PREVALENCE OF EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS AMONG ADOLESCENTS OF CHILDREN’S HOME AND PERCEPTIONS OF CARETAKERS TOWARDS IT AT GOKARNESHWOR MUNICIPALITY

Abstract

Background: Adolescents living in institutional settings are more susceptible to the EBPs than others as they are deprived of a family's love, support, attachment and care. Objective: To assess the prevalence of EBPs among adolescents and explore the perceptions of caretakers living in children’s home. Method: A mixed method, descriptive cross-sectional study among 134 adolescents from 5 children’s homes of Gokarneshwor Municipality, was done. All the adolescents from 10-19 years living in the children’s home were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire, Youth Self-Report (YSR-11/18) 2001, developed by Achenbach System of Empirical Based Assessment and self-developed socio- demographic questionnaires. Data was coded and analyzed using SPSS (25). Descriptive statistics and Chi square were used to analyze the quantitative data, while narrative summary was used for qualitative through IDI. Results: Prevalence of EBPs was 48.5% among the adolescents. While the EBPs factors prevalence was found to be anxious depression (46.3%), withdrawn depressed (46.3%), attention problems (46.3%), somatic complaints (50.7%), social problems (42.5%), thought problems (38.8%), attention problems (46.3%), rule breaking behaviour (41%) and aggressive problems (50%). The occurrence of EBPs was significantly associated with status of adolescent (ꭓ2=6.015, p=0.014, df=1). Similarly, there was the significant association between dependent variable (prevalence of EBPs and EBP variables such as anxious depressed (ꭓ2=20.078, p<0.001, df=1), withdrawn depressed (ꭓ2=38.616, p<0.001, df=1), social problems (ꭓ2=32.678, p<0.001, df=1), attention problems (ꭓ2=30.479, p<0.001, df=1), rule breaking behavior (ꭓ2=25.322, p<0.001, df=1), thought problems (ꭓ2=31.14, p<0.001, df=1), somatic complaints (ꭓ2=20.248, p<0.001, df=1) and aggressive problem (ꭓ2=32.536, p<0.001, df=1). Conclusion: EBPs are a serious mental health concern among adolescents and especially living in children’s homes. The provision of the appropriate counseling, life skill educations and ECAs engagements help to address the EBP factors. Keywords: Adolescents, EBPs, Children’s home, YSR, Gokarneshwor Municipality, Nepal.