In Minor Salvage (2022), Stephen Hong Sohn theorizes a mode of Korean American life writing he defines by the process of salvaging the forgotten and unrecorded lives of civilians on the margins of the Korean War. Expanding upon Angela Naimou’s definition of salvage as ‘a creative and critical practice that animates every encounter with the ruined, junked and trashed’, Sohn applies this mission of recovery and excavation to the experiences of Korean women, children, and refugees that survive primarily through individual memory. The work of writers Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Kim Hyesoon, Don Mee Choi, and Diana Khoi Nguyen embodies Sohn’s project of salvage through the interdisciplinary merging of fragmented images and texts with poetic forms. This disconnected juxtaposition of text and image, combining memories and personal experiences with documents salvaged from the wreckage of history, exemplifies what Sohn terms ‘proximate memory assemblage’. Dictée (1982) by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha; Hardly War (2016), DMZ Colony (2020) and Mirror Nation (2024) by Don Mee Choi; Autobiography of Death (2018) by Kim Hyesoon; and Ghost Of (2018) by Diana Khoi Nguyen engage in proximate memory assemblage by merging autobiographical writing with the collective cultural memory of the trauma and displacement resulting from the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The destruction and division of Korea and fractured diasporic identity as a consequence of forced migration is represented through literary and formal rupture, juxtaposing text with the often fragmented and contextless quotations, images, documents, and drawings salvaged from the wreckage of war.

ABSTRACT Through focusing on the case study of one Holocaust survivor, this article considers how individuals lived and worked in, and in some cases have continued to navigate, landscapes, camps, and the experience of displacement. By developing intersecting biographies of both the individual and the objects belonging to them, and mapping these and their evolving meanings across geographies and time, this article argues that an archaeological approach to the material culture of Holocaust survivors can deepen and widen insights into the Jewish refugee experience. The main thrust of the argument is that the agency of objects plays an emblematic and charismatic role in the experience of being a Holocaust survivor. Objects can act as witnesses; by their tangible, often intimate nature, they can communicate with us viscerally, enabling connections to people and situations in different ways from other methods and sources. This approach brings new perspectives to the DP and survivor experience, adding both content and counterbalance to existing scholarship in the area.

Despite Aotearoa New Zealand's commitment to equitable healthcare access, significant barriers persist for refugee populations. This qualitative study explored healthcare experiences of Syrian refugees through eight focus groups conducted in Wellington and Dunedin with 85 participants (35 in Dunedin and 50 in Wellington). All were aged 18-60 years, with most residing in Aotearoa New Zealand for four years. Focus groups were conducted separately by gender using Arabic-speaking facilitators to respect cultural practices. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis approach. Four major themes emerged: healthcare needs of refugee communities, barriers to healthcare access, positive healthcare experiences, and system-level challenges. Housing emerged as a fundamental health determinant, with poor conditions contributing to respiratory problems and chronic pain, while participants felt unable to advocate for repairs due to their refugee status. Communication barriers included interpreter reliability concerns, dialect mismatches, and a lack of cultural sensitivity from providers. Mental health needs were significant but inadequately addressed, with cultural stigma preventing help-seeking behaviour. Major access barriers included extended waiting times (up to four months for specialists), financial constraints, particularly for dental care, and unmet expectations about immediate care availability. Positive experiences included children's healthcare services, pharmacy services with Arabic-speaking staff, and recognition of the system's equitable philosophy. Findings highlight the complex interplay between social determinants, cultural factors, and system-level barriers affecting refugee healthcare access. Addressing these challenges requires integrated approaches encompassing housing advocacy, cultural competency training, community-based mental health services, and enhanced navigation support to achieve genuine healthcare equity for Aotearoa New Zealand's refugee populations.

This article examines the dynamic self-construction of young refugees within the context of forced migration, adopting a social constructionist lens and in response to calls for attending to the complexities and temporalities that form refugee youth identities. Using a case study, it examines how memories of past relationships shape a sense of self across time, emphasizing the interplay and circularity of past, present, and future in changing socio-political contexts. The conclusion points to the need of highlighting the fluid, contextual, and continuously becoming nature of the self for better supporting their transitions to the host societies and in studies of refugee experiences.

