Refugee, asylum‐seeking and internally displaced children and adolescents

Fazel, Mina; Reed, Ruth; Stein, Alan

doi:10.1002/9781118381953.ch44

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…It is known that URMs are an especially vulnerable group; by definition, they are unaccompanied by parents or carers. Compared with accompanied minors and nonimmigrants, they are more likely to have suffered multiple potentially traumatic experiences such as abuse, exploitation, and loss of family members (Fazel, Reed, & Stein, ). Surviving cumulative harrowing situations, having their education and social lives disrupted, they then have to endure often terrifying migration journeys before settling in a country where they may struggle to learn a new language and assimilate to an unfamiliar culture (Bronstein, Montgomery, & Dobrowolski, ; El Baba & Colucci, ; Hodes, Jagdev, Chandra, & Cunniff, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevention of psychological distress and promotion of resilience amongst unaccompanied refugee minors in resettlement countries

Mitra

Hodes

2019

Child

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Aim: As increasing numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) are arriving in Europe, there is a need to investigate which factors promote psychological resilience and improve their mental health. This review aims to identify preventive post settlement influences, including living arrangements, access to mental health services, and effective treatments that may improve mental health outcomes.Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted of published papers in any language for children (<18 years) entering a host country, unaccompanied and seeking asylum. Specific studies were eligible if they examined any treatment or nontreatment influences on mental health or psychological resilience for the URM. Thirteen published quantitative studies were identified.Results: URMs in more supportive living arrangements including foster care had lower risk of PTSD and lower depressive symptoms compared with those in semiindependent care arrangements. URMs living in reception settings that restricted freedom had more anxiety symptoms. Regarding help seeking, one study found only 30% of URMs had foster parents or guardians who could detect a mental health need.Two papers found the URMs had low levels of contact with mental health services despite the high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms. URMs were less likely than accompanied children to receive trauma-focused interventions, cognitive therapy, or even practical assistance with basic social needs.With regard to treatment evaluation, only case series were identified. Three studies found cognitive behavioural therapy improved PTSD symptoms and mental health outcomes. A less structured approach (mental health counselling alone) did not improve functional health outcomes.Conclusion: Higher support living arrangements with low restrictions are associated with lower psychological distress. Most URMs are not receiving psychological interventions, and there is a dearth of studies evaluating treatment effectiveness for this group. There is an urgent need for more research to investigate pathways to mental health services and treatment efficacy in this vulnerable group.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevention of psychological distress and promotion of resilience amongst unaccompanied refugee minors in resettlement countries

Mitra

Hodes

2019

Child

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“…Today, child survivors of Syria civil war that have caused deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, also feel similar kind of despair in the face of the civil war which is in its eighth year now. Evidence suggests that war-related traumatic events may have adverse consequences on the mental well-being of children [2][3][4][5][6] . However, war-related traumatic events are not the only adversities that threat psychological well-being of refugee children.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is now well established from a variety of studies that children's psychosocial well-being is adversely affected by the war and related adverse events 22 . However, the most of the studies that aimed to assess the mental wellbeing of refugee children have been conducted in high-income countries while most of the refugees shelter in low-income countries 5 . And even though, Syria civil war has uprooted more than ten million people from their home and was recognised as one of the biggest humanitarian crisis that humankind has faced in the 21 st century 12 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Çeri

Nasıroğlu

2018

Arch. Clin. Psychiatry (São Paulo)

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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.

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“…It has been stated that primary prevention would be impossible in case of disorders that have not specific etiologic factors [16]. Although we do not have specific etiologic factors in most of psychiatric disorders, abundant number of evidences have showed link between traumatic events and later PTSD [7,11,21]. Several studies have been conducted to treat PTSD among refugee children.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies show displaced children reporting high rates of exposure to severe traumatic events such as witnessing death or injury of someone and clashes or blasts [2][3][4][5]. Traumatic events and associated stress due to ongoing war and displacement may have severe adverse effects on psychosocial development of children [6] and lead emerging of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders [7,8]. High rates of other psychiatric symptoms than PTSD have also been showed among displaced children in numerous studies [4,[9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Psychological Vaccination for Potentially Traumatized Children

Cery¹,

Ahmad²

2018

JPCPY

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Objectives: Traumatic events and associated stress due to ongoing war and displacement may have severe adverse effects on psychosocial development of children. Although more than half of traumatized children are expected to develop posttraumatic psychopathology, no effective prevention has been found. The present study aims to investigate if Crisis Intervention Program for Child and Adolescents (CIPCA) has protective effects on mental wellbeing of child survivors of the ISIS war and displacement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.Method: Data were gathered two years after the displacement experience and application of CIPCA (a semistructured single one-hour group intervention that has been hypotheses to act as psychological vaccination against development of posttraumatic psychopathology. The study sample consisting of 51 children (32 girls and 19 boys, mean age 12 years), was cluster randomized immediately after displacement to CIPCA (23 children) and no CIPCA intervention (28 children). Behavior problems were estimated on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) before randomisation and after one-year and 2-years follow-up.Results: Significantly lower symptom score were found among children who had attended CIPCA than non-CIPCA concerning Internalizing scores (0.63, 7.40, t = 2.099, P = 0.049), Withdrawal (0.0, 2.5, t = 2.713, P = 0.014), PTSD index (0.21, 2.64, t = 2.264, P = 0.028) and Total Problem Sores (1.82, 13.07, t = 2.199, P = 0.033), consequently. No significant difference was observed according to Externalizing problems and other CBCL scores between children who had attend to CIPCA and not. Conclusions:These findings pointed out that CIPCA may have protected children against developing psychological problems. We recommend carrying out more systematic studies to investigate the preventive effects of CIPCA on posttraumatic psychopathology.

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Refugee, asylum‐seeking and internally displaced children and adolescents

Cited by 16 publications

References 80 publications

Prevention of psychological distress and promotion of resilience amongst unaccompanied refugee minors in resettlement countries

Prevention of psychological distress and promotion of resilience amongst unaccompanied refugee minors in resettlement countries

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

Exploring Psychological Vaccination for Potentially Traumatized Children

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