Social Support and Psychological Distress among Adolescents in Foster Care

Abstract

There are 1.7 million orphans in Egypt, and the Egyptian foster care sector is largely a non-governmental relying on private support with minimal government supervision. The transition from living at home to living in foster care is difficult for anyone at this age. Psychological distress is one of the health problems faced by foster youth. Social agencies have no more power than the legal rights to offer support to these youths. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between psychological distresses and social support provided to the adolescents in foster care. Subjects and methods: Three tools were utilized to measure the variables of the study: Socio- demographic data, Depression, Anxiety, Stress scale (DASS 42) and Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire (NSSQ). Results revealed that, 58% of subjects were males and more than half of the foster care adolescents came from rural area, poverty and divorce were the major reasons for entering foster care. Concerning level of psychological distress among the foster care adolescents, 77% of adolescents had mild to moderate stress, 60% had mild to moderate depression while more than half of them (54%) suffered from severe to extreme anxiety. As regard social support; more than half of foster care adolescents (52%) received support from their friends and males were more socially supported than females. Conclusion: Broken families (divorces) and poverty were the major reasons for placing children in foster care. Most of foster care adolescents had various levels of psychological distress especially depression and anxiety. Friends represented the main social support source for the foster care adolescents. Adolescents who had not anxiety had higher mean scores of social support than others. There is no a statistically significant differences between social support and psychological distress. Recommendations; Focusing on alternative families from relatives and neighbors, especially to orphans, those who came from broken families, or suffer from some circumstances of illness or economic hardship than foster care.