Abstract

BackgroundDespite the growing recognition of childhood psychological maltreatment as a public health and human rights concern, it remains rampant in developing countries including Tanzania and has a negative impact on the victim’s self-esteem during adolescence. There is a lack of published studies in Tanzania that examine the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and self-esteem during adolescence. This study describes the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and self-esteem and psychological distress among adolescents in Tanzania.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional, community-based study of secondary school students that was conducted in randomly selected secondary schools in five regions in Tanzania between April 2016 and February 2017. A multistage cluster sampling technique was employed to obtain the required number of study participants. The Rosenberg self-esteem scale, Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) questionnaires were used to measure the variables in the study. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyse the correlation between variables (Psychological maltreatment and self-esteem and psychological distress).ResultsA sample of 1000 secondary school students was recruited for this study, of which 553 (55.3%) were males and 447 (44.7%) were females. The mean age at presentation was 16.45 ± 6.42 years. Out of the 1000 participants, 766 (76.6%) experienced psychological maltreatment. Emotional abuse was reported in 24.7% of the participants, while emotional neglect was reported in 51.9% of cases. There was a strong positive correlation between psychological maltreatment and self-esteem (r = 0.55, p < 0.001), whereas the correlation between psychological maltreatment and psychological distress was significantly but weak (r = − 0.086, p = 0.007). The results also show a strong positive correlation between psychological distress and self-esteem (r = 0.16, p < 0.001).ConclusionFinding from this study demonstrated that childhood psychological maltreatment is prevalent in our setting and is associated with psychological distress and low self-esteem during adolescence. Urgent intervention targeting at reducing occurrence of childhood psychological maltreatment is necessary to reduce the incidence of low self-esteem and psychological distress among Tanzanian adolescents.

Highlights

  • Despite the growing recognition of childhood psychological maltreatment as a public health and human rights concern, it remains rampant in developing countries including Tanzania and has a negative impact on the victim’s self-esteem during adolescence

  • Emotional abuse was reported in 24.7% of the participants, while emotional neglect was reported in 51.9% of cases

  • The presence of psychological maltreatment during childhood was reported in 76.6% of cases, emotional abuse was reported in 24.7% of the participants, while emotional neglect was reported in 51.9%, which is comparable with that reported in developing countries [54] but higher than that observed in many other studies in developed countries [55]

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Summary

Introduction

Despite the growing recognition of childhood psychological maltreatment as a public health and human rights concern, it remains rampant in developing countries including Tanzania and has a negative impact on the victim’s self-esteem during adolescence. There is a lack of published studies in Tanzania that examine the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and self-esteem during adolescence. Psychological maltreatment involves repeated interactions between a parent and child that are often verbal in nature that negatively affect the emotional, social, cognitive or even physical development of a child [2]. These interactions typically include acts of commission as well as omission, such as spurning, terrorizing, isolating, exploiting and denying emotional responsiveness [3]. Psychological maltreatment is believed to negatively affect the emotional, social and cognitive development of a child, making them more prone to substance abuse and other forms of psychopathology [4]. Psychological maltreatment is thought to be the most common form of maltreatment and encompasses both emotional abuses as well as emotional neglect and tends to accompany other forms of maltreatment, such as physical and sexual abuse [5].

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