Mental health and resilience of students with a refugee background in Greece.RaRE project findings

Abstract Background Research highlights the mental health challenges faced by children and adolescents from refugee backgrounds due to various risk factors encountered during migration, including exposure to violence, family disruptions, insecure legal status, and educational interruptions. These factors increase the risk of psychological issues and academic difficulties. This study investigates the relationship between mental health and resilience in refugee adolescents in Greece. Methods The study focuses on refugee adolescents aged 12-18 from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Ukraine, the countries with the highest numbers of school-age refugees in Greece. Data were collected from 37 refugee children, 37 teachers, 4 parents, and 19 guardians using Poisson sampling. Results are based on responses to the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Child Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM), with triangulation of self-completed questionnaires from students, parents/legal guardians, and teachers. Pearson correlation coefficient was employed for analysis. Results We present the pairwise Pearson correlation coefficients of students’ responses to psychometric tests in relation to those of teachers, along with the corresponding p-values for a two-tailed test of significance. Specifically, cor(SDQst,SDQt)=0.443 (p-value=0.006), cor(SDQst,CYRMt)=-0.341 (p-value=0.039), cor(CYRMst,SDQt)=-0.333, (p-value=0.006), cor(CYRMst,CYRMt)=0.323 (p-value=0.051). All p-values are below 0.05 or very close to it, so we reject (or we are close to) the null hypothesis of no association at 5% significance level for every case. On the contrary, we note that the corresponding coefficients between students and parents/legal guardians are all statistically non-different from 0 at 5% significance level. Conclusions Educators exhibit a solid understanding of students’ challenges and resilience compared to parents and guardians. These promising findings support further research.