Social and cultural conditions affecting the mental health of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian adolescents living in and around Bar Elias, Lebanon

• Published in: Journal of migration and health (Online) 2023-01, Vol.7, p.100150-100150, Article 100150
• Main Authors: Sender, Hannah, Orcutt, Miriam, Btaiche, Rachel, Dabaj, Joana, Nagi, Yazan, Abdallah, Ramona, Corona, Susanna, Moore, Henrietta, Fouad, Fouad, Devakumar, Delan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescence; Displacement; Lebanon; Mental health
• ISSN: 2666-6235; 2666-6235
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmh.2022.100150

•Place-based approaches to mental health research can foster understandings of shared or communal factors of mental health.•Forced migrant adolescents and long-term resident adolescents experience similar challenges to having good mental health.•Limited mobility through public spaces, overcrowded housing and interpersonal violence is a risk factor for adolescent forced migrant and long-term residents’ mental health.•Phones with internet capabilities are associated with emotional support, particularly for adolescents who have been recently displaced.•Gender and being differently-abled are important intersectional identities which cut across refugee/citizen identity, and play an important role in how adolescents are affected by shared conditions. An estimated 1.5 million displaced Syrians live in Lebanon, sharing neighbourhoods and communal spaces with longer-term Lebanese and Palestinian residents. The Syrian Civil War has lasted over one decade. Protracted mass displacement means that many young people are growing up in neighbourhoods, towns and cities which include comparable numbers of recently displaced and longer-term residents. In this study, we explore adolescent mental health and the intersections between Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians in the town of Bar Elias, where comparable numbers of displaced people and citizens live. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 adolescents in April 2019. We found that Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese adolescents in Bar Elias identified the same shared conditions as affecting their mental health, although with different impacts on each individual. Sometimes, this difference accords with nationality, but it is also determined by gender and different physical and cognitive abilities. We conclude that recently displaced and host community adolescents can be seen to be affected by shared conditions, and that intersectional identities affect how adolescent mental health is affected by these conditions. We argue that investments in shared infrastructures can support the improvement of mental health for all adolescents.