Parchment Tyrone M, Small Latoya, Osuji Hadiza, McKay Mary, Bhana Arvin
McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research, Silver School of Social Work, New York University, 41 East 11th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10003, USA; New York University Silver School of Social Work, New York, USA.
McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research, Silver School of Social Work, New York University, 41 East 11th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10003, USA.
Glob Soc Welf. 2016 Mar;3(1):1-10. doi: 10.1007/s40609-016-0042-8. Epub 2016 Feb 4.
The mental health of children is too frequently overlooked in resource scarce low and middle-income countries. South Africa represents one of many country contexts struggling to meet the mental health needs of large numbers of young people. Family caregivers have been identified as potential protective influences on child mental health, even for those children being reared with high exposure to poverty.
This paper explores contextual influences on South African caregiver's social-emotional health living in communities impacted by poverty and food insecurity as they attempt to support their children's prosocial skills and behavior. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to explore the relationship between neighborhood social cohesion and caregiver report of child's prosocial behavior as mediated by the caregiver's mental health (=478).
Results indicated that the more caregivers experience their communities as socially cohesive, the better their social-emotional well-being, thus positively related to their reports of children's prosocial behavior. Furthermore, when there is a male head of household, caregivers reported better social-emotional well-being in comparison to female headed of household. The more food secure caregivers also were likely to report better general health.
South African community characteristics and caregivers, in particular male caregivers, are integral to child and caregiver mental health. Future research should examine the impact of interventions that mobilize community and caregiver supports for children's prosocial behavior and mental health.
在资源匮乏的低收入和中等收入国家，儿童的心理健康常常被忽视。南非是众多努力满足大量年轻人心理健康需求的国家之一。家庭照顾者已被确定为对儿童心理健康具有潜在保护作用的因素，即使是那些在高度贫困环境中成长的儿童。
本文探讨了生活在受贫困和粮食不安全影响社区的南非照顾者在试图支持其子女亲社会技能和行为时，其社会情感健康所受到的背景影响。采用结构方程模型（SEM）来探讨邻里社会凝聚力与照顾者对儿童亲社会行为的报告之间的关系，照顾者的心理健康作为中介变量（n = 478）。
结果表明，照顾者越觉得自己所在的社区具有社会凝聚力，他们的社会情感幸福感就越好，这与他们对儿童亲社会行为的报告呈正相关。此外，当户主为男性时，与户主为女性的情况相比，照顾者报告的社会情感幸福感更好。粮食越安全的照顾者也越有可能报告更好的总体健康状况。
南非的社区特征和照顾者，特别是男性照顾者，对儿童和照顾者的心理健康至关重要。未来的研究应考察动员社区和照顾者支持儿童亲社会行为和心理健康的干预措施的影响。
