Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health
Volume 20, Issue 3, 2018, Pages 529-535

Psychopathology and Associated Risk Factors Among Forcibly Displaced Syrian Children and Adolescents (Article)

Gormez V.* , Kılıç H.N. , Orengul A.C. , Demir M.N. , Demirlikan Ş. , Demirbaş S. , Babacan B. , Kınık K. , Semerci B.
  • a Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Bezmialem Vakıf University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • b Department of Psychological Counselling and Guidance, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • c Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Bezmialem Vakıf University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • d Department of Psychology, Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • e Turkish Red Crescent, Ankara, Turkey
  • f Department of Psychology, Fatih Sultan Mehmet University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • g Department of Sociology, Şehir University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • h Department of Public Health, Bezmialem Vakıf University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • i Department of Pscyhology, Hasan Kalyoncu University, Gaziantep, Turkey

Abstract

More than half of the 2.7 million registered Syrian refugees in Turkey are under 18 years of age. This study investigates prevalence of psychopathology and associated risk factors in refugee children in Turkey. Of a total of 218 children aged 9–15 years, 56.2% lost someone important to them, 55.1% saw dead or wounded people, 70.4% witnessed explosions or gun battles, 42.5% witnessed people being tortured and 25.6% personally experienced cruelty/torture during war. Prevalence of PTSD was 18.3% and that of anxiety-related disorders were as high as 69.0%. Death of an important person (p =.032) and male gender (p =.040) were associated with PTSD; whilst exposure to cruelty or torture (p =.014) and increasing duration of refuge (p =.042) were significantly associated with development of anxiety disorders. Findings of the present study reveals existence of the expected but unspoken mental health needs among the Syrian children in Turkey. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Author Keywords

Turkey Refugee children Mental health Anxiety PTSD trauma

Index Keywords

refugee Syrian Arab Republic mental health human Refugees Self Report Mental Disorders Cross-Sectional Studies mental disease cross-sectional study Humans psychology Adolescent male female risk factor Risk Factors posttraumatic stress disorder Syria Turkey Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic turkey (bird) Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85036560498&doi=10.1007%2fs10903-017-0680-7&partnerID=40&md5=7a93c638804db136f33287095fac03ed
DOI: 10.1007/s10903-017-0680-7
ISSN: 15571912
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English