1. Unaccompanied Refugee Children and Adolescents Resettled in Industrialised Countries: The Role of Culture in Psychological Adjustment A Systematic Review
Meriç Zeynep Balkaş
MSc Child &Adolsecent Mental Health
Introductıon
methods
results
As the number of conflicts around the world increases, refugee population woefully goes up.
Half of the refugee population is consisted of individuals under the age of 18 1, and an important part of which are unaccompanied children.
Children who are under the age of 18 and in need of asylum making entrance to the host country without their parents or a legal guardian who are older than the age of 21 are defined as unaccompanied children 2.
Unaccompanied refugee children’s cultural and religious needs are perceived as significantly important especially for coping strategies.
Having peers from the same ethnic group is interpreted as helpful and beneficial for children’s psychological wellbeing 7. Moreover, unaccompanied refugee children who are placed with same ethnic origin families in foster care show less symptoms of depression 8
In addition to the stress and trauma caused by the ongoing conflicts in their own countries and the problems they face on their way to the host country, unaccompanied refugee minors experience acculturation stress after resettlement.
OVID Medline, EMBASE, PsychINFO, AGRIS and Cochrane databases were used to searched for articles dating up to November 2015.
Databases searched for keywords “unaccompanied minor”, “resettlement”, “adjustment”, “war”, “mental health”, “children”, and “refugee”.
Inclusion Criteria
Studies with samples of children and adolescents aged until 18.
Both qualitative and quantitative studies assess perceived psychological distress of unaccompanied refugee minors resettled in high-income countries
Exclusion Criteria
Studies exploring accompanied refugee children, but not separated children.
Studies published in another language than English.
Studies with samples including individuals aged older 18
The importance of being able to speak the same language with a mentor makes a great difference in getting used to the new culture around the child(5).
Although school experience does not seem to influence children’s mental health, it helps children to adapt to the new culture around them via influencing language abilities and academic achievements 12
The unaccompanied minors who could preserve their connection with their culture of origin did better in terms of mental health, and they were also able to form better relationships with their foster parents 15
Religion provides unaccompanied minors with “distraction and companionship”, while supporting their self-confidence, and making them feel more independent, moreover “the participants’ trust in God minimized their need to trust those around them” 3
Unaccompanied minors should be placed with foster parents of the same ethnic group in the host country, since language barriers and cultural differences may cause misunderstandings and eventually hurt feelings 17.
The more time spent in the host country is associated with the deviant behaviour in unaccompanied refugee children, which can be described as a coping mechanism as an attempt to gain back the control of their life 19
Not being accepted by the school community, social rejection and failing to make friends with people from other ethnicities have an adverse effect on self-esteem of unaccompanied minors 21.
background
A review of the literature on unaccompanied refugee minors resettled in high-income countries was conducted by Fazel, et al. 7. However their main interest was on risk and protective factors, although they mention ethnic and cultural factors they were not their focus.
Some of the important findings from the review include associations between sex differences and psychological functioning.
conclusions
Findings of this literature review correspond with the previous review conducted by Fazel et. al., especially the results related to ethnic origins, only with a difference in religious perspective.
Finally, further research in the field of unaccompanied refugee minors and the effect of culture to psychological adjustment is needed, since the existing studies which include cultural aspects are not mainly about this topic, but they rather mention culture as a contributing factor.
objectives
This systematic review explores the effects of culture on psychological adjustment of unaccompanied refugee children resettled in industrialised countries. The aim was to investigate the positive and negative outcomes of coming from different cultural orientation, and to decide whether culture has an important role in coping.
Contact: Meriç Zeynep Balkaş
REFERENCE
1 United States Committee for Refugees. (2000). World refugee survey Washington, DC: Author. 2 Zwi, K., & Mares, S. (2015). Stories from unaccompanied children in immigration detention: A composite account. Journal of paediatrics and child health, 51(7), Fazel, M., Reed, R. V., Panter-Brick, C., & Stein, A. (2012). Mental health of displaced and refugee children resettled in high-income countries: risk and protective factors. The Lancet, 379(9812), Linowitz, J., & Boothby, N. (1988). Cross-cultural placements. In E. Ressler, N. Boothby, & D. Steinbock (Eds.), Unaccompanied children: Care and protection in wars, natural disasters, and refugee movements (pp. 181–207). NewYork: Oxford University Press 4 Thommesssen, S. A. O. T., Corcoran, P., & Todd, B. K. Experiences of Arriving to Sweden as an Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Minor from Afghanistan: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. 5 Jensen, T. K., Skårdalsmo, E. M. B., & Fjermestad, K. W. (2014). Development of mental health problems-a follow-up study of unaccompanied refugee minors. Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 8(1), Qin, D. B., Saltarelli, A., Rana, M., Bates, L., Lee, J. A., & Johnson, D. J. (2015). “My Culture Helps Me Make Good Decisions” Cultural Adaptation of Sudanese Refugee Emerging Adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 30(2), Ní Raghallaigh, M., & Gilligan, R. (2010). Active survival in the lives of unaccompanied minors: coping strategies, resilience, and the relevance of religion. Child & Family Social Work, 15(2), Luster, T., Saltarelli, A. J., Rana, M., Qin, D. B., Bates, L., Burdick, K., & Baird, D. (2009). The experiences of Sudanese unaccompanied minors in foster care.Journal of Family Psychology, 23(3), Bronstein, I., Montgomery, P., & Ott, E. (2013). Emotional and behavioural problems amongst Afghan unaccompanied asylum-seeking children: results from a large-scale cross-sectional study. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 22(5), Cohen, S. & Wills, T. (1985) Stress, social support and the buffering
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