The Orphans of Eritrea: What are the Choices?

Abstract

The authors examined the emotional well-being, adaptability, and emotional distress of 10-13 year-old Eritrean war orphans cared for in 3 different social environments and 1 group of home-reared children using 2 scales of the Behavioral Assessment System for Children and informal interviews with the children. Orphans reunified with extended families had greater adaptive skills than institutional orphans but as many signs and symptoms of emotional distress as orphanage children. Group-home orphans had fewer signs and symptoms of emotional distress and greater adaptive skills than either reunified or institutional orphans, and they had fewer symptoms of emotional distress than home-reared children. However, placing orphans in small group homes was far more expensive than reunifying them with extended families. The public policy implications of the findings for the protection of unaccompanied children in impoverished developing countries are discussed.

Relation of home chaos to cognitive performance and behavioral adjustment of Pakistani primary school children

“…The BASC-2 was chosen because it has both parent and teacher rating forms and because it measures a wide range of behavioral problems and adaptive behaviors, consistent with the objectives of this study. The reliability and validity of this instrument when used with children from different cultures has been shown in studies carried out in Latin America (Pineda et al, 1999;Puerta, Aguirre-Acevedo, Pineda, & González, 2007), Africa (Wolff & Fesseha, 2005), and Asia (Yeo, Ang, Chong, & Huan, 2007). The TRS measures both positive and negative aspects of children's adjustment in school settings, and consists of 139 statements.…”

Systems, strategies, and interventions for sustainable long-term care and protection of children with a history of living outside of family care

“…To address this, interventions have been developed and delivered within institutions and found to have positive developmental impacts. Although the basis for this statement remains limited at this point, several studies, some with random assignment or quasiexperimental procedures, show that specific interventions providing additional stimulation produce improved developmental outcomes for institutionalized children (Ferris et al, 2007;Jump, Fargo, & Akers, 2006;Megahead & Cesario, 2008;Sparling, Dragomir, Ramey, & Florescu, 2005;Taneja et al, 2002;Whetten et al, 2009;Wolff & Fesseha, 2005). One quasi-experimental study implemented a comprehensive family-like behavioral intervention by training caregivers to improve caregiver-child interactions and restructuring the physical environment to be more family-like.…”

Coping with the challenges of living in an Indonesian residential institution

“…Unfortunately, however, residential institutions such as orphanages are unlikely to provide resources for children specifically to help them to cope with their exposure to traumatic events. Furthermore, these facilities may in fact exacerbate traumatic stress symptoms, given the inadequate psychological support that exists in many of these settings [15][16][17].…”