Somatic complaints of children in primary care settings often go unexplained despite attempts to determine a cause. Recent research has linked violence exposure to stress symptomatology and associated somatic problems. Unknown, however, is whether specific physical symptom complaints can be attributed, at least in part, to violence exposure. Urban African-American 6- and 7-year-old children (N = 268), residing with their biological mothers, recruited before birth, and without prenatal exposure to hard illicit drugs participated. Children and mothers were evaluated in our hospital-based research laboratory, with teacher data collected by mail. Community violence exposure (Things I Have Seen and Heard), stress symptomatology (Levonn), and somatic complaints (teacher-and self-report items) were assessed. Additional data collected included prenatal alcohol exposure, socioeconomic status, domestic violence, maternal age, stress, somatic complaints and psychopathology, and child depression, abuse, and gender. Community violence witnessing and victimization were associated with stress symptoms (r= .26 and .25, respectively, p < .001); violence victimization was related to decreased appetite (r = .16, p < .01), difficulty sleeping (r = .21, p < .001), and stomachache complaints (r = .13, p < .05); witnessed violence was associated with difficulty sleeping (r = .13, p < .05) and headaches (r = .12, p < .05). All associations remained significant after control for confounding. Community violence exposure accounted for 10% of the variance in child stress symptoms, and children who had experienced community violence victimization had a 28% increased risk of appetite problems, a 94% increased risk of sleeping problems, a 57% increased risk of headaches, and a 174% increased risk of stomachaches. Results provide yet another possibility for clinicians to explore when treating these physical symptoms in children.

In order to determine what mental health problems South African children living with HIV experience, interviews were conducted with HIV-positive children and their caregivers at a paediatric HIV clinic in Tshwane. The interviews with the children included assessments that focused on the children's self-esteem (Self-Description Questionnaire), experiences of anxiety (RCMAS), and the coping strategies that they employed in daily living (Kidcope). The interviews with caregivers included a questionnaire about demographic details, the Parental Stress Index (PSI), and the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES). Caregivers also completed the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), which assesses a range of psychological problems in children. These results were compared to a sample of HIV-negative children and their caregivers from the same community. Although many children living with HIV-infection displayed clinical levels of somatic and depressive symptoms, these did not differ at statistically significant rates from the HIVnegative comparison group. Furthermore, children living with HIV were not found to experience clinically significant levels of anxiety as assessed by the RCMAS. Children living with HIV were found to employ more adaptive coping strategies than maladaptive coping strategies and significantly fewer maladaptive coping strategies than HIV-uninfected children use. Children living with HIV were also found to have significantly higher positive self-evaluations than HIVuninfected children. The results of the caregiver assessments indicated that caregivers of children living with HIV experience more distress in their relationship with their child and tend to engage less with negative emotional displays of their children than do caregivers of HIV-uninfected children. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Psychology / MA / Unrestricted