Effects of rapid urbanisation on child behaviour and health in a part of Khartoum, Sudan.

A study of child behaviour and health in a newly urbanised part of Khartoum was carried out in 1979-1980 on 245 children aged 3-15 yr. The same area had been investigated in 1965. Results show improvement in somatic health in older children. Behavioural symptoms increased more in boys than in girls, and more in older than in younger children, probably in proportion to the extent of their exposure to new external influences. In general there were still fewer behavioural problems in this population than has been reported from other developing and developed countries. Favourable aspects of community life still operating include extended family relations, durable marital commitments and mutually supportive communal interdependence and traditions of social control.