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ABSTRACT
Background
Adverse life experiences require a broader range of adaptive behavioral strategies to cope with related stressors. The association between intensity, duration, type of stress and impacts on mental health is important for effective programming aimed at increasing resilience in the face of stress. This study examines adverse life experiences, coping strategies, and associations with mental health outcomes among very young adolescent orphans.
Methods
The analytic sample was collected between January and March of 2019 and included 350 adolescent orphans ages 10–15 years old from three districts in Tanzania. Participants completed survey interviews, 75–90 minutes in length, that measured adverse life experiences, stigma, coping strategies, and psychological symptoms.
Results
A four-factor dimensional structure of the KidCope survey fits these data and distinguished between distraction and resignation coping strategies. Use of distraction as a coping dimension was the most frequently used coping dimension and was associated with lower reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, and externalizing behaviors. Resignation was positively associated with adverse life experiences including emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect. Problem-focused coping was not associated with study outcomes and social support coping was associated with externalizing behaviors only.
Conclusion
Results from adolescent orphans in a low-resource context suggest that distraction coping strategies may be adaptive in response to stress. Implications for intervention programming that aims to target acquisition of coping skills and mindsets among vulnerable populations are discussed.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Health for a Prosperous Nation (HPON) for their work in recruiting study participants, obtaining consent and assent, and administering the survey questionnaire. Special thanks to the District Municipal Officers and the National Statistics Board of Tanzania for supporting this work. The authors are grateful to the National Institute of Medical Research in Tanzania (NIMR) for your participation in this study. The authors would like to thank Sarah Lebu and Emily Hipp for their assistance in cleaning and coding the data. Most of all the authors would like to thank the adolescent participants for their participation in the study and their guardians and advocates for supporting participation in the study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Ethics statement
Institutional Review Board Statement: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by an Institutional Review Board/Ethics committee. See details under Methods.
Author contributions
M.C. conceived the study, led data analysis, interpreted the data, and prepared the original draft of the manuscript. R.E.D. contributed to the design of the study, interpretation of data and writing the manuscript. S.B., P.N., and J.A.L. contributed to interpretation of data and writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final draft.
Research interests
Adolescent health, global health, mental health.
Data availability statement
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the sensitive age of the study participants (10–15 years old). These datasets are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The author will vet requests to be certain that appropriate IRB approvals and data safety guidelines are in place before distribution.