Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala

Growing up in vulnerable conditions has an impact on children and adolescents’ mental health and well-being outcomes. However, this evidence has rarely been obtained in middle and low-income countries like Guatemala, where food insecurity and exposure to violence frequently threaten childhood develo...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Company Córdoba, Rosalba, Gómez Baya, Diego, López Gaviño, Francisca, Ibáñez Alfonso, Joaquín A.
Format: article
Publication Date:2020
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Huelva (UHU)
Repository:Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ariasmontano.uhu.es:10272/19084
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10272/19084
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Mental health
Depression
Anxiety
Quality of life
Violence
Food insecurity
Socioeconomic status
Poverty
Children
Adolescents
id ES_20ca479bccdd017dfd573613189144ef
oai_identifier_str oai:ariasmontano.uhu.es:10272/19084
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of GuatemalaCompany Córdoba, RosalbaGómez Baya, DiegoLópez Gaviño, FranciscaIbáñez Alfonso, Joaquín A.Mental healthDepressionAnxietyQuality of lifeViolenceFood insecuritySocioeconomic statusPovertyChildrenAdolescentsGrowing up in vulnerable conditions has an impact on children and adolescents’ mental health and well-being outcomes. However, this evidence has rarely been obtained in middle and low-income countries like Guatemala, where food insecurity and exposure to violence frequently threaten childhood development. The aim of this study was to analyse the relations that sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors have with psychological adjustment of low-socioeconomic status (SES) Guatemalan children and adolescents, and how these relations were mediated by food insecurity and exposure to violence. A total of 185 participants (50.8% girls; aged between 6 to 17, M = 11.82, SD = 3.7) from three vulnerable schools located in rural and urban areas of Guatemala were assessed. The results indicated that exposure to violence significantly moderates the effect of sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables in measures of depression, anxiety and health-related quality of life. Adolescents more exposed to violence reported higher levels of depression and anxiety, as well as lower levels of health-related quality of life. In contrast, food insecurity did not seem to influence psychological adjustment outcomes in this low-SES sample. These findings highlight the relevance of exposure to violence for mental health and well-being, and is a factor that should be considered when designing public health policies to promote children and adolescents’ welfare.MDPI20202020-10-0120202020-10-01journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10272/19084reponame:Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelvainstname:Universidad de Huelva (UHU)Inglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 Españahttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:ariasmontano.uhu.es:10272/190842026-06-02T14:58:11Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala
title Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala
spellingShingle Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala
Company Córdoba, Rosalba
Mental health
Depression
Anxiety
Quality of life
Violence
Food insecurity
Socioeconomic status
Poverty
Children
Adolescents
title_short Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala
title_full Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala
title_fullStr Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala
title_full_unstemmed Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala
title_sort Mental Health, Quality of Life and Violence Exposure in Low-Socioeconomic Status Children and Adolescents of Guatemala
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Company Córdoba, Rosalba
Gómez Baya, Diego
López Gaviño, Francisca
Ibáñez Alfonso, Joaquín A.
author Company Córdoba, Rosalba
author_facet Company Córdoba, Rosalba
Gómez Baya, Diego
López Gaviño, Francisca
Ibáñez Alfonso, Joaquín A.
author_role author
author2 Gómez Baya, Diego
López Gaviño, Francisca
Ibáñez Alfonso, Joaquín A.
author2_role author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Mental health
Depression
Anxiety
Quality of life
Violence
Food insecurity
Socioeconomic status
Poverty
Children
Adolescents
topic Mental health
Depression
Anxiety
Quality of life
Violence
Food insecurity
Socioeconomic status
Poverty
Children
Adolescents
description Growing up in vulnerable conditions has an impact on children and adolescents’ mental health and well-being outcomes. However, this evidence has rarely been obtained in middle and low-income countries like Guatemala, where food insecurity and exposure to violence frequently threaten childhood development. The aim of this study was to analyse the relations that sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors have with psychological adjustment of low-socioeconomic status (SES) Guatemalan children and adolescents, and how these relations were mediated by food insecurity and exposure to violence. A total of 185 participants (50.8% girls; aged between 6 to 17, M = 11.82, SD = 3.7) from three vulnerable schools located in rural and urban areas of Guatemala were assessed. The results indicated that exposure to violence significantly moderates the effect of sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables in measures of depression, anxiety and health-related quality of life. Adolescents more exposed to violence reported higher levels of depression and anxiety, as well as lower levels of health-related quality of life. In contrast, food insecurity did not seem to influence psychological adjustment outcomes in this low-SES sample. These findings highlight the relevance of exposure to violence for mental health and well-being, and is a factor that should be considered when designing public health policies to promote children and adolescents’ welfare.
publishDate 2020
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2020
2020-10-01
2020
2020-10-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10272/19084
url http://hdl.handle.net/10272/19084
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
instname:Universidad de Huelva (UHU)
instname_str Universidad de Huelva (UHU)
reponame_str Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
collection Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1869404479515787264
score 15.812455

Similar Items