Department of Human Care Science, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.
BMC Psychiatry. 2010 Jan 16;10:6. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-10-6.
The magnitude of the AIDS-orphaned children crisis in sub-Saharan Africa has so overstretched the resource of most families that the collapse of fostering in the sub-region seems imminent (UNICEF, 2003), fueling the need for a complementary/alternative care. This paper examines the probability of the natural mentoring care to ameliorate distress mental health in children orphaned by AIDS.
952 children, mean age about 14 years, from local community schools and child-care centers in Kampala (Uganda) and Mafikeng/Klerksdorp (South Africa) towns participated in the study. The design has AIDS-orphaned group (n = 373) and two control groups: Other-causes orphaned (n = 287) and non-orphaned (n = 290) children. We use measures of child abuse, depression, social discrimination, anxiety, parental/foster care, self-esteem, and social support to estimate mental health. Natural mentoring care is measured with the Ragins and McFarlin (1990) Mentor Role Instrument as adapted.
AIDS-orphaned children having a natural mentor showed significant decreased distress mental health factors. Similar evidence was not observed in the control groups. Also being in a natural mentoring relationship inversely related to distress mental health factors in the AIDS-orphaned group, in particular. AIDS-orphaned children who scored high mentoring relationship showed significant lowest distress mental health factors that did those who scored moderate and low mentoring relationship.
Natural mentoring care seems more beneficial to ameliorate distress mental health in AIDS-orphaned children (many of whom are double-orphans, having no biological parents) than in children in the control groups.
撒哈拉以南非洲地区艾滋病孤儿危机的严重程度使得大多数家庭的资源严重短缺，该地区的寄养服务似乎即将崩溃（联合国儿童基金会，2003 年），这促使人们需要寻求补充/替代照料方式。本文探讨了自然导师照料对改善艾滋病孤儿心理健康困扰的可能性。
952 名儿童，平均年龄约为 14 岁，来自乌干达坎帕拉和南非马菲肯/克莱克斯多普的当地社区学校和儿童护理中心。该研究设计包括艾滋病孤儿组（n = 373）和两个对照组：其他原因孤儿组（n = 287）和非孤儿组（n = 290）。我们使用儿童虐待、抑郁、社会歧视、焦虑、父母/寄养照顾、自尊和社会支持的衡量标准来评估心理健康。自然导师照料通过 Ragins 和 McFarlin（1990）的导师角色量表进行衡量，该量表经过改编。
拥有自然导师的艾滋病孤儿表现出明显减少的心理健康困扰因素。在对照组中没有观察到类似的证据。此外，在艾滋病孤儿组中，处于自然导师关系与心理健康困扰因素呈负相关，尤其是那些得分较高的导师关系。在艾滋病孤儿中，得分较高的导师关系组表现出明显最低的心理健康困扰因素，而得分中等和较低的导师关系组则表现出较高的心理健康困扰因素。
自然导师照料似乎对改善艾滋病孤儿（其中许多是双孤儿，没有亲生父母）的心理健康困扰比对照组中的儿童更有益。
