What is the Impact of Placement Type on Educational and Health Outcomes of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors? A Systematic Review of the Evidence

Abstract

Record numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors have been arriving in high-income countries since 2015. Child welfare agencies and non-governmental organisations tasked with providing services have struggled to cope with demands on their services as a result. Despite this, there is little research on how best to meet their needs and in particular what services can mitigate the psychological difficulties they face. As a result, the evidence base for social services for refugee children remains very limited. This paper is a systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on the relationship between care placement type and the educational, mental health and physical health outcomes of unaccompanied refugee minors. We searched ten databases and identified 3877 citations which were screened for inclusion. Nine studies were included in the final review, with seven included in the meta-analysis. Eight studies examined the link between accommodation type and mental health outcomes, and two analysed the relationship between accommodation type and education. There were no studies looking at physical health outcomes. Included studies suggest that foster care and placements that are culturally sensitive may be associated with better mental health outcomes. This review highlights the paucity of research on the impact of services provided by child welfare agencies and non-governmental organisations.

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

“…One study found that URMs placed with ethnically matched family or individuals, that is, Sudanese had better mental health outcomes than those living in a group home or foster care alone with an American family (Geltman et al, ). These are findings related to those documented in a review by O'Higgins, Ott, and Shea (). Eight of the nine studies examined in O'Higgins et al's () review also evidenced a link between accommodation type and mental health outcomes.…”

“…These are findings related to those documented in a review by O'Higgins, Ott, and Shea (). Eight of the nine studies examined in O'Higgins et al's () review also evidenced a link between accommodation type and mental health outcomes. Meta‐analysis found a benefit of foster care over other kinds of care with effect size of 0.3 (O'Higgins et al, ).…”

New developments in the mental health of refugee children and adolescents

“…Depressive symptoms are associated with postmigration stressors including daily hassles and also acculturative stress 52. A longitudinal study has confirmed findings from earlier cross-sectional studies that for URMs, lower psychological distress is associated with higher support living arrangements, and a recent systematic review has found an effect size of 0.3 for this association 53. As expected, psychological distress is increased by unsuccessful asylum claims 54…”

Enhancing Skills for Employment in the Workplace of the Future 2020 Using the Theory of Connectivity: Shared and Adaptive Personal Learning Environments in a Spanish Context

“…Another similarity found is that these skills are developed in consonance with the constant technological and socio-economic changes currently shaking the world, in the same way, that they make reference to Smart Cities. However, with regards to the rest of the skills studied such as computational thinking and virtual collaboration, the findings were not found to be similar to those described in the aforementioned report, given that no skill from the Page Executive Report [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] makes reference to ICT. Nevertheless, in the study from the Jarvis et al [22], we can find data with more similarities.…”

“…Intervention design should consider the individual perceptions of the UFM in social, academic and labour dimensions. This should be contemplated alongside training needs in skills and abilities in order to be able to adequately intervene and achieve good social insertion and integration [21].…”