Relationship between mothers’/caregivers’ reported learning difficulty and internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depression) of children aged 5–17 years in Ghana
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