Department of Psychology, Kingston University London, Kingston upon Thames, UK.
Department of Psychology, Warwick University, Coventry, UK.
Br J Educ Psychol. 2020 May;90(2):301-329. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12282. Epub 2019 May 6.
Refugee children might have experienced violent and traumatic events before settling into a new country. In the United Kingdom, the number of refugee children is increasing; however, little is known about their psycho-social and physical well-being.
This study aims to investigate the psychological well-being and behaviour of refugee children compared to British-born children on a number of psychological, social, behavioural, and health-related issues and to investigate the role of friendship as a protective factor.
This study utilized a sample of 149 refugee children recruited from two charities, 79 of which are children aged 6-10 years and 70 older refugee children aged 11-16 years. The study also included 120 non-refugee children recruited from primary schools aged 6-10 years.
This is a cross-sectional study that investigates the psycho-social well-being of refugee children compared to non-refugee British-born children. The study explored symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, emotional and behavioural problems (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), self-esteem, friendships and popularity, bullying and victimization, physical health, and psychosomatic problems.
Young refugee children reported more peer problems, functional impairment, physical health, and psychosomatic problems compared to the control children and older refugee children groups. On the other hand, older refugee children had lower self-esteem (academic and social self-peers) compared to the younger refugee children group. The differences between the groups were explained by friendship quality, number of friends, peer bullying/victimization, or sibling bullying/victimization except for physical health and psychosomatic problems.
While refugee children were found to be at risk on various levels, the findings also point to the fact that social relationships including friendship quality and number of friends played an essential protective role. Conversely, bullying was a risk factor that explained many of the refugees' problems. These findings pave the way for future research to further probe into the well-being of refugee children in the United Kingdom while also targeting relevant intervention schemes specifically tailored to address their needs.
难民儿童在定居新国家之前可能经历过暴力和创伤事件。在英国，难民儿童的数量正在增加；然而，人们对他们的心理社会和身体健康知之甚少。
本研究旨在调查难民儿童的心理健康和行为与英国本土儿童在许多心理、社会、行为和健康相关问题上的差异，并研究友谊作为保护因素的作用。
本研究利用了从两个慈善机构招募的 149 名难民儿童的样本，其中 79 名是 6-10 岁的儿童，70 名是年龄较大的 11-16 岁的难民儿童。该研究还包括从 6-10 岁的小学招募的 120 名非难民儿童。
这是一项横断面研究，调查了难民儿童与非难民英国本土儿童的心理社会幸福感。该研究探讨了创伤后应激障碍、情绪和行为问题（强项和困难问卷）、自尊、友谊和受欢迎程度、欺凌和受害、身体健康和心身问题的症状。
与对照组和大龄难民儿童组相比，年轻难民儿童报告的同伴问题、功能障碍、身体健康和心身问题更多。另一方面，与年轻难民儿童组相比，大龄难民儿童的自尊（学术和社会同伴）较低。除身体健康和心身问题外，这些差异可以通过友谊质量、朋友数量、同伴欺凌/受害或兄弟姐妹欺凌/受害来解释。
虽然难民儿童在各个层面都处于风险之中，但研究结果也指出，包括友谊质量和朋友数量在内的社会关系发挥了至关重要的保护作用。相反，欺凌是一个风险因素，解释了难民的许多问题。这些发现为未来的研究铺平了道路，以进一步探讨英国难民儿童的幸福感，同时也针对相关的干预计划，专门针对满足他们的需求。
