Asanbe Comfort, Visser Maretha, Moleko Anne-Gloria, Makwakwa Catherine
Department of Psychology, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, New York, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
J Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2021 Aug-Nov;33(1-3):3-16. doi: 10.2989/17280583.2022.2058951. Epub 2022 Jun 7.
The study explored whether orphanhood status as well as coping strategies predicted mental health outcomes in orphans and vulnerable adolescents who participated in an NGO-supported programme in rural South Africa. Participants comprised 175 adolescents (aged 11-18 years) from a low-resource community, and included non-orphans ( = 57), orphans due to AIDS ( = 62) and orphans due to other causes ( = 56). All participants rated themselves on the age-appropriate Youth Self-Report scales and 95 completed the Children's Coping Strategies Checklist (CCSC). Little's test of data missing completely at random revealed that the CCSC missing data did not display a specific pattern. Active coping negatively predicted internalising, externalising and general psychological problems, while avoidant coping predicted general psychological problems. Orphanhood group status, sex and age did not predict coping strategies used. A higher proportion of orphans by AIDS had elevated scores of internalising problems and all participants on somatic complaints. Active coping strategies minimise the risk for emotional and behavioural problems among the participants. Our findings suggest that agencies and non-governmental organisations that provide services to vulnerable adolescents can facilitate active coping skills to enhance their psychological well-being.
该研究探讨了孤儿身份以及应对策略是否能预测参与南非农村地区一个非政府组织支持项目的孤儿和弱势青少年的心理健康状况。参与者包括来自资源匮乏社区的175名青少年（年龄在11至18岁之间），其中有非孤儿（n = 57）、因艾滋病成为孤儿的青少年（n = 62）以及因其他原因成为孤儿的青少年（n = 56）。所有参与者都根据适合其年龄的青少年自我报告量表对自己进行了评分，95人完成了儿童应对策略清单（CCSC）。Little对完全随机缺失数据的检验表明，CCSC的缺失数据没有呈现出特定模式。积极应对对内化问题、外化问题和一般心理问题具有负向预测作用，而回避应对则对一般心理问题具有预测作用。孤儿群体身份、性别和年龄并不能预测所采用的应对策略。因艾滋病成为孤儿的青少年中，有更高比例的人在内化问题和所有参与者的躯体不适方面得分较高。积极应对策略可将参与者出现情绪和行为问题的风险降至最低。我们的研究结果表明，为弱势青少年提供服务的机构和非政府组织可以促进积极应对技能，以提高他们的心理健康水平。
