Main description:

This book highlights the emerging research and policy development efforts to address child and adolescent behavioral health in Sub-Saharan Africa, where mental health policy is at an early stage and in need of context-specific attention to its successes and shortcomings. A diverse range of researchers, with expertise on relevant policy in both the region as a whole and country-specific contexts, including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda, outline theoretically informed, culturally appropriate, evidence-based, and youth- and family-focused service models. The first work of its kind with an exclusive focus on the understudied region of Sub-Saharan Africa, this text:

Provides an overview of the current state of child and adolescent behavioral health in the region
Evaluates empirical work on risk and protective factors influencing behavioral outcomes
Highlights emerging intervention research and dialogue on what works to improve child and adolescent behavioral health
Offers insight and strategies on how to advance child and adolescent behavioral health in policy, research, and practice

Child Behavioral Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: Towards Evidence Generation and Policy Development is a unique reference that offers guidance for current and future policy-makers, researchers, practitioners, and students as they seek to invest and engage in the healthy development of a future generation.

Contents:

Preface

Part I. Child Mental Health in Sub-Saharan Africa

1. Children at the Intersection of HIV, Poverty and Mental Health in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ssewamala & Sensoy Bahar)

2. Poverty and Children's Mental, Emotional and Behavioral Health in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nyoni, Ahmed, & Dvalishvili)

3. Improving Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Africa: A Review of the Economic Evidence (Tozan & Capasso)

4. Child Maltreatment and Mental Health in Sub-Saharan Africa (Bauta & Huang)

Part II. Current Efforts in Policy, Research, and Practice in Child Behavioral Health: Case Examples

5. Child Behavioural Health in Ghana: Current Efforts in Policy, Research and Practice (Asampong & Ibrahim)

6. Children and Child Behavioral Health in Nigeria: Current Efforts in Policy, Research, and Practice (Madu & Osuji)

7. Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Kenya: Do We Need a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Policy? (Muthoni, Mbwayo, Mutavi, & Bukusi)

8. Towards Entrapment: An Escalating Reality for Children and Adolescents Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (Mugisha & Byansi)

Part III. Violence and Child Mental Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: Case Examples

9. The Role of Social Norms: A Case Study of Intimate Partner Violence Among Adolescent Girls in Nigeria (Seff & Stark)

10. Current State of Child Behavioral Health: Focus on Violence Against Children in Uganda (Kafuko, et al.)

11. Determinants of Intergenerational Trauma Transmission: A Case of the Survivors of the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda (Mutuyimana, Sezibera, & Cassady)

Part IV. Poverty and Child Mental Health: Case Examples

12. Food Insecurity, Malnutrition, and Child Developmental and Behavioral Outcomes in Ghana (Aryee, Gyimah, Chapnick, & Iannotti)

13. Child Labor in Ghana: Current Policy, Research and Practice Efforts (Boateng & Dako-Gyeke)

14. Children Living on the Street: Current Efforts in Policy Research and Practices in Ghana (Dankyi)

Part V. Interventions Focused on Child Behavioral Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: Case Examples

15. Caregiver-Child Communication: The Case for Engaging South African Caregivers in Family-Based Interventions (Parchment, Small, & Bhana)

16. Social Enterprises for Child and Adolescent Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Realist Evaluation (Iwelunmor, et al.)