Poverty, Social Change, and Shifting Expectations: The Makings of Mental Health Disorders Among Ethiopian Adolescents

贫困、社会变革和期望转变：埃塞俄比亚青少年心理健康障碍的成因由于经济和文化全球化的影响，世界各地的年轻人正在经历前所未有的新的生活可能性。对许多青年来说，这种接触可能导致他们对未来产生新的期望和愿望。然而，对于发展中国家的低收入青年来说，经济现实可能会阻碍他们实现自己的愿望。这些同样的愿望也可能造成代际冲突，因为年轻人的价值观不同于既定的社会规范。研究人员Craig Haldey博士和Daniel Mains博士将研究这些“不匹配”对青少年生活和心理社会健康的影响，以及这种关系如何被社会、文化和经济因素所改变。他们将在埃塞俄比亚开展这项研究，那里的大多数人口是年轻人，高度贫困是实现愿望的障碍。调查人员将依靠定性的民族志数据收集方法和社会调查技术。非调查方法将包括非结构化访谈、免费清单和小组讨论，并将用于从年轻人和成年人那里引出当地和文化上合适的成功生活和重要里程碑的概念。然后，年轻人和成年人将被要求对成功生活要素的相对重要性进行排名。最重要的因素和共同分享的因素将纳入一项调查，该调查将对近2000名青年（15-19岁）进行人口抽样。对于每个要素，年轻人将回答他们认为该要素对成功生活的重要性，他们是否实现了该要素，以及他们认为实现该要素的可能性。还将通过调查衡量青年的心理健康、经济状况和社会支持网络。通过这项调查，调查人员可以评估失败或无法达到文化上商定的里程碑对心理健康的影响。这项研究很重要，因为它集成了一系列的方法。研究人员利用社会科学来解决几个新出现的问题：全球化、心理健康和许多发展中国家当前的人口现实。

Poverty, social change, and shifting expectations: The makings of mental health disorders among Ethiopian adolescents Due to the impacts of economic and cultural globalization, young people throughout the world are experiencing an unprecedented exposure to new possibilities for living. For many youth this exposure may lead to new expectations and aspirations for their future. However, for low-income youth in developing countries, economic realities may prevent them from attaining their aspirations. These same aspirations may also create inter-generational conflict as the values of young people differ from established social norms. Researchers, Dr. Craig Haldey and Dr. Daniel Mains, will study the impact that these "mismatches" have on youth's lives and pyschosocial health, and how this relationship is modified by social, cultural, and economic factors. They will carry out the research in Ethiopia where the majority of the population is young and high levels of poverty act as barriers to the fulfillment aspirations. The investigators will rely on qualitative ethnographic data collection methods and social survey techniques. The non-survey methods will include unstructured interviews, free listing, and group discussions and will be used to elicit locally and culturally appropriate conceptions of a successful life and important milestones from youth and adults. Youth and adults will then be asked to rank the relative importance of elements of a successful life. The most important elements and those that are collectively shared will be integrated into a survey that will be administered to a population-based sample of nearly 2000 youth (15-19 y). For each element, youth will respond how important they think the item is to a successful life, whether they have achieved that item, and their perceived likelihood of every achieving it. The mental health, economic status, and social support networks of youth will also be measured through the survey. Through this survey the investigators can assess the mental health impact of failure or inability to achieve culturally agreed upon milestones. The research is important because it integrates a range of methodologies. The researchers use social science to address several emerging issues: globalization, mental health, and current demographic realities in many developing countries.