orkin, M, Meinck, F, Boyes, M and Sherr, L (2016). Structural drivers and social protection: Mechanisms of HIV-risk and HIV-prevention for South African adolescents. Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS). 19. 2064-6.    

Cluver, L, Toska, E, Orkin, M, Yakubovich, A, Hodes, R, Sherr, L (2016). Achieving equity in HIV-treatment outcomes: Can social protection improve adolescent ART-adherence in South Africa? AIDS Care Equity Special Issue. Suppl  2 73-82

Cluver, L, Hodes, R, Toska, E, Kidia, K, Orkin, M, Sherr, L, Meinck, F (2015). ‘HIV is like a tsotsi. ARVs are your guns’: Associations between HIV-disclosure and adherence to antiretroviral treatment among adolescents in South Africa. AIDS. 29. Suppl 1. S57-65. 

Cluver, L, Orkin, M, Boyes, Ma, Sherr, L (2014) Cash plus care: social protection cumulatively mitigates HIV-risk behaviour among adolescents in South Africa. AIDS. S389-97

Cluver, L, Boyes, Ma, Orkin, M, Pantelic, Mc, Molwena, T & Sherr, L (2013) Child-focused state cash transfers and adolescent HIV-infection risks: A prospective multi-site study in South Africa. The Lancet: Global Health. 1. E362-70

Cluver, L, Orkin, M, Boyes, Ma, Sherr, L, Nikelo, J & Makhasi, D (2013). Pathways from parental AIDS to child psychological, educational and sexual risk: Developing an empirically-based interactive theoretical model. Social Science and Medicine, 87. 185-193

Cluver, L, Orkin, M, Boyes, Ma & Gardner, F (2012) ‘AIDS-orphanhood and caregiver HIV/AIDS sickness status: effects on psychological symptoms in South African youth’ Journal of Pediatric Psychology

Cluver, L, Orkin, M, Boyes,a M & Gardner, F (2012) Persisting mental health problems among AIDS-orphaned children in South Africa. Journal of Child Psychiatry & Psychology. 53 (4) 363-370.

Cluver, L, Orkin, M, Boyes, Ma, Gardner, F, & Meinck, Fc (2011) ‘Transactional Sex amongst AIDS-orphaned and AIDS-Affected Adolescents Predicted by Abuse and Extreme Poverty’. JAIDS 58 (3) 336-43   

Cluver, L, Bowes, L & Gardner, F (2010) Risk & protective factors for bullying victimisation amongst AIDS-affected & vulnerable children in S.Africa. Child Abuse & Neglect, 34 793-803 

Cluver, L, Gardner, F & Operario, D (2007). Psychological distress amongst AIDS-orphaned children in urban South Africa Journal of Child Psychiatry & Psychology & Allied Disciplines 48(8) 755-763
 

Oxford Research Archive

  • Moderators of Treatment Effects in a Child Maltreatment Prevention Programme in South Africa

    2020
    |
    Journal article
    |
    Child Abuse and Neglect

  • AIDSImpact 2019 special issue - Promises to keep and miles to go … .

    2020
    |
    Journal article
    |
    AIDS Care

  • Multiple forms of discrimination and internalized stigma compromise retention in HIV care among adolescents: findings from a South African cohort.

    2020
    |
    Journal article
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    J Int AIDS Soc
    INTRODUCTION: Efficacious antiretroviral treatment (ART) enables people to live long and healthy lives with HIV but young people are dying from AIDS-related causes more than ever before. Qualitative evidence suggest that various forms of HIV-related discrimination and resulting shame act as profound barriers to young people's engagement with HIV services. However, the impact of these risks on adolescent retention in HIV care has not been quantified. This study has two aims: (1) to examine whether and how different types of discrimination compromise retention in care among adolescents living with HIV in South Africa; and (2) to test whether internalized stigma mediates these relationships. METHODS: Between 2014 and 2017, adolescents living with HIV (aged 10 to 19) from 53 health facilities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, were interviewed at baseline (n = 1059) and 18-month follow-up (n = 979, 92.4%), with responses linked to medical records. Data were analysed through multiple regression and mediation models. RESULTS: About 37.9% of adolescents reported full retention in care over the 2-year period, which was associated with reduced odds of viral failure (OR: 0.371; 95% CI: .224, .614). At baseline, 6.9% of adolescents reported discrimination due to their HIV status; 14.9% reported discrimination due to HIV in their families and 19.1% reported discrimination in healthcare settings. Healthcare discrimination was associated with reduced retention in care both directly (effect: -0.120; CI: -0.190, -0.049) and indirectly through heightened internalized stigma (effect: 0.329; 95% CI: 0.129, 0.531). Discrimination due to family HIV was associated with reduced retention in care both directly (effect: -0.074, CI: -0.146, -0.002) and indirectly through heightened internalized stigma (effect: 0.816, CI: 0.494, 1.140). Discrimination due to adolescent HIV was associated with reduced retention in care only indirectly, through increased internalized stigma (effect: 0.408; CI: 0.102, 0.715). CONCLUSIONS: Less than half of adolescents reported 2-year retention in HIV care. Multiple forms of discrimination and the resultant internalized stigma contributed to this problem. More intervention research is urgently needed to design and test adolescent-centred interventions so that young people living with HIV can live long and healthy lives in the era of efficacious anti-retroviral treatment.
    HIV, adherence, adolescent, discrimination, retention, stigma

