Parenting in the context of a refugee experience: Evidence from refugee families living in Germany

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Solicited Content: Refugee Children

Abstract

With the war in Syria and unstable situations in other countries of the Middle East and North Africa in 2015 and 2016, over 1.16 Million persons applied for asylum in Germany between 2015 and 2016 (BAMF, 2016; 2017). Over one third of these asylum seekers were younger than 18 years and of those, more than 40 % were younger than 6 years at their arrival in Germany (UNICEF, 2018). Existing studies on refugees have already shown that the refugee experience may take a toll on adults and children`s mental health (Metzing et al., 2020). Addi-tionally, research on non-refugee parents found that lower levels of parental mental health are negatively linked to parents` parental practices, with adverse effects for children`s externaliz-ing and internalizing problem behaviors (McLeod et al., 2007). However, comparably little is known about how the refugee experience shapes the parenting behaviors and parent-child activities in refugee families after the arrival in destination country and how this may effect refugee children`s problem behaviors in the long run (for an exception with data from Austral-ia see Braynt et al., 2020). Based on a representative and longitudinal study on refugees and their families which arrived in Germany between 2013 and 2016 (IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey on Refugees, Kroh et al., 2016, Jacobsen et al., 2019; Nrefugee families = 535, Nnon-refugee families = 765) we are planning to analyze the parenting behavior of refugee parents who lately arrived to Germany (between 2013 and 2016). We will compare the parenting behaviors of refugee parents to non-refugee parents living in Germany. Additionally, we are planning to test wheth-er the parenting behaviors mediate the link between parents` mental health and children`s externalizing and internalizing behaviors in refugee and non-refugee families. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the data has been collected, yet analyses have to be conducted. Results will be presented at the conference.

Author

• Wenke Niehues, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees
  Presenting Author