Assessing the Feasibility of Providing a Family Skills Intervention, "Strong Families", for Refugee Families Residing in Reception Centers in Serbia.

Aala El-Khani,Wadih Maalouf,Karin Haar,Milos Stojanovic

doi:10.3390/ijerph18094530

Abstract

War exposure and forced displacement threatens the wellbeing of caregivers and their children, leaving them at risk of negative outcomes, such as elevated rates of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The importance of engaged, responsive and stable parenting for positive child wellbeing has been documented across diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. Despite the higher need for caregivers to be nurturing in challenging settings, they struggle to provide adequate support for their children due to lack of resources or their inability to deal with their own emotional challenges. A feasibility study was conducted of a new, open-access and light-touch family skills intervention, Strong Families (for families in humanitarian and challenged settings) on refugee families residing in Reception Centers in Serbia. Questionnaires and interviews were completed by participating caregivers and facilitators. Qualitative results indicated that the intervention was feasible to run in this humanitarian context, that caregivers viewed the intervention as culturally acceptable and complemented the quantitative results that showed promise for enhancing child behavior and family functioning tested indicators. Despite being a light intervention, Strong Families indicated improvement on child mental health, parenting practices and parent and family adjustment skills. Prioritizing family mental health and functioning as a primary need that parallels that of accessing physical medical care, sanitation and clean water must be the definitive next step in humanitarian aid.

Highlights

A staggering one in eight children are born into situations of conflict and crisis [1].Exposure to war and forced displacement threatens the wellbeing of caregivers and their children, leaving them at risk of a number of negative outcomes such as elevated rates of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [2]
Mothers participated with 9 daughters and 11 sons, 45% and 55%, respectively; fathers only participated with sons (Table S1 within supplementary materials; not significant)
Results for repeated measure ANOVAs and post-hoc tests only shown if significant (p < 0.05); n.s. not significant; SD: standard deviation; Þ significant difference between t1 and t2, Φ significant difference between t2 and t3, ¢ significant difference between t1 and t3

Summary

Introduction

Exposure to war and forced displacement threatens the wellbeing of caregivers and their children, leaving them at risk of a number of negative outcomes such as elevated rates of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [2]. Families fleeing war experience high levels of stress, such as financial loss, family separation and emotional and behavioral changes in family members, as reactions to exposure to extreme adversities [3,4]. War exposure to conflict and crisis can influence children’s adjustment directly, by exposing them to extreme adversities, such as repeated experiences with violence, loss of caregivers or a supportive community [5,6]. Indirect effects of war exposure can sometimes be even more damaging for children, such as changes in parenting practices and their caregivers’ reactions to distressing events [7]. The importance of engaged, responsive and stable parenting for positive child mental health wellbeing has been documented extensively over the past decade [8] across diverse cultural and economic backgrounds [9,10]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion