Understanding the Developmental Needs of Syrian Refugee Children: Towards Developmental Tailoring of Social-Emotional Capacity

• In Event: Developing and Evaluating  Interventions to Reduce Prejudice and Promote Inclusion in Ethnic Diversity Contexts

Abstract

Since 2015, over 50,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Canada (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 2018). Having already encountered significant adversity, refugee families often continue to experience challenges after displacement. For example, research has documented the detrimental impacts of stressful family resettlement experiences on the well-being of refugee children, including heightened depressive symptoms (East, Gahagan, & Al-Delaimy, 2018) and greater aggression (Keresteš, 2006). Nevertheless, there is minimal research that has examined the impacts of displacement and resettlement on Syrian children’s social-emotional development. This knowledge is critical for promoting the social-emotional development of refugee children as they navigate the emotional hardships of resettlement and build new social networks. We will thus present data comparing indicators of refugee children’s social-emotional development to those of an age- and gender-matched non-refugee sample to inform the tailoring of intervention strategies to the specific and common developmental needs of those populations.
Our study included a sample of 119 Syrian refugee children (Mage = 7.97, SD = 2.25; 53% female), a roughly age- and gender-matched non-refugee sample of 232 children (Mage = 7.81, SD = 2.00; 49% female), and their caregivers, all of whom resided in a large Canadian city. The Holistic Student Assessment (HSA) was completed by caregivers to examine multiple indicators of children’s social-emotional development: action orientation, assertiveness, emotion control, empathy, optimism, reflection, and trust. Descriptive analyses were conducted for both groups of children. In order to explore differences between the groups, independent samples t-tests were conducted with bias-corrected and accelerated confidence intervals (CIs) based on 5000 bootstrap samples.
For context on the severity of hardship experienced by our refugee sample, we asked about past experiences and stressful life events. Approximately 73% of caregivers reported losing a loved one and 56% of children reported witnessing violence. Table 1 displays the means and standard deviations of each aspect of social-emotional development for each group of children. Table 2 shows the mean differences in each social-emotional aspect between groups and whether such differences were significant. In comparison to non-refugee children, refugee children scored significantly and much lower in emotion control, lower in trust, but higher in action orientation. There were no significant differences between refugee and non-refugee children in assertiveness, empathy, optimism, and reflection.
These findings mark a first step in understanding Syrian refugee children’s social-emotional development during resettlement. We will discuss the potential importance of rebuilding emotion control and trust in refugee children, capitalizing on their energy and drive towards action, and building upon this work to inform the implementation of tailored intervention approaches that promote caregiving strategies and support, coping skills, and positive child development within the context of resettlement.

Authors

• Tina Malti, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Tyler John Colasante, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joanne Filippelli, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author