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Learning Objective 1: Understand the status of conduct problems among the children living in orphanage facilities of Karachi, Pakistan
Learning Objective 2: Identify the factors associated with conduct problems among children living in orphanage facilities of Karachi, Pakistan
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 330 children of 4 – 16 years of age from an SOS village and other conventional-orphanages in Karachi.
Results: The study estimated the prevalence of conduct problems among children living in orphanage facilities of Karachi as 50%. The prevalence among SOS village children was 51.6% and that among conventional-orphanage was 49%. The factors independently associated were foster-mother depression (ORadj = 4.48, 95% CI: 2.22 – 9.03), and malnourishment (ORadj = 1.91, 95% CI: 1.25 – 2.92), while every one year increase in length of stay at the facility had a protective effect on conduct problems (ORadj = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.77 – 0.98). There was a significant interaction between facility and gender with regards to conduct problems. There was no difference in the conduct problems of male children in two facilities (ORadj = 0.43, 95% CI: 0.15 – 1.24), however female children in conventional orphanage were at much higher risk as compared to female in SOS village. (ORadj = 6.98, 95% CI: 2.44 – 19.93). Moreover, there was significant interaction between gender and parental living status. There was no difference in the conduct problems of male children with regard to their parental living status (ORadj = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.69 – 1.45), however females had a protective effect against conduct problems when they had no parent alive. (ORadj = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.09 – 0.67).
Conclusion: There is a felt need that proper and timely screening coupled with routine monitoring and evaluation can lead to alleviating these risk factors. Efforts are required to promote such programs in Pakistan.