Tills Katie, Dandy Justine
School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA, 6027, Australia.
Centre for People, Place and Planet, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia.
J Immigr Minor Health. 2025 Apr;27(2):200-207. doi: 10.1007/s10903-024-01657-8. Epub 2024 Nov 22.
We investigated the relationship between parent and child mental health, including parents' general psychological distress, among refugees resettled in Australia. We utilised longitudinal data from a sample (N = 602 children and 377 parents) of recently settled refugees from the Building a New Life in Australia Survey). Parent psychological distress and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) were measured by the Kessler 6 and PTSD-8, respectively. Harsh and Warm parenting behaviours were also measured to explore the mechanisms underlying the parent-child mental health relationship. Child mental health was measured using the SDQ. Using path analysis, we found that increases in parent psychological distress directly contribute to harsher parenting practices, which in turn increase child mental health difficulties as reported by parents. Parent psychological distress at Waves 1 and 3 also directly impacted child emotional and conduct difficulties, whilst parent PTSS was indirectly associated with all measured child mental health problems. While both parent PTSS and psychological distress indirectly impacted child mental health, only psychological distress directly impacted on any area of child mental health difficulty and overall explained more variance in the final model. Our findings highlight that non-trauma specific symptoms warrant attention in refugee parents' and children's mental health. Clinicians should assess for general psychological symptoms in addition to trauma-specific symptoms, and we recommend that parental mental health is assessed and treated simultaneously when working with refugee children. Moreover, to reduce the impact of other stressors in refugees' lives, community sector organisations should be resourced adequately to support refugee families in settlement.
我们调查了在澳大利亚重新安置的难民中父母与子女心理健康之间的关系，包括父母的一般心理困扰。我们利用了来自《在澳大利亚建立新生活调查》中最近安置的难民样本（N = 602名儿童和377名父母）的纵向数据。父母的心理困扰和创伤后应激症状（PTSS）分别通过凯斯勒6项量表和创伤后应激障碍8项量表进行测量。还测量了严厉和温暖的养育行为，以探究亲子心理健康关系背后的机制。儿童心理健康使用优势与困难问卷（SDQ）进行测量。通过路径分析，我们发现父母心理困扰的增加直接导致更严厉的养育方式，进而增加了父母报告的儿童心理健康问题。第1波和第3波时父母的心理困扰也直接影响儿童的情绪和行为问题，而父母的PTSS与所有测量的儿童心理健康问题间接相关。虽然父母的PTSS和心理困扰都间接影响儿童心理健康，但只有心理困扰直接影响儿童心理健康困难的任何领域，并且在最终模型中总体解释了更多的方差。我们的研究结果强调，非创伤特异性症状在难民父母和儿童的心理健康中值得关注。临床医生除了评估创伤特异性症状外，还应评估一般心理症状，并且我们建议在为难民儿童提供服务时，同时评估和治疗父母的心理健康。此外，为了减少难民生活中其他压力源的影响，社区部门组织应获得足够的资源，以在安置过程中支持难民家庭。
