Mental health of youth orphaned due to AIDS in South Africa: biological and supportive links to caregivers

Abstract

This research explored the biological and social support relationship between youth orphaned due to AIDS and his/her caregiver to identify protective factors that are related to positive mental health outcomes. These youth have significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms compared to those orphaned due to other causes and non-orphans. Using a 2009 cross-sectional data-set from South Africa, 254 youth orphaned due to AIDS were purposively selected from the overall sample of 732 to further examine this caregiver relationship. Caregiver relation was analyzed in several combinations to determine if it was significantly related to mental health outcomes, with only anxiety showing significance. Those living with a biological parent had significantly higher anxiety symptoms than those living with a grandparent, other kin, or non-kin. Anxiety was also significantly related to an increased age, lower levels of emotional support, and lower levels of instrumental/financial support (R² = .153). Age was the only significant variable from the model that was related to depression symptoms (R² = .111). PTS symptoms were related to increases in age, lower levels of emotional support, instrumental/financial support, and satisfaction with the caregiver (R² = .194). Gender and age were related to suicidal tendencies, specifically boys were 2.26 times more likely to exhibit suicidal tendencies compared to girls, and every yearly increase in age results in the youth being 1.22 times more likely to exhibit suicidal tendencies. Strengthening the caregiver’s ability to provide social support for the child is critical, irrespective of any biological kin relationship.

Keywords:

• orphans
• HIV
• AIDS
• mental health
• caregivers
• social support

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our fieldwork team, Cape Town Child Welfare, the Western Cape Education Department, Pollsmoor Prison, The Homestead Shelter, and South African Airways. Also, we wish to thank Malia H. Duffy for her review of the draft. Most importantly, we thank all the participants and their families.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to thank the Nuffield Foundation, the John Fell Fund, and the European Research Council for funding.