Bhutanese Refugee Youth: The Importance of Assessing and Addressing Psychosocial Needs in a School Setting

Abstract

BACKGROUND Traumatic exposure combined with significant stressors in resettlement place Bhutanese refugees at risk for mental health problems. Despite this, refugee youth often are reluctant to seek mental health services. Psychosocial support services, such as school‐based groups, offer one solution to this barrier to care. We had 2 aims in this study: (1) to describe the psychosocial needs of resettled Bhutanese refugee students; and (2) to evaluate the impact of skills‐based groups on these students' sense of school belonging and mental health. METHODS Bhutanese refugee students in middle school (N = 34) participated in the 12‐week group curriculum (a component of Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees) and the associated preevaluation/postevaluation. RESULTS Baseline descriptive analyses indicated high levels of mental health symptoms; approximately, 49% of students met partial or full criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder. In addition, sense of school belonging was significantly inversely associated with depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms at baseline. Paired sample t tests indicate that students' avoidance symptoms significantly decreased postintervention. CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that skills‐based groups may be an effective way to engage students in supportive services and address psychosocial needs. Results further highlight the potential protective role of school belonging in reducing refugee students' vulnerability to psychological distress.

The Need to Belong: a Deep Dive into the Origins, Implications, and Future of a Foundational Construct

“…Other research has found benefits for mental health and emotional well-being (Allen et al, 2018b;Arslan, 2018;Arslan et al, 2020;Li & Jiang, 2018;Šeboková et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018), academic success, hardiness, social inclusion, and life satisfaction (Abdollahi et al, 2020;Arslan et al, 2020;Brooms, 2016;Palikara et al, 2021;Scorgie & Forlin, 2019), self-esteem and associated positive outcomes (Foster et al, 2017;Peng et al, 2019), lowered school dropouts (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2018;Uslu & Gizir, 2017), reduced likelihood of absenteeism, misconduct, school disengagement or students leaving school early without a qualification (Ibrahim & El Zaatari, 2019;Korpershoek et al, 2020;OECD, 2018), decreased feelings of alienation, isolation and disaffection or low social integration and social exclusion (Arslan et al, 2020;Palikara et al, 2021), and better performance and self-belief in abilities to succeed academically (Chun et al, 2016;Holloway-Friesen, 2019). Recent research shows that a sense of school belonging is a significant predictor of future employment, education, and training (NEET) (Parker et al, 2021), even up to 15 years post-school, and our understanding of the role that school belonging plays in the psychosocial adjustment of students who have experienced traumatic events or other forms of stress (Cardeli et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2021) has immense implications for educational practice, as well as therapeutic benefits.…”

Influencing Factors of Depression among Adolescent Asians in North America: A Systematic Review

“…A total of twelve (14.8%, 12/81) studies examined the association of peer relation factors and adolescent depressive symptoms [ 31 , 32 , 35 , 40 , 57 , 79 , 82 , 88 , 96 , 105 , 109 , 110 , 111 ]. Five (6.2%, 5/81) of these studies found that positive peer relations, support, or a sense of belonging was related to significantly reduced depressive symptoms and higher self-esteem [ 31 , 35 , 88 , 96 , 105 , 111 ]. In contrast, one study found that perceived support from peers of a different ethnicity was related to increased reporting of depressive symptoms [ 32 ], while another found no correlation between peer support and depressive symptoms [ 57 ].…”

“…Studies were included if they satisfied the following criteria: (a) included Asian adolescents who were 10 to 19 years of age; (b) identified a dimension of depression, such as depressive symptoms or depressed mood, as one of the outcome variables; (c) focused on the North American context; (d) examined the influence of psychosocial factors on depressive symptoms; and (e) were published in an English, peer-reviewed journal. Depressive symptoms can be assessed by different instruments, such as the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale [ 29 ], the 13-item Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire [ 30 ], the Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children [ 31 ], the Beck Depression Inventory—Second Edition [ 32 ], and the Children’s Depressive Inventory [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Studies were excluded if they met the following conditions: (a) did not have an author; (b) did not have predicted depression status or depressive symptoms as an outcome; (c) did not include Asian American groups in the sample of a study; (d) addressed adolescents under the age of 10 or over the age of 19; (e) focused on interventions or measurement validity and did not address psychosocial factors; (f) were a review, commentary, or dissertation; (g) were on an unrelated topic; (h) had no full text available.…”

The Refugee and Immigrant Core Stressors Toolkit (RICST): Understanding the Multifaceted Needs of Refugee and Immigrant Youth and Families Through a Four Core Stressors Framework

“…If the provider is not already a member of, and deeply embedded within, the refugee or immigrant community, these strategies include partnering with cultural brokers or community health workers who are individuals from the community the provider seeks to serve. In doing so, mental health services are likely to be more effective, trusted, and culturally responsive (Brar-Josan & Yohani, 2019;Cardeli, Phan et al, 2020).…”