Many refugee families from Bosnia and Herzegovina arrived in Sweden during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s. We studied 14 of these families to compare psychological evaluation of the children using two different methods. We first carried out a semi-structured interview of a parent or parents in each family. The symptoms of each of the children, who ranged in age from 5 to 12 years, were evaluated based on these interview results. Then a second method, the Erica play-diagnosis method, was used to study the inner thoughts and feelings of the children. Results from the Erica play-diagnosis method were compared with results from Erica play- diagnosis from a normal group. According to results from the parental interviews all but one child in this study had a low level of psychological symptoms. In contrast, results from Erica play-diagnosis of these children showed that there were higher frequencies of not-normal play in these children compared with those in the normal group, which is an indication of deficiencies in the psychological well-being of these children. The results emphasise the importance of getting diagnostic information from the child in order to understand each child's psychological condition. © SAGE Publications 2011.

symptom interview Refugee children psychological evaluation Erica method

refugee Interpersonal Relations psychological aspect human sex difference Refugees war Interview, Psychological comparative study Bosnia and Herzegovina Mental Disorders human relation mental disease Bosnia-Herzegovina Sweden Humans Projective Techniques male preschool child personality test female Child, Preschool psychologic test Article adult posttraumatic stress disorder Sex Factors Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic recreation Play and Playthings Child