Introduction
depression
There are over 800 million inhabitants of informal settlements globally [People living in informal settlements are highly vulnerable to the overlapping issues of poor mental health and intimate partner violence (IPV), partly due to limited income and high rates of unemployment [There is a strong relationship between men’s perpetration of IPV and depression, with studies reporting that men with depression are more likely to perpetrate IPV against their female partner, compared to men without depression [Given the link between poor mental health and IPV perpetration, there is an increasing focus on whether and how IPV prevention interventions targeting young men, may be mediated through mental health pathways. There is also limited knowledge regarding how potential interventions may improve the mental health of men in urban informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa, in spite of the high incidence of IPV in these locations [The combined Stepping Stones and Creating Futures (SS/CF) intervention was designed to address IPV perpetration in young adults aged 18–30 years living in urban informal settlements in South Africa [