REFUGEE CHILDREN FROM THE MIDDLE-EAST - PREFACE

Objective: To map the frequency (prevalence) of torture victims among parents in asylum seeking Middle Eastern refugee families, to map the occurrence (prevalence) of experiences of war and other forms of organ ised violence among the children in these families, to map the occurre nce (prevalence) of emotional symptoms and behavioural problems among the children, and to identify risk indicators and modifying factors fo r anxiety symptoms among the children. Design: Interview with parents using a structured interview questionnaire developed for this study. V alidated through a blinded semi-structured interview conducted with ap proximately 1/3 of the families. Auspices: The study has been carried out by the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT ) in cooperation with the Danish Red Cross. Material: Structured inter views with parents regarding 311 children aged 3-15 from 149 families, all registered as asylum seekers from the Middle East between Februar y 1, 1992 and April 30, 1993. The response was 90.4%. Principal variab les: background (past-past)-social and demographic data; trauma comple x (past)-war-related life circumstances (conditions) and experiences o f war and other forms of organised violence such as loss, separation, direct exposure to violence and witnessing acts of violence (specific events and changes of life conditions); present life context (past-pre sent)-family circumstances upon arrival in Denmark; effect (present)-t he child's current psychological state. Results: 28% of the parents (4 4% of the fathers and 13% of the mothers) had been tortured, to the ef fect that 51% of the children were part of a family including a surviv or of torture. The most frequent specific types of violence-related ev ents or circumstances were 'lived in a refugee camp outside the home c ountry' (92%), 'lived under conditions of war' (89%) and 'been on the run with parents' (89%). Twenty percent of the children had lost one p arent, and another 60% had been separated from one parent for more tha n a month. The highest prevalence of emotional symptoms were found wit hin the anxiety dimension, as 67% of the children were assessed as bei ng clinically anxious. The most important risk indicators for anxiety were 'lived in a refugee camp outside the home country', 'part of a to rture surviving family', 'lack of opportunities for play with other ch ildren', 'beaten/kicked by an official', and 'loss of father'. Current parental behaviour was also an important risk indicator for anxiety, if the mother or father hit or punished the child more than was the ca se prior to arrival in Denmark. The most important anxiety-modifying f actor was arrival in Denmark in the company of both parents. Conclusio ns: Asylum seeking refugee children from the Middle East have had many experiences of war and other forms of organised violence. The childre n frequently reacted with anxiety and with other symptoms of emotional instability. Prevalent anxiety symptoms correlated both with previous living conditions and present family situation. Living under prolonge d conditions influenced by war and other forms of organised violence ( prevalence) were found to a higher degree to be risk indicators for an xiety than were specific events or changes of life conditions (inciden ce).