A Study of the Emotional and Psychological Well‐being of Refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

Abstract

This study explores the emotional problems affecting refugees in Kakuma refugee camp (northern Kenya). The freelisting technique was used to interview 52 community members and 32 "key informants". Freelisting was found to be useful in this setting, and provided information which could assist with advocacy, programme planning, and programme evaluation.The emotional problems most frequently identified were hopelessness, fear, sadness, anger/ aggression, and worry. Both current stressors and previous losses were said to impact on emotional wellbeing. Therefore, whilst psychosocial interventions are important, programmes addressing refugees" practical needs (particularly safety and material needs) will have a positive impact on psychosocial wellbeing. These findings also suggest that some anti-social behaviours which contribute to problems within and between communities in Kakuma are due in part to emotional problems; if so, addressing emotional problems would be a worthwhile use of resources.

Correlates of the quality of life of adolescents in families affected by HIV/AIDS in Benue state, Nigeria

“…Such difficult life experiences have been reported to play important role in the psychosocial wellbeing of young people in related settings (Northam et al, 2010). Though the current data limits our ability to explore any hypothesis in that direction, many previous studies have reported family dimension in psychosocial wellbeing and health of children and adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa (Horn, 2010; Okawa et al, 2011; Case & Ardington, 2006). Adolescents, in the absence of both or either of the parents are prone to a series of developmental disadvantages resulting in poor education, such as lags in grade for age and school attendance relative to other children (Case & Ardington, 2006; Evans & Miguel, 2007; Ainsworth, Beegle & Koda, 2005).…”

“…Unfortunately, there are no local studies with which to immediately compare our findings. Notwithstanding, selected studies in some part of sub-Saharan Africa (Northam et al, 2010; Nsereko et al, 2014; Horn, 2010; Okawa et al, 2011; DeSilva, Skalicky, Beard et al, 2012; Nsereko, Musisi, Nakigudde et al, 2014; Escueta, Whetten, Ostermann et al, 2014) have reported high prevalence psychosocial functioning problems among children and young people. In particular, in a study conducted among undergraduate university students selected from three universities in a similar setting such as Uganda, 37% of the participants were reported to have psychosocial problems and this was due to traumatic life experiences in about 49%; emotional problems in about 35%; antisocial behaviour in about 21% and academic problems in about 38% of the participants (Nsereko, Musisi, Nakigudde et al, 2014).…”

“…Such background factors may include disease conditions (Northam, Lin, Finch et al, 2010), difficult life experience (Nsereko, Musisi, Nakigudde et al, 2014; Horn, 2010; Okawa, Yasuoka, Ishikawa, et al, 2011) and other community or family level characteristics whose consequences on the psychosocial variables may significantly affect their impacts on the adolescents’ functioning. In developed countries such as the United States of America (USA), a family-based treatment (FBT) study involving family members of adolescents suffering from Anorexia nervosa (AN) reported poorer psychosocial adjustment among siblings of adolescents with AN compared to their peers, both before and after FBT (Abubakar, Alonso-Arbiol, Van de Vijver et al, 2013).…”

Perceived contributions of multifunctional landscapes to human well‐being: Evidence from 13 European sites

“…Such open free‐listing approach, going beyond pre‐defined typologies of well‐being (such as Rogers et al, ; Smith, Case, Smith, Harwell, & Summers, ), has rarely been used in previous landscape research (as an exception see Bieling et al, ). However, there are studies in other contexts that try to understand well‐being through free listing and related methods such as word association or open‐ended questions with very broad prompts, for example with regard to food (Ares, De Saldamando, Giménez, & Deliza, ), refugee camps (Horn, ), labour migration (Meyer, Robinson, Chhim, & Bass, ) or older age groups (Douma, Steverink, Hutter, Meijering, & Bowers, ). A novel aspect of our study is also to contextualize the perceived well‐being with perceived ecosystem service benefits identified through PPGIS.…”

La Resiliencia en los contextos de Refugio

“…El contexto de refugio, conlleva numerosos traumas; el desplazamiento, las separaciones, la exposición a la violencia, la persecución o el maltrato son algunos de los eventos dolorosos que encontramos en la literatura (Hobfoll, 2011). Constituyen pérdidas tanto materiales, como emocionales o psicológicas (Horn, 2009). Por ejemplo, una de las más significativas es la pérdida del hogar.…”