Vaska Ashish I, Benson Jill, Eliott Jaklin A, Williams Jan
The University of Adelaide.
Migrant Health Service, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
J Paediatr Child Health. 2016 May;52(5):523-8. doi: 10.1111/jpc.13114.
To present the rationale for using a narrative history tool as part of a holistic age assessment of accompanied refugee children with age uncertainty by exploring cultural narratives of age.
Seven small group, semi-structured interviews with 24 humanitarian entrants (10 male, 14 female) recruited from Afghan, Bhutanese and Burundian communities in Adelaide, Australia were conducted. Interviews were performed with interpreters present, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed.
Four themes emerged: the significance of age; ways of remembering age; the refugee experience and its effect on age recall; and the reliability and permissibility of documentation. Age was significant, but understood and remembered differently with knowledge of an exact date of birth not required for functioning in participants' home societies. Information regarding age was embedded in narrative accounts, related to events and other people. Birth was not always registered, with birth and age-containing documentation obtained later in life. These documents often reflected cultural ideas regarding age, rather than recording true chronological age. The refugee experience profoundly affected the ability of people to remember their age by disrupting methods used to recall specific events, including birth.
Narrative history provides valuable information regarding age in accompanied refugee children with age uncertainty, and allows for age to be located within a range that approximates true chronological age when age documentation is absent or clearly erroneous. The Age Assessment Tool questionnaire provides health professionals with a framework for conducting age assessment interviews.
通过探索年龄的文化叙事，阐述将叙事史工具作为对年龄不确定的陪伴难民儿童进行全面年龄评估一部分的基本原理。
对从澳大利亚阿德莱德的阿富汗、不丹和布隆迪社区招募的24名人道主义入境者（10名男性，14名女性）进行了7次小组半结构化访谈。访谈在有口译员在场的情况下进行，进行录音、逐字转录并进行主题分析。
出现了四个主题：年龄的重要性；记住年龄的方式；难民经历及其对年龄回忆的影响；以及文件的可靠性和可接受性。年龄很重要，但理解和记忆方式不同，在参与者的家乡社会中，正常生活并不需要确切的出生日期。有关年龄的信息嵌入在与事件和其他人相关的叙事中。出生并不总是进行登记，出生证明和包含年龄的文件是在后来的生活中获得的。这些文件往往反映了关于年龄的文化观念，而不是记录真实的实足年龄。难民经历通过扰乱用于回忆特定事件（包括出生）的方法，深刻影响了人们记住自己年龄的能力。
叙事史为年龄不确定的陪伴难民儿童的年龄提供了有价值的信息，并且当年龄文件缺失或明显错误时，能够将年龄定位在接近真实实足年龄的范围内。年龄评估工具问卷为卫生专业人员提供了进行年龄评估访谈的框架。
