Relationship between mothers'/caregivers' reported learning difficulty and internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depression) of children aged 5-17 years in Ghana

Emotional Adjustment among Adolescent Students with and without Specific Learning Disabilities

Adolescence is a psychologically vulnerable stage in which problems of emotional adjustment and psychological well-being can appear. The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship and comparison of emotional deficits and resources among adolescents with or without specific learning disabilities. We evaluated 80 students distributed into two groups: 40 adolescents with specific learning disabilities and 40 normative adolescents matched with the previous group in terms of age, sex, and school year. The study variables are internalising problems (anxiety and depression), externalising problems (aggression, anger control, defiant behaviour, and antisocial behaviour), and personal resources (self-esteem, social competence and integration, and awareness of problems), evaluated by means of the SENA test. The results indicate a positive relationship between externalising and internalising problems and a negative relationship between the latter and some personal resources in both groups. We also found that adolescents with specific learning disabilities displayed more internalising and externalising symptoms than their peers, greater awareness of their emotional difficulties, and lower self-esteem and social integration and competence. The findings highlight the need for preventive interventions that promote the psychological well-being and mental health of adolescents within the school setting at an early age.

Household food insecurity, family size and their interactions on depression prevalence among teenage pregnant girls in Ghana, a population based cluster survey

BACKGROUND

Household food insecurity is the situation where individuals and families have limited/uncertain access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods for healthy living. Family size is the number of persons in the family. Household food insecurity and family size are risk factors for depression. However, their synergistic and/or multiplicative effect on depression is not well investigated. This study investigated/examined household food insecurity, family size and their interaction on depression prevalence among teenaged pregnant girls in Ghana.

METHODS

Population based cluster survey was conducted among 225 teenaged pregnant girls in 20-electoral areas at Twifo-Atti-Morkwa district in the central region of Ghana. Simple random sampling was used to recruit study participants and structured questionnaire used to collect demographic variables. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS-25) were used to collect data. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to analyzed the data.

RESULTS

Moderate and high depression prevalence reported among teenaged pregnant girls in Twifo-Atti-Morkwa district were 35.1(28.1-42.1) and 33.5 (26.5-40.5) respectively. Moderate family size (AOR = 1.08, 95%CI = 1.17-3.71) and large-family-size (AOR = 2.78, 95%CI = 3.98-10.19) were significant for depression. Moderate food insecurity (AOR = 0.12, 95%CI = 0.41 - 0.35) and high food insecurity (AOR = 0.27, 95%CI = 0.11-0.71) were significant for depression. Interaction between moderate food insecurity and moderate family size (AOR = 1.69, 95%CI = 2.79-17.51), interaction between high food insecurity and low family size (AOR = 1.24, 95%CI 1.57-11.41) and interaction between high food insecurity and large family size (AOR = 1.01, 95%CI = 1.72-14.57) were significant for depression among teenaged pregnant girls.

CONCLUSION

There is moderate and high depression prevalence among teenaged pregnant girls in Twifo-Atti-Morkwa district. Interaction between household food insecurity and family size are the major predictors for depression among the teenaged girls in the district. We therefore recommend that public health officers should be up with health education campaigns in the district to create awareness on the depression prevalence among teenaged girls, and urge them to come out and seek support to prevent the catastrophic effect of depression.