The number of war-related traumatic events is associated with increased behavioural but not emotional problems among Syrian refugee children years after resettlement

Abstract

Background: Turkey is the leading refugee-hosting country in the world. However, there are few studies which investigate mental wellbeing of refugee children in Turkey. Objective: The paper aims to examine the prevalence of emotional and behavioural problems and associated risk factors among Syrian refugee minors in Turkey. Methods: The research involved 85 students from 2 th to 8 th grades. We investigated emotional and behavioural problems with parent-reported Arabic form of Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Socio-demographical findings and children's war-related experiences were also examined. Results: The study sample consisted of 49 (63.6%) girls, and 28 (36.4%) boys (total 77) from age 7 to 17. Average time after resettlement was 29.8 ± 11.2 (5 to 50 months) months. 66 (85.7%) children reported to had lost at least one familiar person due to the war. The mean experienced war-related traumatic events were calculated as 2.92 ± 1.86. Total difficulty scores of 30 (39.0%) children were above the cut off values. The rates of children whose SDQ problem scores exceeded the cutoff values were as high as 45.5% (35) for Emotional problems, 64.9% (50) for Peer, 27.3% (21) for conduct and 19.5% (15) for Hyperactivity problems. Discussion: Results indicate high prevalence rates of severe traumatic experiences and possible psychiatric disorders among child survivors of Syrian war which in its seventh year now.

Annual Research Review: A multilevel bioecological analysis of factors influencing the mental health and psychosocial well‐being of refugee children

“…Events, memories, emotions and experiences can either buffer or worsen the effects of adverse experiences as a function of children’s emotionality (resource), coping and self‐regulation strategies (force characteristics), adaptability (force characteristics), distractibility and attention span (force characteristics) (Akiyama et al, 2013; Buchegger‐Traxler & Sirsch, 2012; Çeri & Nasiroğlu, 2018; Nasıroğlu et al, 2018; Oppedal et al, 2018; Panter‐Brick et al, 2015; Vervliet et al, 2014; Veronese, Pepe, Jaradah, Al Muranak, et al, 2017; Veronese, Pepe, Jaradah, Murannak, et al, 2017). For instance, reports suggest differences in prevalence of psychopathology in refuge children by gender (demand factor), whereas girls appear more negatively affected by adverse experiences than boys (Akiyama et al, 2013; Buchegger‐Traxler & Sirsch, 2012; Çeri & Nasiroğlu, 2018; Nasıroğlu et al, 2018; Oppedal et al, 2018; Panter‐Brick et al, 2015; Vervliet et al, 2014). It is also established that girls appear to prefer intimate and domestic forms of agency (Boxer et al, 2013) and are more prone to exhibit internalization problems in the face of adversity (Kolltveit et al, 2012).…”

Academic Achievement and Psychosocial Adjustment in Child Refugees: A Systematic Review

“…In total, 11,997 school-aged child refugees aged 5-12 years were included. The studies were conducted in Australia (Bryant et al, 2018;Dodds et al, 2010;Driver & Beltran, 1998;El Habir et al, 1994;Hanes et al, 2019;Lau et al, 2018;Mares & Jureidini, 2004;Ziaian et al, 2013Ziaian et al, , 2018, Canada (Rousseau et al, 1996(Rousseau et al, , 1998Usman, 2012), Costa Rica (McCallin, 1988), Denmark (Montgomery & Foldspang, 2006;Nielsen et al, 2007), Eritrea (Wolff et al, 1995), Ethiopia (Metzler et al, 2019), Finland (Sourander, 1998), Germany (Buchmüller et al, 2020), Greece (Bilanakis et al, 1999;Papageorgiou et al, 2000), Italy (Pellizzoni et al, 2020), Lebanon (Sim et al, 2018), the Netherlands (Goosen et al, 2014;Wiegersma et al, 2011), South Korea (Nho et al, 2019), Sweden (Goldin et al, 2008), Saudi Arabia (Al-Eissa, 1995), Thailand (Annan et al, 2017;Son, 1995), Turkey (Çeri & Nasiroglu 2018;Eruyar et al, 2018;Nasiroglu et al, 2018), Uganda (Paardekooper et al, 1999), the United Kingdom (O'Shea et al, 2000), and the United States (Ballard et al, 2018;Birman & Tran, 2017;Chiu et al, 1989;…”

“…A variety of outcome measures were employed. Approximately one-third of the studies used the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Ballard et al, 2018;Bilanakis et al, 1999;Bryant et al, 2018;Buchmüller et al, 2020;Çeri & Nasiroglu, 2018;Eruyar et al, 2018;Hanes et al, 2019;Lau et al, 2018;Nielsen et al, 2007;Metzler et al, 2019;O'Shea et al, 2000;Papageorgiou et al, 2000;Sim, 2018;Sekhon, 2008;Wiegersma et al, 2011;Ziaian et al, 2013Ziaian et al, , 2018. However, different versions (bib49parent, teacher, or student) were used.…”

“…Four studies (Bryant et al, 2018;Lau et al, 2018;Sim, 2018;Ziaian et al, 2018) reported higher rates of hyperactivity and emotional, conduct, and peer problems in child refugees, which were associated with parents' PTSD and a harsh parenting style. Several studies (Driver & Beltran, 1998;Goosen et al, 2014;Nasiroglu et al, 2018;Nielsen et al, 2007) showed that the high level of psychopathic behavior in child refugees was related to the traumatic experience of being placed in detention (Hanes et al, 2019), and this was more significant among children who had multiple relocations within the asylum system (Nielsen et al, 2007). In a study of child refugees from different cultural backgrounds, Sourander (1998) demonstrated that behavioral problems were significantly more severe in younger children (i.e., 6-14 years of age) compared to older children (i.e., 15-17 years of age).…”

“…Young age was a risk factor for psychosocial problems in multiple studies (Eruyar et al, 2018;Lau et al, 2018;Son, 1995;Wiegersma et al, 2011). A few studies (Çeri & Nasiroglu, 2018;Driver & Beltran, 1998;Eruyar et al, 2018;Nasiroglu et al, 2018;Paardekooper et al, 1999;Papageorgiou et al, 2000;Wiegersma et al, 2011) demonstrated that exposure to war-related trauma and violence was associated with a higher number of mental health problems, predominantly PTSD, in child refugees.…”