Learning to Care for Young Arabic-speaking Students: Preliminary Findings from the Study of Adolescent Lives after Migration to America (SALaMA)

• In Event: Integration and migration

Proposal

Background and purpose: In recent years, a growing number of adolescents from conflict-affected, Arab-majority countries have resettled to the US, but little is known about how this population is fairing. These adolescents encounter a number of challenges that increase their risk of adverse psychosocial and mental health outcomes. These challenges may range from struggling to adapt to a new language and culture, to losing support networks and access to basic services, to being subjected to routine discrimination and micro-aggressions. Exposure to conflict or persecution prior to migration may further exacerbate these risks.

Methods: This mixed-methods study assessed the psychosocial wellbeing of conflict-affected adolescent newcomers (aged 13-22 years) from Arab backgrounds in Austin, Texas and Harrisonburg, VA. We conducted a survey with a stratified, random sample of adolescent students in several schools in order to compare outcomes between the newcomer students and students from the general population. We used multivariate regression analysis to identify the comparative needs, risk factors, and protective factors of the newcomer students on variables from the Hopkins Symptom Checklist 37-A, the Children’s Hope Scale, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Stressful Life Events Checklist, the Child and Youth Resilience Measure, and the Psychological Sense of School Membership instrument. We also conducted focus group discussions with purposive samples of high school students from Syria, Iraq, Sudan, and Yemen, as well as in-depth interviews with their parents and key informants in the schools and community. We analyzed these qualitative findings using constant comparative method and a grounded theory approach.

Results: Data collection is currently underway in both school districts and will be completed by Decmeber 2018.

Conclusions: We discuss the implications of these mixed-methods findings for policy and practice to foster mental health and psychosocial support for newcomers, and especially those from conflict-affected, Arab-majority countries. We make recommendations for how schools and other community actors can enhance supports for these students and their families.

Authors

• Lindsay Stark, Columbia University

• Cyril Bennouna, Senior Advisor for Research, Monitoring, & Evaluation

• Carine Allaf, Qatar Foundation International

• Ilana Seff, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

• Mike Wessells, Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University