Relations between traumatic life events and mental health of Eritrean asylum-seeking mothers and their children's mental health

Abstract

In the last decades, millions of families worldwide have been forced to flee their homes and seek asylum elsewhere due to war, conflict, and persecution. Though these families are exposed to adverse circumstances, studies regarding mental health consequences to these families are scant. In the current study, we examined the mental health of asylum-seeking mothers and their children. Participants were 18 mother–child dyads of asylum-seekers. Mothers completed the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist. Children completed the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire and General Self-Efficacy Scale. Children's psychological difficulties positively correlated with mothers' general distress, somatization, depression, and anxiety. The relation between mothers' exposure to trauma and their children's psychological difficulties was moderated by mothers' mental health. Finally, children's self-efficacy moderated relations between mothers' post-traumatic stress Symptoms and children's psychological difficulties. These findings highlight the importance of identifying risk and resilience factors among asylum-seeker families.