Refugee children's play: Before and after migration to Australia

Abstract

Resettled refugee children, especially girls, demonstrated limited play pre-migration, with higher levels of engagement post-resettlement. Facilitating opportunities for variety of play may strengthen positive resettlement outcomes for children and parents. Larger longitudinal studies examining play in refugee children and associations with physical, development and psychological well-being are warranted.

Built-environment attributes associated with refugee children’s physical activity: a narrative review and research agenda

“… HIC, USA No specific, multi-ethnic < 6 months meso N = 239 of 380 observation and self-report 5 Hertting & Karlefors [ 15 ] 2013 qual. HIC, Sweden No specific, multi-ethnic < 6 months meso N = 20 self-report 6 MacMillan et al [ 40 ] 2015 qual. HIC, Australia *Iran, Indonesia,Pakistan, Malaysia, Kenya, Uganda < 6 months meso N = 19 self-report 7 Veronese et al [ 41 ] 2020 qual.…”

“…The micro-environment , which refers to refugee children’s home/refugee camp and its immediate vicinity, was examined in four qualitative studies [ 14 , 38 , 40 , 41 ]. One factor found to be relevant to PA was the availability of sufficient indoor space for play at home.…”

“…Informal space for PA includes any urban spaces "meso" refers to neighbourhood environments unless otherwise specified that are readily and freely available by refugee children. Such spaces enable children to engage in physically active, spontaneous play [14,15,40,41]. Children mentioned that there was a lack of space to gather and play as a group, and this appeared to discourage them from engaging in PA [42].…”

“…This seems to suggest that girls may require well-designed places for play, while the presence of open space (without facilities/amenities) may be sufficed for boy's PA. There were studies examining refugee children from diverse cultural backgrounds [15,[37][38][39][40]42], but they did not examine whether there were between-culture differences in environmental correlates of PA. Further studies need to investigate gender-specific and culture-specific associations between refugee children's PA and environmental attributes.…”

Climate change: Child's play?

“…It is inarguable that detention has deleterious effects on children's mental health, not limited to their inability play freely outside, a central component of child development. MacMillan et al 1 describe the changes in play in refugee children before and after migration to Australia and discuss the relationship with play to the mental and physical health of refugee children. This important discussion can be extended into consideration of how climate change will adversely affect the health of all of our children through, but not limited to, lack of opportunity for outdoor activity, both now and into the future.…”