European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Volume 7, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 219-224

Long-term mental health outcome of returning migrant children and adolescents (Article)

Vuorenkoski L.* , Moilanen I. , Myhrman A. , Kuure O. , Penninkilampi V. , Kumpulainen E.
  • a Clinic of Child Psychiatry, Department of Paediatrics, University of Oulu, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland
  • b Clinic of Child Psychiatry, Department of Paediatrics, University of Oulu, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland
  • c Department of Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland
  • d Faculty of Education, Snellmania Library, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 570, FIN-90571 Oulu, Finland
  • e Department of Behavioural Science, University of Oulu, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland
  • f Clinic of Child Psychiatry, Department of Paediatrics, University of Oulu, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland

Abstract

We examined how remigration influences the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms among children and adolescents in the long term. We investigated depressive and behavioral symptoms in 320 Finnish children and adolescents who moved back from Sweden while of school-age during the years 1984-1985 and in a series of controls. The data were gathered in two phases, with questionnaires sent to the parents, children and teachers in 1986, and with further questionnaires sent to the parents and children in 1992. Depression was measured by means of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) (8) and behavioral symptoms with the Children's Behavioral Questionnaire, filled in by the teachers (14) in the first phase and by the parents (15) in the second. We compared prevalence of these psychiatric symptoms between the migrants and controls in groups divided by age and sex in the two phases and examined how depressiveness or behavioral disturbance shortly after migration served to predict later psychiatric symptoms. The following findings emerged: The boys who moved before puberty had more psychiatric symptoms than their controls in both phases, while the best-adapted group consisted of the girls who moved before puberty. Those migrant children who moved during puberty had more psychiatric symptoms than their controls only in the second phase. The depressive features and behavioral disturbances observed among the migrants during the first phase did not lead to disturbances in the second phase, whereas an association was found between psychiatric disturbances among the native controls in the first and second phases.

Author Keywords

Migration Adolescent child Mental-disorders Adaptation

Index Keywords

depression Finland mental health immigration human sex difference controlled study Adaptation, Psychological puberty mental disease school child Humans Adolescent male female prevalence child psychiatry Article social adaptation behavior disorder Adolescent Behavior major clinical study Sex Factors Emigration and Immigration Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-0032436868&doi=10.1007%2fs007870050070&partnerID=40&md5=0d6a54c356f8f6dd8856cea9e73cafd4
DOI: 10.1007/s007870050070
ISSN: 10188827
Cited by: 10
Original Language: English