Mental health problems among students in the area with continuous insurgency in the deep South of Thailand

บทคัดย่อ

Objective The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence of symptoms of PTSD, other behavioral and emotional problems among Thai students in the areas
with continuous insurgency and to identify factors associated with mental health problems in this group.

Materials and methods The mental health assessments were conducted among students aged 11 to 18 who were studying in 3 provinces in the deep South of Thailand. A sampling of schools was drawn from each provinces and 2,884 students were enrolled in this study. The CRIES 8 and SDQ were used to identified symptoms of PTSD and other behavioral and emotional problems.

Results Prevalence of PTSD among these children was 21.9%, behavioral and emotional problems by SDQ was 37.2%. By multiple logistic regression analysis, factors such as saw someone died, having felt extreme fear and helpless were not significantly associated with symptoms of PTSD. Risk factors such as female, divorce, family member died, saw events, saw someone died, having felt extreme fear and helpless were not related with behavioral and emotional problems significantly.

Conclusion Prevalence of mental health among students in the area with continuous insurgency in the deep South of Thailand was moderate to high level. This result
indicated that the children need preventive interventions to improve the mental health.