Mental health in refugee children

Almost half of the world's forcibly displaced population are children, most commonly originating from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Health disparities are well documented, especially for mental health, but not consistent across groups, time or context. Despite high exposure to trauma and stress...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current opinion in psychology 2022-12, Vol.48, p.101460, Article 101460
Main Authors: Dangmann, Cecilie, Dybdahl, Ragnhild, Solberg, Øivind
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children
Forced migration
Mental health
Psychosocial support
Refugees
Socioeconomic determinants
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Summary:Almost half of the world's forcibly displaced population are children, most commonly originating from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Health disparities are well documented, especially for mental health, but not consistent across groups, time or context. Despite high exposure to trauma and stress, refugee children also show remarkable resilience. An ecological model of refugee health including both risk and resilience factors is therefore recommended. The model also includes the dynamic inter-relationship of past traumatic experiences, ongoing daily stressors and the disruptions of basic systems affecting both the individual and families as a whole, offering a framework to better understand the health disparities and appropriate interventions for refugee children. •Health disparities are not consistent across all refugee populations.•Unaccompanied minors report especially high levels of mental distress.•An ecological model should be used to describe multi-level factors affecting health.•A more comprehensive view of mental health should be applied.•Socioeconomic determinants are important for health.
ISSN:2352-250X
2352-2518
2352-250X
DOI:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101460