item indicators developed by us, informed by a review of previous surveys with adolescent girls. Education aspirations are measured by asking what level of education girls would like to complete assuming no constraints. Labor market aspirations are measured by asking unmarried girls whether they would like to have a paid job after marriage and asking all girls what they would like to be doing five to ten years from the time of the interview.

The key socio-emotional variables that we consider are self-efficacy, depression and hope. Self-efficacy is measured using the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), a 10item global measure of self-efficacy, which measures optimistic self-beliefs in one’s ability to cope with difficult demands and achieve objectives (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995).<sup>2</sup> Example items include, “I can manage to solve difficult problems if I try hard enough” and “it is easy for me to stick to my goals and reach them.” Responses involved a Likert-style scale of five options ranging from “never” to “very often.” Answers given to these 10 items are aggregated into a standardized z-score for use in our regression analysis. For mental health, we used the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), a 9- item screening tool for symptoms of depression and anxiety (Kroenke & Spitzer, 2002). Respondents were asked to indicate how often they felt bothered by certain problems over the last two weeks and had four response options ranging from “not at all” to “nearly every day.” Example items include, “Little interest or pleasure in doing things” and “feeling down, depressed, or hopeless.” Answers to these 9 items are aggregated into a standardized z-score for use in our regression analysis. Hope is measured with a three-item scale developed by the Child Trends Positive Indicator Project (Lippman et al., 2014). Example items include, “I expect good things to happen to me” and “I am excited about my future.” Response options were the same as those used for selfefficacy. Answers to these three items are aggregated into a standardized z-score for use in our regression analysis.

In order to mitigate the known problems of using Likert-style response options with low-literacy and non-Western populations (Church, 2010), the survey included piloted visual aids that increased respondents’ comprehension and response times. The multiitem standardized scales all demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency for the Jharkhand survey sample of girls ages 15-24 (Cronbach’s α = 0.89 for GSES, 0.78 for PHQ-9, and 0.84 for hope). The present study utilizes data only for the sample of respondents ages 15-24, as validity of some psychosocial instruments used for younger girls was unknown and suspect and therefore key measures for this study were not used with these girls. The remaining sample was 2,425.

We also collected data on the adolescents’ social support and networks. We assess positive connectedness of the adolescent to local adults and to schools using brief items developed by Blum and Ireland (2004). Drawing on the Nepal Adolescent Girls Employment Initiative trial baseline items (Chakravarty et al., 2015), the survey also asks about sources of support for different types of problems.

We also collected data on several variables at the household level, including rural/urban location, caste status, religion, gender of head (male/female), primary language,

> 2 This study used the National Institutes of Health Toolbox adapted and validated version (CAT Ages 8-12) of the GSES given simpler language for a young sample population with generally low literacy. The version was retrieved from <u>http://www.nihtoolbox.org/WhatAndWhy/Emotion/Pages/default.aspx.</u>

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