  • Parenting in a time of COVID-19.

    2020
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    Journal article
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    Lancet
    Adolescent, Betacoronavirus, Child, Child Abuse, Coronavirus Infections, Cost of Illness, Humans, Pandemics, Parent-Child Relations, Parenting, Pneumonia, Viral, Social Change

  • Parenting for Lifelong Health for Young Children: a randomized controlled trial of a parenting program in South Africa to prevent harsh parenting and child conduct problems.

    2020
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    Journal article
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    Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines
    BACKGROUND:Parenting programs suitable for delivery at scale in low-resource contexts are urgently needed. We conducted a randomized trial of Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) for Young Children, a low-cost 12-session program designed to increase positive parenting and reduce harsh parenting and conduct problems in children aged 2-9. METHODS:Two hundred and ninety-six caregivers, whose children showed clinical levels of conduct problems (Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory Problem Score, >15), were randomly assigned using a 1:1 ratio to intervention or control groups. At t0 , and at 4-5 months (t1 ) and 17 months (t2 ) after randomization, research assistants blind to group assignment assessed (through caregiver self-report and structured observation) 11 primary outcomes: positive parenting, harsh parenting, and child behavior; four secondary outcomes: parenting stress, caregiver depression, poor monitoring/supervision, and social support. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02165371); Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (PACTR201402000755243); Violence Prevention Trials Register (http://www.preventviolence.info/Trials?ID=24). RESULTS:Caregivers attended on average 8.4 sessions. After adjustment for 30 comparisons, strongest results were as follows: at t1 , frequency of self-reported positive parenting strategies (10% higher in the intervention group, p = .003), observed positive parenting (39% higher in the intervention group, p = .003), and observed positive child behavior (11% higher in the intervention group, p = .003); at t2, both observed positive parenting and observed positive child behavior were higher in the intervention group (24%, p = .003; and 17%, p = .003, respectively). Results with p-values < .05 prior to adjustment were as follows: At t1 , the intervention group self-reported 11% fewer child problem behaviors, 20% fewer problems with implementing positive parenting strategies, and less physical and psychological discipline (28% and 14% less, respectively). There were indications that caregivers reported 20% less depression but 7% more parenting stress at t1 . Group differences were nonsignificant for observed negative child behavior, and caregiver-reported child behavior, poor monitoring or supervision, and caregiver social support. CONCLUSIONS:PLH for Young Children shows promise for increasing positive parenting and reducing harsh parenting.

  • Pesky metrics: the challenges of measuring ART adherence among HIV-positive adolescents in South Africa

    2020
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    Journal article
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    Critical Public Health

  • Consistent Provisions Mitigate Exposure to Sexual Risk and HIV Among Young Adolescents in South Africa.

    2020
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    Journal article
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    AIDS and behavior
    Exposure to sexual risk in early adolescence strongly predicts HIV infection, yet evidence for prevention in young adolescents is limited. We pooled data from two longitudinal South African surveys, with adolescents unexposed to sexual risk at baseline (n = 3662). Multivariable logistic regression tested associations between intermittent/consistent access to eight provisions and reduced sexual risk exposure. Participants were on average 12.8 years, 56% female at baseline. Between baseline and follow-up, 8.6% reported sexual risk exposure. Consistent access to caregiver supervision (OR 0.53 95%CI 0.35-0.80 p = 0.002), abuse-free homes (OR 0.55 95%CI 0.37-0.81 p = 0.002), school feeding (OR 0.55 95%CI 0.35-0.88 p = 0.012), and HIV prevention knowledge (OR 0.43, 95%CI 0.21-0.88 p = 0.021) was strongly associated with preventing early sexual risk exposure. While individual factors reduced the odds of sexual risk exposure, a combination of all four resulted in a greater reduction, from 12.9% (95%CI 7.2-18.7) to 1.0% (95%CI 0.2-1.8). Consistent access to provisions in early adolescence may prevent sexual risk exposure among younger adolescents.

