Journal article
The psychological well-being of children orphaned by AIDS in Cape Town, South Africa
- Abstract:
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Background: An estimated 2 million children are parentally bereaved by AIDS in South Africa. Little is known about mental health outcomes for this group.
Methods: This study aimed to investigate mental health outcomes for urban children living in deprived settlements in Cape Town. 30 orphaned children and 30 matched controls were compared using standardised questionnaires (SDQ) on emotional and behavioural problems, peer and attention difficulties, and prosocial behaviour. The orphan group completed a modified version of a standardised questionnaire (IES-8), measuring Post-Traumatic Stress symptoms. Group differences were tested using t-tests and Pearson's chi-square.
Results: Both groups scored highly for peer problems, emotional problems and total scores. However, orphans were more likely to view themselves as having no good friends (p=.002), to have marked concentration difficulties (p=.03), and to report frequent somatic symptoms (p=.05), but were less likely to display anger through loss of temper (p=.03). Orphans were more likely to have constant nightmares (p=.01), and 73% scored above the cut-off for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Conclusion: Findings suggest important areas for larger-scale research for parentally-bereaved children.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Version of record, bin, 281.0KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1186/1744-859X-5-8
Authors
- Publisher:
- BioMed Central
- Journal:
- Annals of General Psychiatry More from this journal
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 8
- Publication date:
- 2006-07-01
- Edition:
- Publisher's version
- DOI:
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Subjects:
- UUID:
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uuid:01ce4872-5a5c-4e1f-8643-fa3b16e33762
- Local pid:
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ora:5689
- Deposit date:
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2011-09-09
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Cluver and Gardner
- Copyright date:
- 2006
- Notes:
- © 2006 Cluver and Gardner; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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