African migrant children's mental health: A scoping review

Abstract

This scoping review examines and reports the literature on African migrant children's mental health. Children living outside their birth countries were included to capture the range of migration experiences of African children. Our search focused on studies published between 2000 and 2021, reporting on the mental health of children up to 18 years of age, migrating from and within Africa, and included first-generation immigrants, refugees and displaced children. Guided by Arksey and O'Malley's framework, the initial article search resulted in 7862 records. The inclusion criteria were applied by reading the titles and abstracts, and 1741 records remained. Following a review of all articles, 26 met the inclusion criteria and were included in data charting and data extraction. A thematic analysis of the data generated five broad themes, including (1) mental health experiences and sources of distress; (2) characteristics of specific mental health disorders; (3) accessibility and utilization of health services; (4) solutions to address mental health challenges and promote wellbeing; and (5) internal resilience and coping. A key observation is that most studies focus on refugee child populations with limited research on other African child migrant groups, including children of economic migrants, international students, temporary workers and other migration categories. Recommendations for future studies and practice are provided.