�
Of the orphaned youth who are heading households in rural Rwanda throne be
classified as low-spirited, according to a report released on September 1,
2008 in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine,
one
of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Rwanda has one of the largest groups of orphans in the world, a consequence
of the 1994 genocide and the epidemic of HIV infection. According to
background information in the article, an estimated 290,000 orphans
lived in the land in 2005. The authors note that these children are
often placed in adverse conditions as a result: "Most African orphans
have been
absorbed into informal fosterage systems," they say. "Such
systems, however, ar increasingly overwhelmed, and many orphans either
head households or hot on the street."
To investigate the effects of this modification on the group, Neil W. Boris,
M.D., of
the Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, and colleagues
examined 539 Rwandan youths wHO were serving as the head of their
households. A total 539 young people were evaluated, all younger than
24, with an modal age of 20. The youth met with trained interviewers
world Health Organization administered scales that mensurable symptoms of grief, depression,
adult support, and community marginalization, as well as surveys
regarding demographics, health, vulnerable conditions, and hazardous
behaviors.
In examining the data, the scientists set up:
77% of the youth population were playacting subsistence
farming.
7% of the younker population had six or more geezerhood of
schooling.�
In the status of their parents, 71.4% reported both parents
dead, 26.2% reported one parent dead, and of these, almost 25%
indicated that the race murder led to at least one of their deaths. s
44% reported only when eating one meal per day in the last
week.�
80% gave a health rating as poor or fair.�
The intermediate depression scale score was higher than the
standard cutoff score for adolescents. 53% of the subjects were
positive in cover for imprint.�
76% agreed with a statement indicating that there is
community rejection or orphans.�
26% strongly in agreement that they had at least unitary
friend.�
64% said they had lost their confidence in people.�
40% in agreement that life was nonmeaningful or had lost faith in
God since their parents' deaths.
The authors short letter some extra trends trends in this data. "Hunger,
grief, few assets, poor health status and indices of social
marginalization were associated with more depressive symptoms in this
sample," they say. "Ten years after the Rwandan genocide and
in the midst of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the effects of poverty and
social disruption on the most vulnerable youth in Rwanda ar evident."
They nation that further research is needed, examining the families that
ar supported by these youths. "The
effect of caregiver great Depression on younger children surviving in
youth-headed households is not yet known," they say. "Further
study of orphans and vulnerable children in countries such as Rwanda,
in particular, studies that inform large-scale interventions, are
necessary if the next genesis of early days is to thrive."
Depressive Symptoms in Youth Heads of Household in Rwanda:
Correlates and Implications for Intervention
Neil
W. Boris, MD; Lisanne A. Brown, PhD; Tonya R. Thurman, PhD; Janet C.
Rice, PhD; Leslie M. Snider, MD, MPH; Joseph Ntaganira, PhD; Laetitia
N. Nyirazinyoye, MPH
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162(9):836-843.
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Written by Anna Sophia McKenney
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