Background
Civilian war trauma and forced migration are among the most traumatic life experiences. There are approximately 36.4 million refugees worldwide; 40% are children. There is a paucity of mixed methods approaches that quantify properties of trauma narratives of refugee youth. This approach could assist in identifying individuals who could benefit from early clinical care.
Methods
Participants were 68 youth resettled as refugees of Syria in Southeast Michigan ages 7-17 (31F, Mage = 12.85), originally recruited from clinics during health screenings within one month of arrival in the United States. Those enrolled in this study consented to additional data collection and were assessed 1-2 years post-migration. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count tools analyzed the narratives of youth’s experiences. Participants were asked to recall the overall most hurtful or terrifying event they had ever experienced, and then under their current living situation. Mixed methods approaches were employed to derive thematic elements from trauma narratives.
Results
Pre-migration narratives consisted of violence and loss from experiences in both Syria and Jordan. The top three most frequent word categories were social references, perception, and spatial language. Post-migration narratives consisted of discrimination and bullying, namely at school and in communities. The top three most frequent word categories were social references, perception, and cognition.
Conclusion
Most social interactions children have are at school or school-related functions. Schools have a unique opportunity to mitigate traumatic social experiences. Further funds and teaching are needed to positively shape the social experiences of young people, especially youth resettled as refugees
