ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2018
Mental health problems and their association to violence and maltreatment in a nationally representative sample of Tanzanian secondary school students.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Structural and health system determinants of mental health in Tanzania: mapping policy recommendations to the WHO comprehensive mental health action plan 2013-2030.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Physical punishment and lifelong outcomes in low‑ and middle‑income countries: a systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis.Nature human behaviour · 2025Pooled it
- The prevalence of mental health problems in sub-Saharan adolescents: A systematic review.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- Mental health problems among secondary school students 10-24 years in Kilimanjaro region, Northern Tanzania.African health sciences · 2025Article
- Impact of exposure to community and school violence during adolescence in the African context: systematic review.BJPsych international · 2025Review
- Promoting adolescent mental health in Tanzania and Vietnam through a co-created universal school-based initiative: Findings from a mixed method study.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- Article
- Exploring adolescents' mental health in Kampala, Uganda in the context of COVID-19: a mixed methods study.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Teacher Violence and Student Wellbeing in Rural Sierra Leone: Longitudinal Dynamics Across Primary Schooling.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Prevalence and factors contributing to mental health challenges among school-going adolescents: a case of a climate-vulnerable Manafwa Watershed in Uganda.BMC public health · 2024Article
- School-based prevention of teacher and parental violence against children: Study protocol of a cluster-randomized controlled trial in Tanzania.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Prevalence and correlates of internalizing and externalizing mental health problems among in-school adolescents in eastern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Meta-Analysis: Prevalence of Youth Mental Disorders in Sub-Saharan Africa.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2024Review
- When the Media Omits or Includes Scientific Evidence in Its Publications: Science and Battles on X about Child Sexual Abuse.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Mental health and psychological well-being of Kenyan adolescents from Nairobi and the Coast regions in the context of COVID-19.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2023Article
- Life events and parent style for mental health in children: a cross-sectional study.Pediatric research · 2023Article
- Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and the associated factors among children and adolescents with a history of maltreatment in Uganda.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2022Article
- Article
- Preventing Violence by Teachers in Primary Schools: Study Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in Haiti.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Using Longitudinal Social Network Analysis to Evaluate a Community-Wide Parenting Intervention.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeLittle is known about the prevalence of mental health problems among adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa. Research consistently determined violence and maltreatment to be important risk factors. In this study, we examined the prevalence of mental health problems among adolescents in Tanzania, as well as the association with exposure to violence and maltreatment.
methodsWe administered a set of questionnaires (e.g., strength and difficulties questionnaire; conflict tactic scale) to a nationally representative sample of 700 Tanzanian secondary school children (52% girls; age 14.92 years, SD = 1.02) and 333 parents or primary caregivers (53% females; age 43.47 years, SD = 9.02).
results41% of the students reported an elevated level of mental health problems (emotional problems 40%, peer problems 63%, conduct problems 45%, hyperactivity 17%) in the past 6 months. Concordantly, 31% of parents reported observing an elevated level of mental health problems in their children (emotional problems 37%, peer problems 54%, conduct problems 35%, hyperactivity 17%). After controlling for other risk factors, we found significant associations between physical violence by parents and adolescent's mental health problems reported by students (β = 0.15) and their parents (β = 0.33).
conclusionsOur findings suggest a high prevalence of mental health problems using screening tools among secondary school students in Tanzania as well as an association between physical violence by parents and adolescents' mental health problems. Our findings emphasize the need to inform the population at large about the potentially adverse consequences associated with violence against children and adolescents.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.