1. The Effects of Duration in Refugee Camp on the Coping Skills and Internal Resilience of African Refugee Children by Brandon Baca, B.S.

2. Background  Refugees Liberia, DRC, and Burundi  Warehousing 8.5 million = 10+ years  Coping 4 factor model (Ayers et al., 1996) – active coping, distraction, avoidance, and support seeking strategies  Internal Resiliency Six subscales (Hanson and Kim, 2007) –cooperation & communication, self-efficacy, empathy, problem- solving, self-awareness, and goals & aspirations.

3. Research Questions/Methods  What are the psychological effects of refugee camps and warehousing on refugee children?  Specifically: On Coping Skills On Internal Resiliency  Methods: 20 girls and 12 boys from ARWP Ages 7-17 (mean = 11.69, SD = 3.02) Two tailed pearson correlation

4. Results  Internal Resilience: Significant negative correlation between time in camps and overall internal resilience (r = -.61, p<.01) And 5 of the 6 subscales: self-efficacy, empathy, problem- solving, self-awareness, goals and aspirations. Cooperation & communication subscale was not significant. However, the reliability of this scale was low (  =.197)  Coping: Significant negative correlation between time in camps and active coping (r = -.48, p <.01) Other subscales (distraction, avoidance and support seeking strategies) were not significantly related However, reliability was also low for these subscales

5. Discussion  Limitations: Factors prior to displacement were not controlled Specific camp experiences were not included Unreliable coping scales No standardized methods of measuring coping and resilience  Implications: Current refugee camp system is inadequate UNHCR policies should be enforced to eliminate warehousing Need of standardized methods of measuring coping and resilience. U.S. health workers should be sensitive to the unique needs of child refugees