Does HIV compound maternal mental health challenges among adolescent mothers in South Africa?

Adolescent (10-19 years) pregnancy rates within Sub-Saharan Africa are high, as is HIV prevalence amongst adolescents. Both Adolescent pregnancy and HIV are prominent global health issues which may – independently and combined – compound mental health difficulties for adolescents. Poor mental health may have widespread impacts for individuals and their social network. There is an absence of literature exploring risk and protective factors for mental health difficulties among adolescent mothers within the context of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa – existing research has focused on broader populations. This exploratory study study aims to identify the prevalence of common mental disorder among adolescent mothers (both living with and not living with HIV) and explores hypothesised risk factors (utlising Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model as a framework) for likely common mental disorder