Peer-reviewed article
Refugee caregivers: Associations between psychosocial wellbeing and parenting in Uganda
Melissa Meinhart, Patrick Onyango Mangen, Sabrina Hermosilla, Flora Cohen, Gary Samuel Agaba et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how the psychological wellbeing of refugee caregivers in Uganda relates to their parenting practices. Researchers surveyed caregivers in Kiryandongo Settlement and found that those with better social support, reduced psychological distress, improved functioning, and positive attitudes toward children showed warmer parenting and less rejection of children. The findings suggest that supporting caregiver mental health may be important for improving parenting quality in refugee settings.
Key points
- Nearly half of caregivers relied on cash from international NGOs as their income source, indicating severe livelihood challenges
- Increased social support was significantly associated with more parental warmth and affection (coefficient 0.11)
- Positive attitudes toward children were the strongest predictor of parental warmth (coefficient 0.21) and were also associated with less parental rejection
- Reduced psychological distress and improved functioning were both significantly associated with less parental rejection of children
- The study was based on baseline data from an evaluation of a psychosocial intervention for caregivers
Limitations
The study uses cross-sectional baseline data and cannot establish causal relationships between caregiver wellbeing and parenting behaviours. The findings do not reveal the underlying mechanisms by which psychosocial factors influence parenting or how broader contextual factors in refugee settings may mediate these associations.
Abstract
Caregivers in humanitarian settings experience compounding stressors that may challenge their ability to provide quality parenting to children in their care. In recognition of this precarity, our analysis examines the linkage between psychosocial wellbeing and parenting behaviours among caregivers in Kiryandongo Settlement, Uganda. Using baseline data from an evaluation of a psychosocial intervention designed to support caregiver wellbeing and engage caregivers to support children in their communities, multi-variable ordinary least square regressions were used to estimate how various measures of psychosocial wellbeing (i.e. psychological distress, social support, and functioning) and parenting attitudes (related to violence against children) are associated with parental warmth and rejection. Profound livelihood challenges were found, as nearly half of the sample (48.20%) indicated cash from INGOs as their income source and/or reported never attending school (46.71%). Increased social support (coef. 0.11; 95% CIs: 0.08-0.15) and positive attitudes (coef. 0.21; 95% CIs: 0.14-0.29) were significantly associated with more desirable parental warmth/affection. Similarly, positive attitudes (coef. 0.16; 95% CIs 0.11-0.20), reduced distress (coef. 0.11; 95% CIs: 0.08-0.14) and increased functioning (coef. 0.03; 95% CIs: 0.01-0.04) were significantly associated with more desirable scores of parental undifferentiated rejection. While further research is needed to examine underlining mechanisms and causal pathways, our findings both link individual wellbeing characteristics with parenting behaviours and suggest further exploration into whether and how broader elements of the ecosystem may influence parenting outcomes.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- A psychosocial intervention designed to support caregiver wellbeing and engage caregivers to support children in their communities
- Population
- Refugee caregivers in Kiryandongo Settlement, Uganda
Key finding
Increased social support was significantly associated with more parental warmth (coefficient 0.11, 95% CI: 0.08-0.15)
Meinhart et al. · Prof. Lindsay Stark (OpenAlex works) · 22 Feb 2023