School-based mental health screenings with Ukrainian adolescent refugees in Germany: Results from a pilot study

Abstract

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, high numbers of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have left the country. As of today, Germany has accepted more than one million refugees fleeing from Ukraine including ~200,000 children and adolescents registered in German schools. Since refugee minors are typically affected by high rates of mental health issues, the identification of potential psychological problems at an early stage after arrival is essential in order to make timely referrals for vulnerable youth to diagnostic or treatment services possible. The aim of the present study was to test the feasibility of a classroom-based mental health screening procedure and to assess symptoms of PTSD, depression, and anxiety in a small sample of adolescents who had fled to Germany. Forty-two adolescents (n = 20 girls) took part in the study. Screening results showed that more than half of the sample had elevated ratings in the Refugee Health Screener (RHS) and about 45% reported clinically significant levels of PTSD. Overall, the amount of both mental health problems and current worries related to the war was significantly higher in girls compared to boys. In general, screenings were well received by the adolescents. The findings of this pilot study point to a considerable level of mental health problems and distress in adolescent refugees affected by the recent war in Ukraine. Brief psychological screenings within the school setting might represent a promising approach to identifying potential mental health disorders as early as possible in newly arriving refugee youth.

Do relationships with parents determine citizens’ reactions to war trauma?

“…The threats related to the ongoing wars in the world and in Europe force political and social decision-makers to devote more space to psychoeducation, what trauma is, especially war trauma, and how to deal with the psychosocial disorders it triggers. Our study is consistent with those showing connections between attachment styles and reactions such as PTSD and PTG (Romeo et al, 2019), as well as between experiencing a sense of threat in various spheres of everyday life, indirectly related to the ongoing war in Ukraine (Catani et al, 2023;Huțul et al, 2023;Spence et al, 2019).…”

“…Individuals' health during wartime and susceptibility to PTSD can also be affected by so-called daily stressors, referring to the challenges of daily life, stressful events such as unemployment, temporary housing, health problems, and learning problems (Catani et al, 2023;Huțul et al, 2023;Spence et al, 2019). The results of research on the current war in Ukraine involving both civilian victims from Ukraine and Romanians from areas bordering Ukraine confirm the validity of this perspective (Huțul et al, 2023).…”

“…One may also expe-rience suffering during wartime as a result of empathically accompanying the suffering of others or witnessing someone's suffering by virtue of one's profession. The common feature of these experiences is their centrality, that is, their current importance to the subject, linked to the degree of frustration of the sufferer's most important needs (Catani et al, 2023;Huțul et al, 2023;Ryan & Deci, 2000;Senejko, 2019).…”

The use of 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in Ukrainian refugees: translation and validation study of the Ukrainian version

“…Simple tools to investigate the prevalence of people at risk of mental health problems are widely used such as the Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15) as a general measure of emotional distress and the Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 (PC-PTSD-5). They have the advantage of being rapid and easy to be administered, allowing even non-specialized personnel to use them [ 34 ]. These questionnaires were used in a school setting to screen Ukrainian refugee adolescents, finding a prevalence of 57.1% and 45.2% above the critical cut-off of RHS-15 and PC-PTSD-5, respectively [ 35 ].…”

The mental health of Ukrainian refugees: a narrative review

“…Female Ukrainian refugees have been found to have poorer mental health outcomes than male refugees and tend to have higher levels of overall distress than males [32][33][34]. While the majority of research has focused on distress in adults, children and young people have also been shown to experience high levels of general psychological distress [35].…”