Hermenau Katharin, Hecker Tobias, Elbert Thomas, Ruf-Leuschner Martina
University of Konstanz and vivo international.
Infant Ment Health J. 2014 Mar-Apr;35(2):102-10. doi: 10.1002/imhj.21440. Epub 2014 Jan 28.
Research has shown the harmful potential of institutional care on young children; however, little is known about the consequences of institutional care on infants in Sub-Saharan Africa. We compared 35 Tanzanian children who were institutionalized at birth to 4 years of age with a matched group of 35 children who were institutionalized at 5 to 14 years of age. We examined adverse childhood experiences over the course of their entire lives, in their family of origin and in institutional care, and mental health problems at primary school age, such as depressive symptoms, aggressive behavior, and internalizing and externalizing problems. Results showed that early institutionalized children reported more adverse experiences during their time in institutional care and a greater variety of mental health problems than did late institutionalized children. Moreover, maltreatment in institutional care was positively related to mental health problems only in early institutionalized children. We conclude that adverse experiences in institutional care play an important role for early institutionalized children who need special care from adequately educated caregivers. Therefore, training concepts focusing on the needs of the youngest children have to be developed, tested, and established. Countries such as Tanzania need policies that apply to all orphanages to ensure an adequate standard of quality in childcare.
研究表明，机构照料对幼儿存在潜在危害；然而，对于撒哈拉以南非洲地区婴儿机构照料的后果却知之甚少。我们将35名出生至4岁期间被安置在机构中的坦桑尼亚儿童与35名5至14岁期间被安置在机构中的配对儿童进行了比较。我们考察了他们一生中、原生家庭以及机构照料期间的不良童年经历，以及小学年龄段的心理健康问题，如抑郁症状、攻击性行为以及内化和外化问题。结果显示，早期被安置在机构中的儿童在机构照料期间报告的不良经历更多，心理健康问题种类也比晚期被安置在机构中的儿童更多。此外，机构照料中的虐待行为仅与早期被安置在机构中的儿童的心理健康问题呈正相关。我们得出结论，机构照料中的不良经历对需要受过充分教育的照料者给予特殊照料的早期被安置在机构中的儿童起着重要作用。因此，必须制定、测试并确立关注最年幼儿童需求的培训理念。像坦桑尼亚这样的国家需要适用于所有孤儿院的政策，以确保儿童照料的质量达到适当标准。
