Barcelona 2013
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| Abstract #272 - Mental Health | ||||
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Session: 39.4: Mental Health (Parallel) on Tuesday @ 16.30-18.30 in Teatre Chaired by Sue Gibbons, Jordi Blanch Authors: Presenting Author: Prof Junfeng Zhao - Henan University , China |
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| Additional Authors: Lic Juan Sotelo, Lic Daniel Palacio, Lic Fernando D`Elio, Lic Luciana Betti, Dr Silvana Weller, Lic Julia Recchi, Dr Carlos Falistocco, | ||||
| Aim: By the end of 2010, around 17.1 million children under 18 years of age in the world lost one or both parents to AIDS, and more children have faced the potential of losing their parents to HIV/AIDS. Their psychological well-beings have been threatened by a series of risks related to parental HIV/AIDS including inadequate care and supervision from surviving parents or other care givers. This study aims to examine if quality of care for these children may predict their mental health problems (depression and loneliness) based on 3-year longitudinal data of children affected by HIV/AIDS in Henan, China. | ||||
| Method / Issue: The current study was conducted among children (6-18 years of age at baseline) in 2006-2010 in two rural counties in central China, where many residents were infected with HIV through unhygienic blood collection. Children participated in three annual surveys on their demographic characteristics, family environment, school performance, and mental health. Data were available for 1625 children at year 1, for 1288 children at year 2, for 1019 children at year 3. Structural Equation Model (SEM) was employed to examine the prospective relationships between quality of care at year1 and mental health in the follow-up years. We also included covariates (e.g., age, gender) in the final model to assess their effect on quality of care and mental health. All the analyses were conducted with MPlus 5.0. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Covariance coverage values, which indicate the proportion of data present to estimate each pairwise relationship, ranged from 61% to 99%. The model fitted the data adequately, ÷2 (9) =15.466, p=.079; RMSEA=.021, 90%CI [.0001, .038]; CFI=.997; TLI=.984. The level of mental health problems exhibited significant stability from year 1 to year 2 (â=.46, 95%CI= [.35,.57]), and from year 2 to year 3 (â=.586,95%CI=[.52,.66]). Higher quality of care at year1 predicted a lower level of mental health problems at year 2 (â=-.255, 95%CI= [-.36,-.15]), and the perspective effect remained statistical significance for year 3(â=-.150, 95%CI= [-.26,-.04]). | ||||
| Discussion: Parents and caregivers are charged with primary responsibility for the care and development of children. However, families hit by HIV/AIDS may not be able to provide their children adequate care because of fragile family situations (e.g., HIV/AIDS-related bereavement, poverty, perceived stigma, and poor health status of caregivers). Deficient care may have a lasting and passive impact on psychological well-being of these vulnerable children. The improvement of quality of care needs to be integrated into interventions and services for families affected by HIV/AIDs, providing them social support as well as training and consulting about parenting and caring. | ||||
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