| dc.description.abstract | Broad Objective:To determine the level of late childhood and adolescent psychopathology in rural public Secondary and Primary schools in Busia County- western Kenya.
Specific Objectives were;
1. To identify the pattern and prevalence of psychiatric syndromes in the study population.
2. To find the relationship between psychiatric syndromes and gender.
3. To find the relationship between psychiatric syndromes and age
Study Design: Cross-sectional; using stratified random sampling.
Setting: Two schools in Busia County; Nasewa mixed day secondary and Indoli mixed day primary schools.
Measurement Tool: A self administered questionnaire (ASEBA Youth Self Report 11-18 years)
Participants: 11-18 year old Pupils and students in rural public primary and secondary schools. 250 participated, only 220 questionnaires were used in the analysis, others were incomplete.
Method: Sampling a stratified random sampling from a list of all the schools in the county targeting one day public mixed secondary school and one day public mixed primary school. One stream from standard five to form four was selected and all assenting respondents participated. Assessment procedure Assent forms distributed first, assent explanation and signing then the researcher read out loud the questions one by one in both English and Kiswahili. Ethical procedure All approvals were gotten, procedures and objectives of the study discussed with the heads of the institutions, assessments was ANONYMOUS. Secondary students requested not to write their classes and it was granted even to primary school pupils. Analysis Presentation: The syndromes were classified using YSR Profile for boys and girls scale, data analysis was completed using SPSS statistical soft ware and presented in tables.
RESULTS:
Study outcome: The study established mean of(37) 16.2% students in clinical range and a mean of (40) 17.1 % in subclinical range. Clinical and subclinical internalizing syndromes were significantly higher among girls than boys while externalizing was higher in boys than girls. The study found the prevalence of internalizing syndromes as the highest in this population and increasing with age. The internalizing syndrome with the highest clinical range was somatic complains (73)33.2%.
Discussion: (57)25.9% were in clinical range and (50)22.7% in subclinical on internalizing, while in externalizing 7.2% were in the clinical and 13% in the subclinical. This is supported by association of child and adolescent mental study who revealed that Anxious/depression syndrome showed the largest Effect size (ESs) and TRF (3% ESs for ages 6 - 15), and YRS (3% ESs for ages 11 - 16). Prevalence of internalizing syndromes exceeds externalizing problems by mean percentage 9.7% in subclinical range and 18.7% in clinical range. This result coincides with Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Study (2008), who stated that the ESs difference among societies on the internalizing scale exceeded those of externalizing syndrome.
Conclusion: From the findings the study concludes that there is a mental health problem in rural public secondary and primary schools in Busia County in Western Kenya. Girls had more clinical internalizing ASEBA problems indicating a mental health problem among girls in rural public secondary and primary schools. Although not the same as girls, prevalence of clinical and subclinical internalizing syndromes was also reported in boys hence concluding that as much attention is given to girls, boys should also be considered. A similar study to be replicated on a lager sample in other counties in Kenya so that should results be found a policy for the whole country can be implemented. The study recommended immediate mental health treatment services to the youth Future studies on the topic should use culturally and locally standardized tools to compare results. | en_US |
