Webinar on emotional and behavioral problems among children and adolescents
A webinar titled “Emotional and behavioral problems among children and adolescents in Nepal” was held virtually on 16 February 2022 from 6 pm to 7 pm Nepal time. The webinar featured two speakers: Dr. Jasmine Ma and Ms. Sirjana Adhikari. It was the seventh webinar of the monthly web series for capacity building of early career researchers in Nepal, organized by TPO Nepal and George Washington University.
The webinar was moderated by Ritika Singh which followed the presentation and Q/A format. After the introduction to the webinar, the moderator also introduced the speakers. Dr. Jasmine Ma specialized in Psychiatry from Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu and is currently doing her Ph.D. from the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare -North, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Similarly, Sirjana Adhikari (M.Phil) is a clinical psychologist affiliated with the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit at Kanti Children’s Hospital and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the Arctic University of Norway, Tromsoe.
The first speaker, Dr. Ma, gave her presentation on ‘Child emotional and behavioral problems and family correlates, reported by parents in Nepal- an epidemiological study”. The presentation was based on the published papers as part of her Ph.D. project. First, she shared some national and international findings related to the emotional and behavioral problems among children. Dr. Ma shared that the Child Behavior Checklist 6-18- Parent version was used to conduct her study. She also shared her study methodology and design in her presentation. Her study findings showed a 19.1% T-score of total problems, which was slightly higher among boys. Similarly, the internalizing problems T score was 24.1% and externalizing problems T-score was 14.2%. The findings also suggested correlation between different family variables (such as parental illness and conflict in the family) and child internalizing and externalizing factors. She suggested using this data for implementation of a child mental health policy to improve children’s mental health in Nepal.
After this, the second speaker Sirjana Adhikari gave her presentation on self-reported emotional and behavioral problems in Nepalese adolescents. First, she briefly shared her career trajectory and then shared data about self-reported mental health problems among children and adolescents in Nepal and worldwide. Then she shared her study design and tool used which was 112-items Youth Self-Report (YSR). According to the preliminary results, the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems (EBP) was 14.3% in the clinical range, which was higher among boys. Similarly, externalizing problems was higher among boys and internalizing problems were higher among girls. Some of the correlates of EBP were age, gender, child’s physical illness, and academic performance.
After the presentation of the speakers, the participants asked questions to the speakers regarding the parental consent, follow-up plan, publication plan, cross-validation, and challenges.
The full webinar video can be accessed here:
