PREVALENCE AND PREDICTORS OF PSYCHOSOCIAL OUTCOMES AMONGST SOCIOECONOMICALLY DEPRIVED PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN A RURAL SETTING IN SOUTH AFRICA: THE ROLE OF ECOLOGICAL FACTORS
A large number of children can be exposed to various harsh conditions in middle and low-income nations placing them at possible risk of psychological issues. However, there is a scarcity of research using huge representative associates evaluating the psychological amendment in children in school environment in these rural areas. Children’s psychological amendment has been revealed to affect educational progression which is essential for their future. This research, based in a rural, social-economically deprived region of South Africa, aimed to evaluate the predominance of children’s risks and potential risk and protective elements. The superior levels of psychological issues that were identified by teachers are a grave public health matter, as they are expected to negatively impact a child’s education especially given the huge class sizes and restricted resources in rural settings.
There is presently a lot of evidence suggesting that education is an imperative element in the long term welfare of children particularly in social-economically unfavorable circumstances in Mpumalanga. One of the main predictors of educational accomplishment is behavioural and emotional adjustment. Therefore, if there is significant number of children facing behavioural and emotional issues, these issues are expected to make the teacher’s work very difficult particularly in bigger classes. As a result, the quality of education is likely to diminish for all the children in those classes. There is, nonetheless, a rarity of published research of children’s behavioural and emotional adjustment in South Africa.
Summary of the findings
The findings showed that there were numerous socio-demographic elements that were linked with poorer psychological results including inferior maternal education level and child-ran households. The significance of stability for children living under these conditions was underlined by the findings that feeling secure at school and in the society was linked with enhanced psychological adjustment. Children with psychosocial difficulties had issues relating with their peers and had behavioural issues when compared to the prevalence of hyperactivity and emotional issues. Also, these children appeared to have the high predominance of peer relations issues, but lesser predominance of hyperactivity. The findings showed that both children and teachers depicted predominance of challenges with respect to pro-social conduct to be more than 25 percent. About 41 percent of children had no self-worth, and about 25 percent of them had a clinical level of anxiety. Even so, the findings showed that the predominance of depression was comparatively low among the children, with about 7 percent of them being a clinical level of depression.
The standard level of obscurity among these children was attained through the descriptive assessment of the scores on every scale. When it came to behavioural issues, teachers depicted a reasonable level of complexity among children. Even so, findings show that peer relations by both teachers and children depicted a big issue. The standard pro-social conduct of children was at a reasonable level of complexity with regard to the cut-off scores. Correspondingly, children’s average self-respect was also reasonably high, and their cognition was relatively positive when applying cut-off scores used. Anxiety was at a reasonable range of difficulty while depression was comparatively low among the children. Adolescents and children in more socio-economically deprived regions are at elevated risk of both inferior educational outcomes and elevated mental health issues. Therefore, these children undergo the double shortcoming of attending insufficiently resourced schools and suffering from behavioral and emotional disorders that jointly are likely to negatively affect their learning.
Most importantly, the study highlighted the significance of family social support, mother’s education, and availability of proper nutrition in safeguarding children from the psychosocial issues as well as the confirmation of the risk elements like caregiver illness, insecure school environment, and others. From the findings one can conclude that the environment in which a child grows play an imperative role in the psychosocial growth of children and changes are required at familial, social, and school level to safeguard children from psychosocial issues.
Policy implication
The public health inference of concentrating on children attending schools under these settings is imperative. If these children consider schools to be secure and supportive, they are likely to keep on attending school hence increasing the possibility of future employment. Those with mental and behavioral problems are at greater risk of dropping out of school and this is aggravated by the fact that they are more likely to be coming from unstable homes. Further, imperative policy changes in enhancing the link between children and their teachers were especially recommended. This study also offers a practical and suitable method of evaluating children’s psychological challenges in the presence of numerous risk factors. Given that in essence, limited psychological support is presently accessible to children in the region, these methods can be used to evaluate specific challenges and identify weak children so that the limited resources can be most appropriately applied to offer sustainable society interventions.
Recommendations for future research
An accurate evaluation of the health requirements of a population is essential for adept planning of services like school curriculum and mental health services. This research has shown that in a rural, socio-economically inferior area of South Africa, children depicted comparatively great levels of psychological issues. The findings infer that the subsequent generation faces substantial mental health challenges as well as other physical health difficulties facing rural areas in South Africa. It is evident that from relative scarcity of adolescent and child mental health research in this area that further study is required, struggling with some multifaceted methodological matters intrinsic in this work and paying attention to the spirit of children. what is maybe most evident is that considerable, and frequently unaddressed, mental health issues exist in considerable numbers in children in rural areas of South Africa, and mental health requires to be a critical element of the general healthcare planning and is a crucial arena for intervention.
References
Hlungwani T.M. (2014). Prevalence and predictors of psychosocial outcomes amongst socioeconomically deprived primary school children in a rural setting in South Africa: the role of ecological factors. A dissertation submitted for Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Health Sciences: January 2014
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|