Psychosocial distress among in-school adolescents in Mozambique: a cross-sectional study using the Global School-Based Health Survey data
Amu, Hubert, Seidu, Abdul Aziz, Agbemavi, Wonder, Afriyie, Bernard Owusu, Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku, Ameyaw, Edward Kwabena, and Kissah-Korsah, Kwaku (2020) Psychosocial distress among in-school adolescents in Mozambique: a cross-sectional study using the Global School-Based Health Survey data. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 14 (1). 38.
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Abstract
Background: Poor mental health remains the leading cause of disability, with considerable negative impacts in low- A nd middle-income countries. In this study, we examined the prevalence and correlates of psychosocial distress among in-school adolescents in Mozambique. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 1918 in-school adolescents, using data from the 2015 Mozambique Global School-Based Health Survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were adopted in analysing the data. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: The prevalence of psychosocial distress was 21.2% (24.1% females and 18.5% males). Older adolescents [AOR = 1.681, 95% CI = 1.233-2.292] had higher odds of experiencing psychosocial distress, compared with younger adolescents. In terms of sex, males [AOR = 0.755, 95% CI 0.601-0.950] had lower odds of experiencing psychosocial distress, compared with females. Adolescents who were bullied [AOR = 1.451, 95% CI 1.150-1.831], physically attacked [AOR = 1.802, 95% CI 1.404-2.313], and engaged in a physical fight [AOR = 1.376, 95% CI 1.070-1.769] were respectively more likely to experience psychosocial distress than those who did not. Conversely, adolescents who had close friends [AOR = 0.503, 95% CI 0.372-0.681] had lower odds of being psychosocially distressed than those who did not have close friends. Conclusion: The prevalence of psychosocial distress among in-school adolescents in Mozambique is relatively high. The country may not be able to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 target of promoting mental health and wellbeing of all by the year 2030 if current rates of psychosocial distress persist among in-school adolescents. Mental health education and counselling as well as social support from friends should be intensified to reduce mental health problems and enable adolescents to effectively deal with the psychosocial challenges encountered in their transition from childhood to adulthood.
| Item ID: | 66706 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1753-2000 |
| Keywords: | Adolescents, Mental health, Mozambique, Psychosocial distress, SDGs |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/ zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Apr 2021 01:26 |
| FoR Codes: | 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420601 Community child health @ 50% 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420606 Social determinants of health @ 50% |
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