A systematic review of socio-ecological factors contributing to risk and protection of the mental health of refugee children and adolescents

Scharpf, Florian; Kaltenbach, Elisa; Nickerson, Angela; Hecker, Tobias

doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101930

Cited by 118 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…Minors who lived with parent(s)/ relative(s) scored significantly higher on HRQoL within all dimensions compared to minors living with another adult/ family or in a residential home. This finding is in line with a recent systematic review that demonstrated that the duality of both risk and protection inherent in the family composition (parental mental health problems and impaired parenting) were risk factors for mental health problems in young refugees, while family cohesion was protective [47].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Health-related quality of life in refugee minors from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan resettled in Sweden: a nation-wide, cross-sectional study

Solberg

Sengoelge

Johnson-Singh

et al. 2021

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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Purpose To examine health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in refugee minors resettled in Sweden and compare results to a European reference population, while exploring associations between sociodemographic factors and HRQoL dimensions. Methods A cross-sectional, nation-wide study was conducted with a stratified sample of refugee minors ages 12–15 and 16–18 from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, resettled in Sweden between 2014 and 2018. HRQoL was measured using KIDSCREEN-27. HRQoL dimension scores of the sample were compared to mean scores of European age and gender-matched reference population. Associations between sociodemographic factors and HRQoL dimensions were investigated with independent t tests and ANOVA. A multivariable regression analysis was performed to identify the sociodemographic factors associated with HRQoL. Results The questionnaire was sent to 10,000 potential respondents. The response rate was 26%, yielding n = 2559 refugee minors (boys 55%, girls 45%) in the study sample. Compared to European references, minors in the present study had significantly lower scores of HRQoL within psychological wellbeing and peers and social support, whereas levels for autonomy and parent/guardian relations and school environment were higher. Several sociodemographic factors were significantly associated with all HRQoL dimensions, with those 16–18 years old, having average or poor family economy, and living with an unrelated adult or family reporting lower levels of HRQoL. Minors from Afghanistan had significantly lower scores of HRQoL for all dimensions compared to those from Iraq and Syria. Conclusion Refugee minors had significantly lower levels of HRQoL for psychological wellbeing and peers and social support compared to European references. Future research should further investigate this potential HRQoL gap further.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Health-related quality of life in refugee minors from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan resettled in Sweden: a nation-wide, cross-sectional study

Solberg

Sengoelge

Johnson-Singh

et al. 2021

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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“…Moreover, as the proposed model was developed based on ndings from Burundian refugee families living in Tanzanian refugee camps, its generalizability to other populations and contexts is limited. However, while epidemiological need assessments in similar contexts are scarce and yielded highly varying prevalence rates of mental health problems among youth (Vossoughi et al, 2018), key intervention targets in our model such as traumatic experiences, parental mental health and family violence have been shown to be relevant factors for youths mental health also in other refugee camps (Scharpf, Kaltenbach, Nickerson, et al, 2020). Thus our model may also be applicable to other refugee camp contexts, which should however be tested in the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Refugee children and adolescents living in refugee camps in low-and middle-income countries are at an increased risk of developing debilitating mental health problems, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), internalizing problems including depression and anxiety and externalizing problems including aggressive and antisocial behavior, as a result of their exposure to violent con ict in their home countries and to ongoing hardships in the camps (Reed et al, 2012;Scharpf, Kaltenbach, Nickerson, et al, 2020;Vossoughi et al, 2018). However, the nancial and personnel resources for mental health care in these settings are often extremely limited (de Jong et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Task-shifting and Family-focused Approach Towards Mental Health Care for Youth Living in Refugee Camps

Scharpf

Hecker

2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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Background: In humanitarian emergencies with few specialist resources for mental health care, it is a practical and ethical necessity to allocate available resources to interventions that target youth most in need of support and address contextually relevant factors of influence. Based on the findings of an extensive epidemiological observational study with 230 Burundian refugee youth aged 7 to 15 years and both their caregivers in three refugee camps, we propose a multi-layered mental health service model that is characterized by task-shifting from professionals to non-professionals, close-meshed collaboration between different agencies within camps and inclusion of families at all stages. Discussion: The model prioritizes the identification of youth with clinically relevant mental health problems through extensive screening, who are then provided with trauma- and/or family-focused interventions depending on a more detailed assessment of needs. We emphasize the importance of incorporating evidence-based interventions and evaluating all model components and discuss caveats and limitations concerning the implementation of the model. Conclusion: The paper aims to sensitize researchers and practitioners in the field of mental health care for youth in refugee and other humanitarian settings to the importance of conducting epidemiological assessments of the specific need for interventions and of contextually relevant intervention targets.

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“…Rohat et al (2019) examined the European future heat related health issues and found capricious socioeconomic development sustainability as the major causes. Scharpf et al (2020) conducted a systematic review to study the mental health of refugees associated with risk protection and buttressed that challenges of relocation, violent conflict and flight cause severe damage on mental health and well-being. Xu et al (2021) stated that there is a direct and significant positive relationship between health risks and economic development.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavating Future Challenges: An Analysis of Health Systems of One Hundred-Six Countries

Basit¹,

Asghar

Niazi

et al. 2021

JBSEE

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Purpose: Health system of a country is backbone of economy. It has fundamental importance in sustainable development of a country. Aim of this article is to excavate future challenges to health system of selected 106 countries. Design/Methodology/Approach: It is a country level comparative analysis of health risk factors. Design of the study includes review of literature, data extraction and analysis. The cross-sectional secondary data has been drawn from website of World Development Indicators (WDI) 2020. Grey relational analysis is used as technique of investigation. Findings: Results show that majorly, member countries of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have exceptionally high grey relational grade, therefore, are considered to be countries having less future health risks, whereas, Southern African Development Community (SADC) have exceptionally low grey relational grade, therefore, have high future health risk. Implications/Originality/Value: It is a unique study using different dataset and methods that provides valuable insights to political governments, researchers and health system managers.

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A systematic review of socio-ecological factors contributing to risk and protection of the mental health of refugee children and adolescents

Cited by 118 publications

References 88 publications

Health-related quality of life in refugee minors from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan resettled in Sweden: a nation-wide, cross-sectional study

Health-related quality of life in refugee minors from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan resettled in Sweden: a nation-wide, cross-sectional study

A Task-shifting and Family-focused Approach Towards Mental Health Care for Youth Living in Refugee Camps

Excavating Future Challenges: An Analysis of Health Systems of One Hundred-Six Countries

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