  • Modelling the impact of maternal HIV on uninfected children: correcting current estimates.

    2020
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    Journal article
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    AIDS Care
    A mathematical model, populated primarily with data from South Africa, was developed to model the numbers of children affected by maternal HIV, and the number who will experience long-term negative developmental consequences. A micro-simulation model generated two scenarios. The first simulated a cohort of women whose HIV status mimicked that of a target population, and mother-child dyads by way of age- and disease-specific fertility rates. Factors defining risk were used to characterize the simulated environment. The second scenario simulated mother-child dyads without maternal HIV. In the first scenario an estimated 26% of children are orphaned, compared to 10% in the absence of HIV. And a further 19% of children whose mother is alive when they turn 18 are affected by maternal HIV. School drop-out among all children increased by 4 percentage points because of maternal HIV, similarly population level estimates of abuse and negative mental health outcomes are elevated. Relative to HIV unaffected children, HIV affected have elevated risk of poor outcomes, however not all will suffer long-term negative consequences. Interventions to protect children should target the proportion of children at risk, while interventions to mitigate harm should target the smaller proportion of children who experience long-term negative outcomes..
    Children affected by HIV, micro-simulation, modelling, orphans

  • Opening the Black Box: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Social and Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Changes in Financial Behaviour

    2020
    |
    Journal article
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    The Journal of Development Studies

  • Factors That Protect Children From Community Violence: Applying the INSPIRE Model to a Sample of South African Children.

    2020
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    Journal article
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    J Interpers Violence
    Community violence is a prevalent form of interpersonal violence in South Africa for children living in low-income areas. Trauma arising from violence exposure is of concern in contexts where access to treatment is often unattainable. As simultaneous multisectoral strategies show higher potential to counter interpersonal violence than single interventions, the World Health Organization with partners created INSPIRE. INSPIRE takes an integrated approach coordinated across formal and informal settings of civil and private society. Responding to research paucity on methods that counter community violence in LMIC settings, this study employed a cross-sectional correlational design consisting of a sample of 2,477 children aged 10 to 17 years from the Young Carers 2009-2010 study conducted in a low-income, HIV-endemic province of South Africa highly affected by community violence. Multiple logistic regressions assessed individual and dose associations between four INSPIRE-based violence prevention strategies-positive parenting, basic necessities, formal social support, and school structural support-and direct and indirect community violence outcomes. Three strategies had significant associations with community violence outcomes: necessities (direct p < .001; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = .57; indirect p < .01; AOR = .62), formal support (direct p < .05; AOR = .83; indirect p < .05; AOR = .73), and school support (direct p < .001; AOR = .53; indirect p < .001; AOR = .49). Combined interventions in direct and indirect community violence analyses demonstrated that children reporting a higher number of strategies were less likely to have experienced community violence. This outcome extends the results of longitudinal studies in South Africa highlighting social protection with care as a means to overcome structural deprivation strains, thereby reducing the likelihood of children's exposure to community violence. Moreover, these findings uphold the INSPIRE model as an effective cross-sectoral approach to prevent and reduce the community violence that children experience.
    community violence, cultural contexts, homicide, violence exposure, youth violence
    • More
CV

Lucie Cluver - CV (May 2020)

Current projects

For information about new project 'Hey Baby', please go here.

Completed projects
Previous students

Lucie's previous DPhil students have gone on to be successful in academia, policy and practice:

  • Caroline Kuo (2010) - is an Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University
  • Lena Saleh (2012) - is the Director of Program Planning in HIV Prevention in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
  • Tyler Lane (2013) - is a research fellow in the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research at Monash University
  • Franziska Meinck (2014) - is a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Evidence-Based Interventions at Oxford
  • Beth Vale (2015) - is a researcher in humanities at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA)
  • Jamie Lachman (2016) - is a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre for Evidence-Based Interventions at Oxford
  • Elona Toska (2017) -  is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cape Town
Supervision

Lucie is interested in supervising students who are absolutely dedicated to improving outcomes for children and young people in Africa. She is not interested in research without real impact. A really good grasp of statistics and teamwork are essential. She especially welcomes students from the African region.

Current students
News