Relationship between mothers’/caregivers’ reported learning difficulty and internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depression) of children aged 5–17 years in Ghana
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research in Developmental Disabilities
Abstract
Background: Children with learning difficulties are vulnerable to internalizing symptoms,
particularly anxiety and depression. However, only few studies have examined this relationship in
low-and-middle-income countries using a nationally representative data.
Aims: This study aimed to examine the relationship between learning difficulty and internalizing
symptoms of children aged 5− 17 years in Ghana while controlling for covariates.
Methods and procedures: We analyzed children’s data using mothers’/caregivers’ reports from the
2017/2018 Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Six (MICS 6). Data of 8,958 children aged
5− 17 years were used for the analysis.
Outcomes and results: About 20% of the children had some learning difficulties whereas 5% could
not learn at all. Learning difficulty was associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression of
children. Specifically, children who had some learning difficulties had higher odds of feeling
anxious [APOR = 1.28, 95% CI:1.11, 1.49, p = 0.001] while those with some difficulties
[APOR=1.24, 95% CI:1.07, 1.44, p = 0.004] and a lot of difficulties or could not learn at all
[APOR=1.74, 95% CI:1.28, 2.37, p < 0.01] had higher odds of feeling depressed.
Conclusion and implications: The findings call on stakeholders in education and health to prioritize
the mental health of all school-going children, particularly those with learning difficulties in
Ghana.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Learning difficulty, Anxiety, Depression