The impacts of toxic culture on the mental health of young people in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Abstract
Mental health problems affecting youth accounts for 19% of disabilities in Sub Saharan Africa. About 60 000 suicide related deaths of young people are recorded annually due to mental health related issues. Anxiety and depression are the leading causes of high suicide rate and disability in young people in SSA. This study was a secondary study and used empirical studies to draw conclusions. Google scholar, PubMed and JSTOR were used to obtain data from researches conducted in the subject matter. Websites including World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF were also used to get data. Key words which were used in the search engines are “toxic culture”, “culture and child marriages”, “forced marriages and mental health”, “bride price and Gender based violence”, “gender inequality + mental health and youth”, “initiation schools and toxic culture”, “negative impacts and culture”, “mental health, and youth and sub Saharan Africa”, Sub Saharan Africa was included in every search. The study population was young people (10 years to 30 years) in Sub Saharan Africa. Snowball search was done in some topics which are under researched and convenience sampling was done to select journals in cases of many journals. Child marriages, Gender based violence, gender inequality and initiation schools are some of the harmful cultural practices that are harming the psychology of young people. The low literacy rate among young girls is directly related to early marriage. The study was aimed at investigating these toxic cultural practices and their impacts on the mental health of young people in SSA. Culture, religion and Poverty were pointed out as the major drivers to these harmful practices. Improving the socio-economic status of households, proper education of young people and women empowerment are pivotal putting an end to these practices.
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