Mental health problems among children in Sierra Leone

Assessing cultural concepts of distress

Bibliographic Data

ID2395328
AuthorsElyse Thulin (0000-0003-1724-4258, University of Michigan, corresponding author), Kristen E Mclean (0000-0002-3733-6953, Yale University), Stephen Sevalie (0000-0003-2267-253X, Sustainable Health Systems, Freetown, Sierra Leone), Adeyinka M Akinsulure-Smith (0000-0003-3612-4884, City University of New York), Theresa Betancourt (0000-0002-3683-4440, Boston College School of Social Work, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA), Theresa S Betancourt
Year2022
Volume59
Issue4
Pages461-478
Publication date2022-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTranscultural Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-4615 • E-ISSN: 1461-7471
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1363461520916695
PMID32316867
OpenAlexW3017274968
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited70

Globally, over 13% of children and adolescents are affected by mental disorders, yet relatively little scholarship addresses how risk factors, symptoms, and nosology vary by culture and context, especially in young children living in post-conflict and low-resource settings. To address this gap, we conducted a qualitative study to identify and describe the most salient mental health problems facing children aged 6 to 10 years in Sierra Leone, as well as the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to these problems. Free list interviews ( N = 200) and semi-structured interviews ( N = 66) were conducted among caregivers, children, and other relevant key informants to explore risk factors and locally meaningful concepts of distress. Our findings indicate that children are faced with a variety of challenges in their social environments that contribute to distress, including hunger, unmet material needs, and excessive work. Our research identifies five contextually defined mental health problems faced by young children: gbos gbos (angry, destructive behavior), poil at (sad, disruptive behavior), diskoraj (sad, withdrawn), wondri (excessive worry), and fred fred (abnormal fear). The manifestations of these distress concepts are described in detail and contextualized according to Sierra Leone's history of war and current backdrop of poverty and insecurity. Implications are discussed for locally relevant diagnosis and treatment as well as for the wider literature on global child mental health

Anxiety · Developmental psychology · Distress · Feeling · Mental distress · Mental health · Poverty · Psychiatry · Qualitative research · Sierra leone · Social science · Sociology · Worry · Child Abuse and Trauma · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Social Psychology