Adjustment Challenges to Healthy Psychosocial Development of Aids-Orphaned Children of Adama Town
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Date
2006-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The objective of this study has been to investigate the adjustment challenges of AIDS
olphans, that is, their psychological and social adjustment to AIDS related parental
death, their assumed connectedness to their caregivers, the nature of their social
interactions, their self-esteem and their emotional adjustments. Hence, 61 AIDS orphans
and 4 counselors were selected from OSSA (Organization for Social Services for AIDS)
in Adama city using random sampling method.
Regarding assumed connectedness, 32 (52.46%) of those children have no assumed
connectedness to their guardians, 17 (27.86%) have very weak assumed connectedness to
their guardian, 6 (9.84%) have weak assumed connectedness to their guardians, 5
(8.19%) have strong assumed connectedness to their guardians and one child has very
strong assumed connectedness to his guardian. Thus, the majority of AIDS OIphans do
not assume themselves to be psychologically connected to their guardians. When Chisquare
test of independence was computed to test whether depression was related to the
assumed connectedness of these children, the calculated x 2 value was 42.77 -
significant. This shows that the level of depression is not independent of the extent to
which these children assume themselves to be psychologically connected to their
caregivers. This means, there was relationship between the levels of depression and
degree of connectedness of AIDS orphans to their guardians!caregivers.
It was also found out from the research that AIDS orphans have scary dreams, feel
unhappy, prefer to be alone, are worried, view themselves as hopeless about the future,
and demonstrate low self-esteem. Chi-square test of independence showed that there was
no relationship between sex and age of these children.
Besides, the children exhibit social adjustment problems. This means, they are socially
awkward, shy, and show no interest in social relationships. Independent sample t-test
was used to test if the way AIDS orphans express their internal anxiety or emotion such
as nervousness, tension and worry was related to the age andlor sex of these children.
For age, the observed value of twas 1.29- not Significant. This means, the way AIDS
orphans express their internal an.xiety or emotion such as n.ervousness, tension and
worry was not related to the age of these children. For sex, the observed value of twas
3.08- far greater than the table value of t, Qnd hence it is significant. This shows that
there was relationship between the sex of AIDS orphans and the way they express their
internal anxiety or emotion such as nervousness, tension and worry. Thus, no matter
how both males and female AIDS orphans express their nervousness, tension and worry
highly in the same way, male AIDS orphans seem to express their internal anxiety more
than female AIDS orphans. Independent sample t-test shows that the more mature
AIDS orphans (16-18 years) have more social adjustment problems when compared to
the younger AIDS orphans (l3-15).However, no significant sex difference had been
obtained on the social adjustment problems of the AIDS orphans. FinQlly, it was
recommended that training has to be given to communities at large, AIDS orphans and
guardians.
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Keywords
Challenges to Healthy Psychosocial Development