The psychosocial wellbeing of orphans: The case of early school leavers in socially depressed environment in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

Abstract

Background The emergence of a large population of orphaned youth in sub-Saharan Africa is due to the natural maturity of orphaned children. Research indicates that orphaned youth face more negative psychosocial challenges than their younger counterparts do. Furthermore, these challenges are intensified for early school leavers. This paper describes how experiencing maternal death affects the psychosocial wellbeing of orphaned youth who left school before completing high school. Methods An exploratory qualitative study was undertaken among purposively sampled orphaned youth using in-depth interviews with open-ended questions. Fifty participants were recruited through social workers, community based organisations, and tribal authorities in a rural local municipality of Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. All data analyses were performed using NVivo10, following an inductive thematic approach.

Responding to Maternal Loss: A Phenomenological Study of Older Orphans in Youth-Headed Households in Impoverished Areas of South Africa

“…The study has observed that the death of their parents was accompanied by multiple losses, such as loss of the family home, loss of multiple family members, loss of support from relatives, loss of friendships, loss of educational opportunities and future aspirations, and loss of childhood. This observation is consistent with previous research conducted with orphans in similar households, which concluded that these losses contributed to their psychological vulnerability [24,28,41,42].…”

“…As such, they believed that if their mothers had still been alive, their precarious situations might have been better. Moreover, the participants suppressed the emotional impact of parental loss to overcome their grief [24,28,53]. Persistent yearning for a mother has been reported elsewhere as a common expression of prolonged bereavement among orphans [28,43,54].…”

“…We found that most of the participants had dropped out of school to find work to provide for their siblings. Similarly, other researchers have reported on early school leaving as a strategy that is used by orphans who have parental responsibilities [5,8,28].…”

“…Researchers have reported various factors that predispose orphans in child-or youth-headed households to long-term psychological problems. The most significant factor is that they often do not get the opportunity to grieve the loss of their parents [17,28].…”

“…In addition, older orphans are often forced to drop out of school early. Several studies have associated early school leaving with psychological distress among orphans [17,28,29].…”