South African adult caregivers as “protective shields”: Serving as a buffer between stressful neighborhood conditions and youth risk behaviors

Abstract

Low‐income youths in KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa, face elevated risks to their well‐being from exposure to neighborhood conditions correlated with engaging in risky behaviors. These risks can be mitigated through adult caregivers who serve as protective shields, buffering adverse conditions. However, this protective role is dependent on the caregivers’ mental health and well‐being. This secondary analysis uses baseline data from 475 child‐caregiver dyads in an HIV‐prevention program to examine the mediating effects of caregiver mental health on the relationship between neighborhood conditions and child risk‐behaviors. Multivariate analyses identify the direct and indirect effects of neighborhood stressors and caregiver mental health on child risk‐behavior. Findings suggest that caregivers mitigate the impact of neighborhood conditions on their children, but caregivers’ mental health is directly affected by neighborhood conditions. Therefore, caregivers’ mental health and well‐being must be considered key elements in developing youth risk‐behavior interventions.

HIV-Exposed Uninfected Children: A Systematic Review on Psychological Well-Being and Association with School Performances in Africa

“…It has been shown that children's depression and resilience are causally related to their caregivers' or parents' behavior in HIV-affected families. The more parents are mentally or physically ill, the more children become vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and highrisk behaviors [31,32]. This may lead to poor school performance, concentration issues, and general school failures [23,42,52]; (c) What, if any, psychological interventions have been conducted for HEU children?…”

“…Mental health resilience may be associated with multiple factors across children, family, and community. Child physical health, caregiving support, food security, peer relationship quality, and lower exposure to community violence and bullying or stigma seem to be strong predictors of resilience [31,32]. Moreover, a study that was carried out in Egypt suggests that children and adolescents of HIV-positive parents had a significantly lower health-related quality of life than children of healthy parents [33].…”

Improving the reading skills of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities: Preliminary study from Botswana

“…Poverty and marginalization in sub-Saharian African countries easily result from engaging in problem behaviours (drug addition, gang activity, sexually aggressive behaviour, etc.) or being an easily victim of problem behaviours (Hensels et al, 2016; Small et al, 2019). Using an evidence-based approach with a visible structure, that gives immediate result, made students and school staff aware of the feasibility of the work.…”