Despite declines in child mortality rates, experiencing a child death remains a common feature of motherhood in many contemporary African populations. Yet, we lack population insights into the consequences of child death for mothers’ well‐being in the high‐mortality regions where it concentrates. Contrasting an extensive psychology literature on the severe and long‐lasting consequences of child death for parents in low‐mortality settings, a long‐standing thesis in multiple social science literature is that the normativity of child death in high‐mortality settings can lead to a numbing effect—muting parents’ reactions to child loss. Yet, select anthropological accounts challenge this thesis, arguing instead that child death can also bear notable consequences for bereaved parents in communities where it is common. This study brings population data to bear, analyzing two representative samples of women in Balaka, Malawi, to examine if child death has measurable mental health consequences for mothers, including elevated and/or worsening depressive symptoms. Further, the study explores the potential influence of children's near‐death experiences on mothers. The results offer evidence that child loss—and the ever‐present threat of it—are underappreciated drivers of women's poor mental health, and overall well‐being.

中文翻译：

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高死亡率非洲社区的儿童死亡和母亲随后的心理健康


尽管儿童死亡率有所下降，但在许多当代非洲人口中，经历儿童死亡仍然是母亲的共同特征。然而，我们缺乏对儿童死亡对儿童死亡集中地区母亲福祉的影响的人口洞察力。与大量关于儿童死亡对低死亡率环境中父母的严重和长期后果的心理学文献相比，多种社会科学文献中的一个长期论点是，在高死亡率环境中，儿童死亡的规范性会导致麻木效应——使父母对失去儿童的反应保持沉默。然而，一些人类学的叙述对这一论点提出了挑战，相反，他们认为，在儿童死亡很常见的社区中，儿童死亡也会对失去亲人的父母产生显著的后果。这项研究利用人口数据，分析了马拉维巴拉卡的两个具有代表性的妇女样本，以检查儿童死亡是否对母亲的心理健康产生可衡量的影响，包括抑郁症状升高和/或恶化。此外，该研究探讨了儿童的濒死经历对母亲的潜在影响。研究结果证明，儿童流失及其无处不在的威胁是导致女性心理健康状况不佳和整体福祉的驱动因素，但未被低估。