Psychological Well-Being of Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon

• In Event: 2-059 - Psychological Well-Being of Refugee Children

Integrative Statement

Background: There are currently more than 1.2 million Syrian refugee children in countries surrounding Syria, with more than 500,000 living in Lebanon. As well as having experienced traumatic war-related events, many refugee children end up living in adverse conditions with little access to basic resources. It is well established that children exposed to war and displacement are at increased risk for the development of psychological problems. However, little is known about refugee children’s positive mental health, such as subjective well-being, as well as the promotive and protective environmental factors that predict well-being even in the extremely adverse context of war and displacement.

Hypotheses: The current paper aims at investigating the presence and predictors of psychological well-being in a large sample of Syrian refugee children based in Lebanon. After presenting descriptive findings of a range of child-reported well-being outcomes, including subjective well-being, optimism, self-esteem, self-efficacy and future aspirations, we will report bivariate associations between various relevant environmental factors and well-being outcomes. The included environmental factors cover important developmental contexts such as family, peers, school, community, and neighbourhood. All environmental factors are then included simultaneously in multiple regression models in order to identify independent effects on well-being outcomes. Finally, we will test whether those environmental factors that emerged as significant predictors of well-being in our sample, moderate the negative effects of war exposure and displacement. Based on theory and previous work, we expect that children living in a more supportive environment will be less vulnerable to the negative effects of war exposure and displacement regarding their psychological well-being.

Study Population: The study includes 1,600 Syrian refugee families living in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon. Children, aged 8-16 years, as well as their primary caregivers provided data.

Methods: The current analysis is based on data from the BIOPATH study, an on-going longitudinal study on risk and resilience of Syrian refugee children based in Lebanon. Data collection of the first assessment has been completed in early January 2018 and follow-up data will be collected in late 2018. Data includes measures of psychopathology, well-being, and various risk and protective environmental factors. All measures are being collected face-to-face through interviews with trained local fieldworkers at the home of the refugee families. The reported results focus on cross-sectional analyses from the first wave.

Results: Descriptive analyses suggest that a substantial proportion of refugee children score high on self-reported well-being measures (30.3% have a WHO-5 score of 75 or higher). According to bivariate unadjusted correlations, all included environmental factors significantly predicted well-being (r = .05-.25) except life events and human insecurity. When combined in a multiple regression model, war events (β
=-.07, p=.01), refugee environment (β=.06, p=.04), social support (β=.23, p<.01), parenting (behavioural control, β=.10, p<.01), maltreatment (β=-.10, p<.01) and collective efficacy (β=.07, p=.01) emerged as independently significant predictors of subjective well-being. Finally, social support moderated the effects of war exposure on well-being (β=.30, p=.02) with children reporting less social support being most vulnerable to the negative effects of war in the prediction of well-being (see Figure 1).

Authors

• Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London
  Presenting Author

• Fiona McEwen, Queen Mary University of London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bernadette de Villiers, Queen Mary University of London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elie Karam, Balamand University
  Non-Presenting Author

• John Fayyad, Balamand University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Patricia Moghames, Médecins du Monde
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephanie Legoff, Médecins du Monde
  Non-Presenting Author