Childhood emotional neglect experiences as a risk factor for psychological distress among adolescents in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: A community-based cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Emotional neglects is the mostly widespread type of childhood experience which is believed to affect the overall psychological adjustment of the child as a result, victims may experience psychological distress with symptoms of low self-esteem, depression and anxiety. There is limited published data on this subject in Tanzania. This study investigates emotional neglect as a risk factor for psychological distress among adolescents in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, community-based study of adolescents that was conducted in randomly selected schools in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. The data collection process started July 2019 and was completed in July 2020. Each participant was contacted and informed about the purpose of the research, confidentiality issues, and reporting of the results. A multistage cluster sampling technique was employed to obtain a required number of the study participants. Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) and the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) questionnaires were used to measure the variables under this study. Results: Out of 3193 participants enrolled in the study, 1543(48.3%) participants were male and 1650(51.7%) were female. The participants’ age ranged from 13 to 18 years old (mean ± standard deviation= 16.44 ± 2.58 years). Childhood emotional neglect was reported in 51.9% of participants. There was a strong positive correlation between childhood emotional neglect and psychological distress during adolescence (r= 0.55, p<0.001). Conclusion: Finding from this study demonstrated that childhood emotional neglect is prevalent in our setting and is associated with psychological distress during adolescence. Urgent intervention targeting at reducing occurrence of childhood psychological maltreatment is necessary to reduce the incidence of psychological distress among Tanzanian adolescents. Keywords: emotional neglect; psychological distress; adolescents; Tanzania.