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- Mattelin, Erica, et al.
(författare)
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A systematic review of studies on resilience and risk and protective factors for health among refugee children in Nordic countries
- 2024
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Ingår i: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. - Berlin, Germany : Springer. - 1018-8827 .- 1435-165X. ; , s. 667-700
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Nordic welfare model is often used as an example for the promotion of health and wellbeing, even in vulnerable groups of children, such as refugees. Nonetheless, there are no published reviews on resilience and/or risk and protective factors for physical and mental health among refugee children living in Nordic countries. In this systematic review, we identified 5181 studies on the topic, screened titles, and abstracts, viewed 632, and finally included 26 studies. These studies described 18 samples with a total of 34,080 individuals ranging in ages 0–18 years. Overall, the studies were of good quality. Nearly all studies assessed adversity. Six studies reported physical health outcomes and all studies mental health outcomes, most often post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. None explicitly studied resilience. While we found that age and sex are the most frequently studied risk- and protective factors, findings are inconclusive, since the direction of the associations was different in the different studies. This systematic review indicates that there is still a need for well-designed and -powered studies using clear definitions of key study concepts to examine health outcomes and resilience among refugee children in Nordic countries.
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| 2. |
- Mattelin, Erica, et al.
(författare)
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“You cannot just stop life for just that”: a qualitative study on children’s experiences on refugee journey to Sweden
- 2024
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Ingår i: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. - : SPRINGER. - 1018-8827 .- 1435-165X.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Children with refugee backgrounds are often exposed to violence and other adverse experiences with well-known detrimental consequences on mental health. However, the current group of approximately 40 million child refugees is heterogeneous, stressing the importance of first-person perspectives in understanding children's unique experiences and needs related to the migration process. Identifying contextual factors promoting health and resilience is also essential. For instance, the roles children play as active agents in constructing their own lives and adapting to different environments are poorly described in contemporary research on child refugees and their mental health. To address these knowledge gaps, we conducted qualitative interviews with a reflexive thematic analysis with eighteen children with refugee backgrounds in Sweden. This resulted in two main themes: Longing for a good life that cannot be taken for granted and Challenged agency and changing rights. The narratives indicate that children, although exposed to different challenges in different migration phases and based on gender and asylum status, have experiences of ordinary childhood with a desire for a good life with prospects. The results also show that children execute active and adaptable agency that is impacted by various factors. Reaching the full age appears to be a confusing and ambivalent transition due to changes in rights. The results pinpoint several possibilities to address factors that pose a risk to health and restrictions of rights among child refugees.
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