African Population and Health Research Center, APHRC Campus, Manga Close, Off Kirawa Road, Nairobi, Kenya.
Population Council Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya.
BMC Womens Health. 2022 May 10;22(1):156. doi: 10.1186/s12905-022-01735-9.
Mental health problems rank among the leading causes of disability among young people globally. Young people growing up in urban slums are exposed to adverse childhood experiences, violence, and other adversities. There is limited research on how exposure to violence and adverse life events influence adolescents' mental health in urban poor settings. This study examines the associations between exposure to violence, adverse life events and self-reported depression in the slums of Nairobi.
This study draws on data collected from 2106 adolescent girls aged 12-19 years who were interviewed in the third wave of the Adolescent Girls Initiative Kenya (AGI-K). Mental health was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ 9). Frequency distributions, bivariate chi-squared analysis and multi-variate regression models were computed to identify factors that are independently associated with depression.
About 13.3% of girls had symptoms of depression based on PHQ 9, 22% reported physical or sexual violence in the past year and about 47% of girls reported exposure to adverse life events in the family in the past year. After adjusting for the effects of socio-demographic factors, exposure to physical violence (AOR = 2.926, 95% CI 2.175-3.936), sexual violence (AOR = 2.519, 95% CI 1.637-3.875), perception of neighborhood safety (AOR = 1.533, 95% CI 1.159-2.028) and experience of adverse life events (AOR = 1.326, 95% CI 1.002-1.753) were significantly associated with self-reported depression. The presence of social support moderated the relationship between violence and mental health by reducing the strength of the association between violence and mental health in this setting.
Given the magnitude of violence victimisation, adverse life events and depressive symptoms, there is a need to design interventions that reduce exposure to violence and provide psychosocial support to adolescents exposed to adverse events in urban slums in Nairobi.
心理健康问题是全球年轻人残疾的主要原因之一。在城市贫民窟中成长的年轻人面临着不良的童年经历、暴力和其他逆境。关于在城市贫困环境中，暴力和生活逆境的暴露如何影响青少年心理健康的研究有限。本研究探讨了内罗毕贫民窟中暴力和生活逆境暴露与自我报告抑郁之间的关联。
本研究基于肯尼亚青少年女孩倡议（AGI-K）第三波调查中 2106 名 12-19 岁少女的访谈数据。使用患者健康问卷（PHQ 9）衡量心理健康。计算了频率分布、双变量卡方分析和多变量回归模型，以确定与抑郁独立相关的因素。
根据 PHQ 9，约 13.3%的女孩有抑郁症状，22%的女孩报告在过去一年中遭受过身体或性暴力，约 47%的女孩报告在过去一年中在家庭中经历过生活逆境。在调整了社会人口因素的影响后，身体暴力暴露（AOR=2.926，95%CI 2.175-3.936）、性暴力暴露（AOR=2.519，95%CI 1.637-3.875）、邻里安全感的感知（AOR=1.533，95%CI 1.159-2.028）和生活逆境经历（AOR=1.326，95%CI 1.002-1.753）与自我报告的抑郁显著相关。社会支持的存在调节了暴力与心理健康之间的关系，降低了暴力与心理健康之间的关联强度。
鉴于暴力受害、生活逆境和抑郁症状的严重程度，需要设计干预措施，减少在城市贫民窟中暴露于暴力和为经历生活逆境的青少年提供心理社会支持。
