Psychosocial support and parents' social life determine the self-esteem of orphan children

Abstract

Parental death affects the life of children in many ways, one of which is self-esteem problems. Providing psychosocial support and equipping orphans play a vital role in their lifes. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 7–18-year-old orphans at 17 local districts of Gamo Gofa Zone, Southern Regional State of Ethiopia. From a total of 48,270 orphans in these areas, 4,368 were selected using stratified simple random sampling technique. Data were collected with a designed questionnaire based on the Rosenberg’s rating scale to measure their self-esteem levels. Self-esteem with a score less than or equal to an average score was considered to be low self-esteem in the analysis. Binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the data using the SPSS software. The results of the study revealed that the probability of orphans suffering from low self-esteem was 0.59. Several risk factors were found to be significant at the level of 5%. Psychosocial support (good guidance, counseling and treatment, physical protection and amount of love shared, financial and material support, and fellowship with other children), parents living together before death, strong relationship between parents before death, high average monthly income, voluntary support, and consideration from the society are some of the factors that decrease the risk of being low in self-esteem. There are many orphans with low self-esteem in the study areas. The factors negatively affecting the self-esteem of orphans include the lack of psychosocial support, poor social life of parents, and death of parents due to AIDS. Society and parents should be aware of the consequences of these factors which can influence their children’s future self-esteem.

Intervention Model for Orphan’s Emotional and Behavioral Problems: A Scoping Review

“…This problem is in line with research in Africa, which showed that orphan adolescents have a higher incidence of grieving problems, post-traumatic stress, depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, behavior problems, and negative outlook, than non-orphan adolescents [28], [29], [30], [31]. More specifically, this study is also in line with Erango and Ayka [32] which stated that 59% of children experience self-esteem problems followed by emotional problems including anxiety as much as 14.73% [7] and at least 12.7% experience depression [7].…”

Effectiveness of Using Football Basics in Physical Education and Organizing Arts and Cultural Events for Promoting Harmonious Development of Orphan Children

“…Orphan hood caused by parental death, disrupted bonds during childhood affect the life of children in a negative way including the risk of being low in self-esteem (Erango and Ayka, 2015). There is a diversity and complexity of reasons that determine the mothers' role in the education of their children (Anyikwa and Obidike, 2012).…”

Psychological wellbeing of children at public primary schools in Jimma town: An orphan and non-orphan comparative study

“…Orphanhood leads to various problems often to prejudice, reduced access to health and school services, challenges to the basic physiologic needs and other factors that can impact their future [ 1 ]. The death of one or both parents has a profound and lifelong impact on the psychological wellbeing of children that affects every aspect of their lives; to learn, to be healthy, to play, to be productive, and to relate well to other people as they develop [ 2 ].…”