Measuring caregiver wellbeing, parenting, and child socioemotional development in Syrian refugee and Jordanian host families

• In Event: Evidence based and culturally meaningful early childhood development programming and research in the Syrian response context

Proposal

With increasing focus on socioemotional factors in ECD there is great interest in utilizing instruments that identify both child and parent mental health, stress, and exposure to trauma (Britto et al., 2017). In refugee populations in the Middle East, this is particularly valuable for understanding the full scope of factors to determine a child’s early development under disruptive, adverse conditions. However, there are few rigorously validated yet meaningful measurement approaches tailored to these contexts and populations. To identify appropriate methods for capturing these constructs we sought to explore tools that could predict and illuminate relevant factors to support healthy child development in this population.
Embedded in the Sesame Seeds home visitation model currently being implemented by the IRC in Jordan, a pilot study is providing insights into what factors matter for ECD in contexts of war and displacement, and how to validly and meaningfully measure these factors in Syrian refugee and host community families. This paper reports on the development and results from a caregiver survey, including the processes of identifying and prioritizing measures, translating them into the appropriate Arabic dialects, adapting them to the cultural and linguistic context, and investigating the psychometric properties of constructs of caregiver mental health and wellbeing, parenting and the home learning environment, and caregiver report of early signs of child socioemotional difficulties.
Measures to be included were prioritized based on relevance to the context of refugee populations; their availability in Arabic and previous use in similar populations; availability of validation studies, ideally in the MENA region, but also globally; and their use within and sensitivity to home visiting program evaluations. Other factors that needed to be considered include the sensitivity of asking about experiences of war events and violence, and logistical challenge of conducting such sensitive surveys in tight spaces of family homes with several children present.
Our survey went through several rounds of expert review, including thematic experts as well as regional and language experts. We are further using Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing (ACASI) methods for some parts of the survey to ensure privacy and safety. We will further investigate the psychometric properties of constructs in the areas of mental health (e.g., depression, stress, self-efficacy), parenting and home learning environment, and child socioemotional development.
This pilot study provides us with valid and meaningful measurement tools before embarking on a formal impact evaluation of the home visiting program. Data collected will offer preliminary findings in the socioemotional realm from the home visiting intervention as well as information on validity of the instruments in Syrian refugee population.

Authors

• Casey Moran, New York University

• Alice Wuermli, New York University

• Kate Schwartz, New York University Steinhardt

• Joyce Rafla, New York University

• Hirokazu Yoshikawa, New York University