The Developmental Factors of Identity Strategies Variation among Schooled Central African Adolescent Refugees in the East-Region of Cameroon

Tamo Fogué Yannick,Mayi Marc Bruno,Nkelzok Komtsindi Valère

doi:10.31586/ojer.2021.10

Tamo Fogué Yannick, Mayi Marc Bruno + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.31586/ojer.2021.10

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Abstract

The present study poses the problem of the variations observed in the construction of identity strategies among schooled adolescent refugees. It starts from the observation that the latter express serious difficulties to be integrated into their host socio-cultural environments. Yet proximity to their original culture should guarantee continuity in the emergence of developmental skills initiated in their basic anthropomorphic universe. Paradoxically, they become dysfunctional in face of the demands of the host environment, and require the construction of identity strategies to adapt. Data collected from one hundred and eighty-four (184) central African refugee adolescents in the Lom-and-Djérem Division (Cameroon’s East-Region), show that in a situation of socio-emotional adaptation, age and sex are among the main factors of variation in the construction of these identity strategies.

Highlights

In Cameroon, there are approximately two hundred and twelve thousand (212,000)Central Africans settled in the North, East and Adamaoua regions [1], since 2013 with the socio-political crisis in the Central African Republic
These younger refugee teens appear to have a better ability to regulate their emotions through reassessment than their elders, who do so more through suppression. We find that they show less adaptive cognitive coping than the latter, despite the fact that they have more difficulty in the socio-emotional adaptation than their younger siblings. These results highlight the fact that in order to manage the anxiety generated by their host environments, the development strategies mobilized by adolescent refugees depend on specificities linked to their socio-cultural origins, and on their ages and sexes
This research posed the problem of variations observed in the construction of identity strategies among schooled adolescent refugees

Summary

Introduction

Central Africans settled in the North, East and Adamaoua regions [1], since 2013 with the socio-political crisis in the Central African Republic This poses a humanitarian and educational problem because many adolescent refugees live and school in socio-cultural realities that are relatively different from their culture of origin. This seems to be paradoxical in their identity construction, because some are opposed to other adolescents who are in the host environment, while they interact every day These refugees who seem to be ‘‘cultural marginalized’’ [3], live in a situation of double cultural reference and have a much more difficult, ambivalent and divided identity construction. This depends on the cases and experiences according to which the various psychosocial functions of the individual develop, whether he is in his culture of origin or in a cross-cultural context

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