ABSTRACT This article explores the role that English linguistic coloniality plays in influencing the destination preference of asylum-seekers in the United Kingdom (UK). In the UK, the question of why asylum-seekers aspire to come to the country has become increasingly central in both public and academic discussions. While existing literature on asylum destination highlights the role that English language plays in shaping the geographical imaginaries of asylum-seekers, the critical connection between (neo)colonialism, language and destination preference is given scant attention by scholars. The result is that English is presented in discussions around asylum destination as ‘neutral’ or ‘ahistorical’ influence, decoupling it from Britain’s colonial identity and its postcolonial moves to use English as an empire-sustaining technology. Based on the experience of Eritrean refugees in the UK as an illustrative case study, I analyse in this article why postcolonial refugees take the UK as a preferred asylum destination. By employing Veronelli’s concept of ‘linguistic coloniality’ alongside Wa Thiong’o’s notion of ‘linguistic famine’, I argue that asylum arrivals in the UK should be understood as a case of postcolonial boomerang rather than spontaneous and unconnected arrivals to a ‘historically innocent’ host state. This article contributes to our understanding of the link between English linguistic coloniality and destination preferences of postcolonial refugees.

Refugee journeys and the erosion of pre-migration human capital: A sequenceanalysis approach to post-migration trajectories.

Childhood and adolescent development are deeply influenced by environmental factors, particularly early adversities and caregiver relationships. Maternal psychological distress (anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress) can adversely affect children's mental health and developmental outcomes, with these effects often magnified in immigrant and refugee populations. Telomere length (TL), a biomarker of biological aging, has been linked to chronic stress and maternal mental health challenges. This study explores the relationships between maternal psychological distress, psychological symptoms in children and adolescents, and TL among Arab American immigrant and refugee youth. A cross-sectional design was used to collect data from 55 Arab American mothers who had resided in the U.S. for the past decade and their 160 children aged 7 to 17 years. Participants were recruited through community centers in the Midwest, with data collected during home visits. Maternal and child psychological distress were assessed, and TL was measured via buccal swabs using monochrome multiplex quantitative real-time PCR. Two-level Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to evaluate the effects of maternal psychological distress and related factors on child TL. The model demonstrated excellent fit (χ2(12) = 15.66, p = .208, CFI = 0.975, TLI = 0.949, RMSEA = 0.044, SRMR = 0.012). Maternal psychological distress was significantly associated with short child TL (β = -.54, p = .002), and children born in their home country exhibited shorter TL than children born after immigration (β = -.66, p = .035). Child anxiety and PTSD symptoms, however, were not significantly associated with TL. Findings suggest maternal distress and refugee experiences contribute to telomere attrition, underscoring the need for interventions targeting maternal mental health to improve long-term health outcomes in this population.

Refugee children constitute one of the most vulnerable groups within populations exposed to multiple and mass traumatic experiences such as forced migration, war, violence, family separation, and the disruption of caregiving systems. Inherently traumatic in nature, the refugee experience places children at heightened risk of severe forms of abuse, including physical abuse, emotional neglect, sexual exploitation, child labor, and early marriage. These risks become particularly pronounced in contexts where child protection systems are weakened or have completely collapsed. The aim of this narrative review is to examine abuse in refugee children within the framework of object relations theory and to discuss the long-term effects of these experiences on children’s psychological development from a theoretical perspective. In exploring the disruptive effects of chronic trauma and abuse on internalized object representations and self-structures, the review conceptualizes forced migration, persistent threat perception, and abuse experiences as external realities that contribute to the dominance of “bad object” representations, the reinforcement of splitting. Within this context, migration-related trauma and experiences of abuse are linked to predominant paranoid–schizoid functioning. This review frames abuse in refugee children not merely as an environmental risk factor, but as a form of structural trauma with profound and enduring effects on the psychic apparatus. Finally, the clinical implications of these findings are discussed, emphasizing the importance of trauma-informed, relational, and culturally sensitive psychotherapeutic approaches.

ABSTRACT The exhibition ‘Huir con lo puesto’ (25 October 2024–2 February 2025) at the Museo del Traje introduces a museological approach grounded in personal testimonies. Developed with UNHCR–ACNUR, it places the experiences of refugees at the centre of the exhibition narrative. The research for this paper was conducted through a focus group with the exhibition’s curators, aiming to examine their working process and curatorial decision-making. In contrast, the exhibition itself was developed through interviews carried out by the curators with refugees, whose stories directly inspired the design and creation of the pieces on display. This translation of lived experiences into material forms enables visitors to engage emotionally with the realities of forced displacement. The project reshapes curatorial practice toward participatory research and shared authorship. It also demonstrates how collaboration with migrant communities fosters inclusion, raises social awareness, and broadens institutional narratives by embedding marginalised voices within the museum discourse.

The number of refugee and immigrant children and adolescents is rapidly increasing worldwide. Early identification of psychological risk factors is essential, as childhood mental health significantly influences outcomes in adulthood. This study examined psychological difficulties associated with refugee status, war-related experiences, and forced displacement in refugee adolescents, with a particular focus on emotion regulation, dissociation, somatization, and self-esteem. Ninety-two adolescents (12-18 years) who migrated to Turkey due to the Syrian war were included in the study. A control group of 120 age- and gender-matched adolescents without refugee experience was also recruited. Sociodemographic information was collected, and participants completed the Children's Somatization Inventory (CSI-24), Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Refugee adolescents had significantly higher total DERS scores than controls (103.98 ± 15.47 vs. 91.09 ± 23.74, p < 0.001), as well as higher dissociation (A-DES: 4.27 ± 1.62 vs. 2.93 ± 1.98, p < 0.001), somatization (CSI-24: 21.20 ± 11.86 vs. 14.95 ± 9.14, p < 0.001), and higher RSES scores indicating lower self-esteem (3.93 ± 1.25 vs. 1.93 ± 1.60, p < 0.001). All DERS subscales were significantly higher in refugees except the goals subscale, which was higher in controls. In adjusted linear regression analyses controlling for age, gender, parental separation, parental loss, and school non-attendance, refugee status remained independently associated with higher DERS, A-DES, CSI-24, and RSES scores (all p < 0.001). Significant positive correlations were observed among emotion dysregulation, dissociation, somatization, and lower self-esteem. These findings highlight a broad pattern of psychological difficulties in refugee adolescents and support the importance of trauma-informed assessment and mental health support in this population.

Suicide is among the leading causes of death worldwide, and every year, more people die as a result of suicide than HIV, malaria, breast cancer, war, and homicide. Suicide rates are high among vulnerable groups that experience discrimination, such as refugees and migrants. This study explored the lived experiences of refugee suicide survivors in Rhino Camp, West Nile, Uganda, using Thomas Joiner's interpersonal theory of suicide attempts. This study employed an interpretative phenomenological research design and purposive sampling techniques to select 15 participants (seven key informants and eight refugee suicide survivors). Face-to-face interviews using in-depth interview guides and observations were used to gather data. Data were collected between June and July 2023. Among refugee suicide survivors, saturation was reached after the seventh interview, and key informants reached saturation after the sixth interview, at which point no new themes emerged. Participants described socioeconomic deprivation, intimate partner conflict and gender-based violence, trauma loss and war experiences, health burdens and physical vulnerability, psychological distress and cognitive overload, suicide attempt as crisis responses, stigma, social judgment, and isolation as a broad set of interconnected subjective experiences and triggers shaping suicide attempts among refugees. Community rescue, institutional intervention, and psychosocial support were identified as supportive systems, while refugee suicide attempt survivors described meaning-making, coping, and recovery. Socioeconomic deprivation, psychological distress, gender-based violence, stigma, and isolation heighten vulnerability among refugees, leading to suicide attempts. Strengthening available supportive systems enhances support for refugee suicide survivors.

The literature of 1942 Exodus from Burma is representative of partisan historiography where the eulogy of colonial intervention often facilitates the erasure of intersectional inequities faced by the Anglo-Burmese and Indian refugees. This has precipitated the subversion of the historical agency of the heterogenous refugee communities; conflated their unique experiences into the framework of European survival tales; and rendered a superficial mediation of the underlying reality. To retrieve their historical silences and agency, the essay utilizes qualitative research methodology and theoretical frameworks of life-writing and cultural memory studies; and contends for an analysis of memory culture portrayed within their life-writings. While the memory culture of the exodus holds an overarching scope, the article validates the contention by highlighting how the represented dialectics of cognitive memory within the Anglo-Burmese life-narrative White Butterflies by Colin McPhedran, unveil the racialized divergence of Anglo-Burmese and Indian refugee experiences contrasting European survival arc. Similarly, by underscoring the medial memory in Exodus from Burma 1941: A Personal Account, Parts 1, 2 &3 written and posted by Dr. Krishnan Gurumurthy and Amitav Ghosh, the essay examines how the thematic and structural affordances of digital spaces retrieve the historical agency of the Indian refugees in the contemporary era.

ABSTRACTBackgroundWe know that many refugees arrive in host countries, including Aotearoa New Zealand, with complex health needs and are at risk of poorer outcomes. Little attention has been paid to the expectations and understandings of care that they bring with them and how these shape their health experiences. Many refugees come from hospital‐based healthcare systems with direct, timely access to specialists, tests and procedures but resettle into primary care systems where GPs act as gatekeepers to public and private specialists and nonemergency hospital services.Design/MethodsRefugee health literature often focuses on provider perspectives. With two recent projects, we explored refugees' experiences of healthcare and access to medicines in southern New Zealand. The first gathered refugees' experiences of healthcare through 20 open‐ended interviews. The second project followed five refugee households over a year through in‐person interviews, video calls and texts. Both generated extensive qualitative data, analysed and coded thematically by research teams.Results and DiscussionBoth studies found that refugees felt significant dissatisfaction with healthcare in New Zealand. This stems in large part because refugees' expectations of healthcare are shaped by previous experiences of healthcare overseas. New to a primary care system, refugees described it as strange and slow and were openly frustrated by its more limited access to tests, referrals and follow‐up—features that previously signified care. Different prescribing practices (namely, more frugal, with a perceived over‐reliance on painkillers) also sowed scepticism of GPs. Waitlists deepened doubts about the system's ability to care for them.ConclusionDifferent experiences and understandings of care, formed overseas, contribute significantly to refugees' dissatisfaction with healthcare in New Zealand. Listening to their perspectives and understanding how and why their expectations are not being met is an important step in improving refugee healthcare provision and outcomes.PPIEOur methodological approach prioritised relationship‐building and responsiveness; we spent significant time building relationships with service providers who work with refugees and interpreters before beginning. Service providers helped develop our research and interview questions and facilitated recruitment. As early themes emerged during interviews with refugees, they were integrated into subsequent interviews for participants to verify or refute. In the first study, we brought early findings to community partners and two participating households for validation. One household continued into the second project. The longitudinal approach of the second study fostered sustained participant engagement. Both studies centred the underrepresented voices of refugees themselves, aiming to bring their perspectives to practitioners and, in doing so, contribute to improving refugee healthcare experiences.

The objective of this review was to identify and synthesize qualitative evidence on the lived experiences of facilitators and barriers to accessing mental health care services and social supports among perinatal refugee women. Perinatal refugee women experience multiple intersecting personal, social, and environmental factors that can influence their mental health and emotional well-being. Understanding the facilitators and barriers to accessing mental health care services will provide a clearer understanding of their experiences to inform health care practices, programs, and policies. This review appraised published qualitative research that explored perinatal refugee women's experiences of accessing mental health care services and social supports. Non-English articles and studies that did not explicitly state participants' migration status as refugees were excluded. Searches for published studies located in CINAHL plus, PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science, and the Social Sciences Citation Index occurred in May 2022 and were updated in June 2024. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database was searched for unpublished literature such as theses, dissertations, and publicly available information consisting of peer-reviewed qualitative studies. Sources of evidence published in English between January 2011 and June 2024 were assessed for inclusion. Study selection involved 2 independent reviewers screening titles and abstracts against the eligibility criteria. The reviewers critically appraised the methodological quality and rigor and extracted study findings. Data synthesis involved assigning categories to findings, which were aggregated into synthesized findings and graded using the ConQual approach. Forty-one articles were included in the review yielding 159 findings that were grouped into 6 categories. The categories were aggregated to form 2 synthesized findings: i) Women are impacted by unique and interconnected social determinants of migrant health in accessing mental health services and social supports, and ii) Women experienced characteristics of mental health services as both facilitators and barriers to access. Confidence levels for each synthesized finding were rated as low according to ConQual. Experiences of diverse forms of stigma as well as literacy, migration status, and racial discrimination were expressed as significant barriers to accessing mental health services among perinatal refugee women. Additional barriers described by women included not being given opportunities to express their mental and emotional well-being, fear of sociocultural consequences from pursuing mental health services, and fear of deportation. Cultural navigators, faith-based organizations, and neighbors with similar cultural backgrounds were raised as facilitators to linking with social supports and connecting safely with mental health services. Digital tools were also described as improving inequities in access to mental health service information and social supports. Care provision that provided guidance on services needed to address trauma and violence experienced during migration journeys were recommended. Further recommendations from this review include culturally and gender-responsive care. Recommendations for practice and policy include adopting cultural navigator services to disrupt stigma and providing culturally appropriate supports to perinatal refugee women. Low ConQual scores for both systematic findings indicates the need for more rigorous qualitative research within perinatal mental health and forced migration. PROSPERO CRD42021245240.

Abstract Over the last decade, ‘stepping into the lives of refugees’ and ‘walking in their shoes’ through refugee simulations have become increasingly popular advocacy tools among humanitarian actors. Driven by the highly emotive language of care and compassion, these events invite participants to actively engage with lived experiences of refugees, to feel and to sense what they endure, and to encounter their realities in a deeply embodied and intimate way. In doing so, they aim to raise awareness about refugees, change participants’ attitudes towards them, and mobilise solidarity with them. Despite their popularity, refugee simulations are neglected sites in border studies as well as in International Relations more broadly. Drawing on Deleuze’s concept of the simulacrum, and mobilising the concept of minor passages, this paper explores how these simulations might produce, sustain, or destabilise the contemporary violent diagrams of borders while modelling the very borders that they seek to challenge. By exploring two different forms of refugee simulations, humanitarian simulations and community-based simulations, the paper shows that they are performative border sites with a multiplicity of possibilities, some of which may reinforce the violence of borders, while others, as minor passages, offer realisable glimpses of hope for solidarity with those on the move.

Purpose This study explores how refugee entrepreneurs engage in everyday cosmopolitan practices as they navigate underdog entrepreneurship to shape their business development and interactions with the host society. Design/methodology/approach Focusing on six refugees from the Middle East in Finland, narrative analysis with a holistic content approach is used to interpret the data. Findings Refugee entrepreneurs consistently engage in everyday cosmopolitanism through diverse interactions, fostering personal and business growth while benefiting the host community. By navigating the challenges of underdog entrepreneurship through strategically engaging in everyday cosmopolitan practices, they challenge elite associations of cosmopolitanism, overcome systemic barriers, exercise agency in constrained contexts and exert voice in an attempt to influence social norms. Originality/value This paper advances understanding of everyday cosmopolitanism among refugee entrepreneurs by arguing that everyday cosmopolitan practices function as active, entrepreneurial strategies enabling refugees to overcome systemic barriers and exercise their socioeconomic agency. Furthermore, it looks beyond pragmatic application of cosmopolitanism to stress its moral dimension by highlighting how everyday cosmopolitanism fosters universal values, such as cultural openness and equality. It also extends underdog entrepreneurship literature to include refugee experiences, which have been previously overlooked or grouped with those of migrants, despite their distinct structural challenges. Practical implications highlight the importance of a two-way integration through practices of everyday cosmopolitanism, both from refugees and local society.

Chronic pain is common among refugees, who have often experienced significant trauma and have needs distinct from those of the non-refugee population. Pain programs do exist but little is known about how and in what ways they meet, or do not meet, refugees' needs. To that end, we sought to understand refugee experiences of a pain management program specifically designed for and with refugees, within a trauma-informed, biopsychosocial framework. Collaborating with a torture and trauma rehabilitative service, six focus groups and one interview were conducted with 31 refugees in a semi-structured format. These were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Five themes were generated capturing refugees' perspectives on the program, its content and format: (1) We learned to rethink pain as complex and not just physical; (2) Exercise does wonders for our pain and more; (3) We valued connecting with (our) people; (4) We found great value and meaning in the program and want it to continue; and (5) Our engagement with the program is impacted by broader life challenges. Social connection and reduced isolation were linked to the program's group format and culturally tailored activity design. Participants' emphasised understanding of the multidimensional nature of pain prompted new coping strategies they employed beyond the program, and they expressed a desire for the program to continue. Our findings demonstrate the value of culturally responsive, group-based approaches to pain management that include exercise, social and education components, but also highlight the complex challenges that refugees face beyond their pain experience. This study offers novel insights into how refugees experienced a pain management program. By demonstrating how elements such as exercise, social connection, cultural responsiveness and trauma-informed approaches fostered engagement and reshaped participants' understanding and management of pain, it meaningfully informs a neglected area of pain research. The findings identify practical and methodological considerations for designing and delivering tailored group-based pain programs for refugees, offering evidence to inform more equitable, responsive and culturally safe pain care.

This article examines the intersection of narrative space-time and human displacement through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope, using John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939) as its primary text. The analysis posits that Steinbeck transforms the quintessentially American road—specifically U.S. Highway 66—from a simple geographical setting into a complex chronotope that structures the experience of forced migration. By drawing on Bakhtin’s theory, this article argues that the road in The Grapes of Wrath functions not merely as a path for westward movement, but as a space where time is “thickened” and history is made tangible, fundamentally shaping the Joad family’s identity and their experience of dispossession. The analysis explores how the road chronotope becomes a crucible for community formation and ethical awakening, ultimately redefining the experience of displacement as a painful yet transformative suspension between a lost past and an uncertain future. It concludes that the chronotope of the road in The Grapes of Wrath serves as a critical narrative device for articulating the spatial and temporal disorientation inherent in the American refugee experience.

This​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ research work was derived from the Arabic version of The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri that principally treated aspects like emotional and cultural elements and also the experience of refugees in the Arabic language. The novel is a gentle encounter of the traumatic experience of the couple forcibly displaced; the research work, through its examination of the translation process, has been able to identify the emotional and cultural aspects of the text that have been preserved, changed, or even amplified. The comparative descriptive research has been used in this study along with the translation studies and narrative theory to look into the effects of language choices on the depiction of trauma, loss, and ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌resilience. Major sections of the English original and Mahdi A. AlSoliman's Arabic translation (نحَّال حلب) are contrasted to find differences in meaning, emotional intensity, and cultural translation. The translation nearly aligns with the original ideas of the novel but deviates in terms of everyday terms and wording such that there is a considerable difference in the strength of emotion as well as the cultural meaning of the novel. This study highlights the necessity for additional research on how translation shapes narratives of displacement and the degree to which it conveys the emotional veracity of refugee experiences in literature.

Exposure to refugee and traumatic experiences in early childhood can dysregulate the stress response system and lower children’s threshold for aggression. This study examines differences in amount and patterns of aggressive play in children with and without refugee or traumatic experiences, while also assessing how other environmental factors, such as flight duration as a marker of cumulated adverse experiences, time spent in the host country, parental distress, and screen exposure, are associated with such behaviour. In standardized 10 min free individual play sessions, episodes of aggressive behaviours were observed in 62 children with refugee experience and 64 children from a clinically referred comparison group without refugee experience (aged 3–6 years) and coded into four categories: physical, verbal, instrumental, and symbolic. Emotional states were documented to clarify the background mood and context of the aggressive episodes. Parents reported sociodemographic data, screen time, and filled out the Child and Adolescent Trauma Screening for children aged 3–6 (CATS 3–6), assessing potentially traumatic experiences of their children with corresponding symptoms, and the Refugee Health Screener (RHS) for information on their own mental health and distress levels. We correlated these factors with our structured observations of aggressive episodes during children’s play in a standardized situation. No significant difference in the distribution of aggressive behaviour episodes between the refugee and comparison groups was observed, even after accounting for gender. Symbolic aggression was more frequent among boys from the comparison group (p = 0.014), while no group or gender effects emerged for other aggression categories. Amount of aggressive behaviour was not related to parent-rated traumatic experiences or symptoms, but a significant correlation appeared, with the reported amount of screen time within the male sub-group (ρ = 0.209, p =0 .027). Refugee and traumatic experiences showed no association with increased aggressive behaviour, whereas higher screen time was observed alongside elevated amounts of aggressive episodes among boys in our study. Children from both, refugee and clinical comparison group predominantly engaged in non-violent play in calm, low demand setting, highlighting potential protective role of safe, stimulating environments. Trial registration German clinical trials register, registration number: DRKS00025734, date: 07–23-2021.