The mental health and psychological well-being of refugee children and young people: an exploration of risk,resilience and protective factors |
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| Authors: | Shaheen Mohamed Miles Thomas |
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| Institution: | School of Psychology, University of East London, London, UK |
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| Abstract: | This research investigates the perceptions of refugee children, refugee parents and school staff regarding the positive adaptation of refugee children in a new social context and the effects on mental health and psychological well-being. This included an exploration of resilience and the role of risk and protective factors. Few studies have focused on views from a resilience perspective, and these have tended to use quantitative rather than qualitative measures. This mixed methods piece of “real world” research adopted a “what’s working well” perspective and explored the important voices of these children, parents and school staff. Staff, parent and child responses were triangulated to provide a rich picture of the potential protective factors operating within the school and family environment. Implications for practice are discussed. |
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| Keywords: | Mental health psychological well-being refugee children and young people (RCYP) risk resilience protective factors educational psychology positive psychology |
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