3-047 - Resilience and Well-Being of Syrian Refugee Children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The political conflict in Syria has led to the largest refugee crisis since World War Two with 6.5 million Syrians displaced within and 4.8 million outside of Syria. Children make up half of all externally displaced Syrian refugees. As well as having experienced traumatic war-related events, many of these 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 mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and behavioral problems. However, despite the extreme adversity associated with the experience of war and displacement, there is substantial variation in how refugee children respond. While some develop severe psychological problems, others show remarkable resilience.
All three papers included in this symposium focus on questions related to resilience and well-being of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and Jordan based on different ongoing field studies. The first paper refers to the evaluation of a psychosocial program designed to alleviate stress and build resilience among adolescent Syrian refugees in Jordan, featuring both a newly developed resilience questionnaire and the assessment of perceived and physiological stress. The second paper reports findings related to the effects of education services aimed at Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, featuring a large sample and direct classroom observations. The final paper focuses on how exposure to trauma affects cognitive abilities of refugee children in Lebanon and investigates whether negative effects can be mitigated through integrated psychosocial and educational intervention.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London

Discussant

• Theresa Betancourt, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Individual Presentations

• Stress and Resilience: Evaluating interventions with Syrian refugee youth - Presenting Author: Catherine Panter-Brick, Department of Anthropology, Yale University; Mark Eggerman, MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University; Jane MacPhail, Mercy Corps Jordan; Rana Dajani, Department of Biology, Hashemite University Zarqa Jordan

• Improving the Quality of Education to Promote Syrian Refugee Children’s Resilience: Insights from Implementation Science - Presenting Author: Carly Tubbs Dolan, New York University; J. Lawrence Aber, New York University

• Battling Trauma in the Refugee Classroom: Measuring the Impact of an Intervention on Executive Functioning of Syrian Children - Presenting Author: Alexandra Chen, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Margaret A. Sheridan, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Amar Hamoudi, Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy