Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States of America.
Center for Rural Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
PLoS One. 2023 Oct 20;18(10):e0290788. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290788. eCollection 2023.
Prosocial behavior has positive social, cognitive, and physical health effects on the individual exhibiting the behavior as well as on society as a whole, and is integral to overall mental and physical wellbeing. The development of prosocial behavior is rooted in early childhood and learned through observation. As such, those spending time with children, especially their caregiver, play a critical role in their prosocial development. The current study investigates the impact of caregiver mental health on the prosocial development of young children over time.
This paper presents a secondary analysis of child prosocial development in the Asenze Study, a longitudinal, population-based cohort study based in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Children were followed-up over time from an average age of five to seven years along with their caregivers. Linear GEE regression analysis was used to assess whether a change in presence of a mental health disorder in a caregiver during this 2-year interval (using the Client Diagnostic Questionnaire) impacted the development of their child's prosocial behavior (using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire).
After adjusting for early child-care, child HIV status, SDQ child prosocial subscale, SDQ total difficulties score, and household order score (CHAOS), children whose caregivers acquired a mental health disorder had a significantly smaller increase in prosocial behavioral development compared to children whose caregivers never had a mental health disorder.
Identifying contextually relevant modifiable factors such as this will help stimulate the development of interventions to promote prosocial development in childhood.
亲社会行为对表现出这种行为的个体以及整个社会都具有积极的社会、认知和身体健康影响，是整体身心健康的重要组成部分。亲社会行为的发展根植于儿童早期，并通过观察来学习。因此，那些与儿童，尤其是他们的照顾者，相处时间较长的人，在他们的亲社会发展中起着至关重要的作用。本研究调查了照顾者的心理健康状况随时间推移对幼儿亲社会发展的影响。
本文对南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省基于人群的纵向阿泽恩斯研究中的儿童亲社会发展进行了二次分析。该研究对儿童及其照顾者进行了长达两年的随访，平均年龄在五岁到七岁之间。使用线性广义估计方程回归分析来评估在这两年期间，照顾者是否出现心理健康障碍（使用客户诊断问卷），是否会影响其子女亲社会行为的发展（使用长处与困难问卷）。
在调整了早期儿童保育、儿童 HIV 状态、SDQ 儿童亲社会分量表、SDQ 总困难评分和家庭秩序评分（CHAOS）后，与照顾者从未出现心理健康障碍的儿童相比，照顾者出现心理健康障碍的儿童亲社会行为发展的增长幅度明显较小。
确定这种具有上下文相关性的可改变因素将有助于激发干预措施的发展，以促进儿童亲社会行为的发展。
