Refugee Children's Resilience: A Qualitative Social Ecological Study of Life in a Camp
[ X ]
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Oxford Univ Press
Access Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
Abstract
A social ecological theory of resilience shows that the process of resilience not only depends on an individual child's personal traits but also on the capacity of the child's environment to provide the resources required for the child to use these traits to achieve psychological and physical wellbeing in contexts of adversity. The aim of this study is to investigate how refugee mothers influence their children's developmental outcomes despite exposure to the large number of risk factors they experience living in a refugee camp. Ten Syrian mothers of children aged 5-7-years-old participated in both semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted while they were living in a refugee camp in Turkey. Using an inductive thematic analysis, findings show that participants found unconventional ways to build their children's social capital, provide an education and maintain culturally grounded values and beliefs when facing with multiple distal and proximal challenges. These findings highlight the importance of understanding resilience as a psychosocial and interactive process occurring at multiple systemic levels (in this case, child, mother, and camp). Improving the functioning of larger systems may be an efficacious way of creating stable and nurturing environments for children to experience greater resilience.
Description
Keywords
child development, refugee camp, refugee children and mothers, resilience, social ecology
Journal or Series
Journal of Refugee Studies
WoS Q Value
Q2
Scopus Q Value
Q1
Volume
34
Issue
4
