Unaccompanied Children Research Articles

INFORMATION AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR PROVIDING SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT TO CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN REMOTE ACCESS

Family members, parents and caregivers are an important source of protection and emotional support for children. Children separated from their loved ones, during a crisis event, find themselves in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar people. They are often very frightened and unable to correctly assess the risk and dangers around them. Reuniting unaccompanied children, including teenagers, with their loved ones is an important first step. If the children are with their parents, you should try to support the adults in taking care of the children. People who may face discrimination and violence in a crisis situation. This category includes women or members of certain ethnic groups, in relation to whom there is an increased risk of discrimination or violence.
 Svitlana Roiz explains that during the sound of sirens, the child’s auditory channel of perception is under a special load, so it needs to be «occupied» with something. To do this, you can sing in chorus, shout slogans against Utiputin and the Russian army, listen to audio fairy tales and music with headphones, take a guitar with you and arrange a concert for everyone.In order to provide psychological support to citizens of Ukraine who suffer from the consequences of russia’s armed aggression, the free online psychological help platform «Tell me» works around the clock. The project is implemented with the support of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Health and the Institute of Cognitive Modeling.In addition, the team of the Institute of Cognitive Modeling in cooperation with the Department of Medical Psychology, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy of the Bogomolets National Medical University and specialists of the «Friend» project developed a psychological first aid bot. The bot also contains recommendations for maintaining psychological health.

Separation During Emergencies: Is there a Stable Relationship Between Separated Children and the Rest of a Fleeing Population? Evidence from Three Situations in Africa

With the numbers of people fleeing their home countries increasing in recent decades, the need to understand refugee flow patterns, particularly of the most vulnerable groups, is more important than ever. This study is focused on the separation of children from their parents during emergencies in the east and southern African context and highlights how populations fleeing from the same country of origin into nearby countries may be characterised by quite different rates of separation. Despite the wide range of estimates of the proportion of unaccompanied and separated children among the refugee population, in all of the cases considered here, the extent of separation is fairly stable over time, revealing a fast process of adjustment towards their long-term mean values. The findings of this study contribute to improve current knowledge of the issue of separation during emergencies and provide useful support for the monitoring of refugee population movements, and in particular for predicting the number of cases of separation, especially during periods of high variability in the number of new refugee arrivals. This is expected to strongly support the programming of related humanitarian assistance and protection for separated and unaccompanied refugee children.

Placement breakdown in Flemish family foster care for unaccompanied refugee minors. Experiences of non-kinship foster parents

This qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with twelve foster parents who took care of unaccompanied refugee minors (URM; mainly Afghan boys aged 15 to 16 years old) examines two research questions: “How do non-kinship foster parents of Caucasian ethnicity experience placement breakdown of unaccompanied children?”, and “What could have prevented placement breakdown?” Foster parents perceived breakdown as a failure and reported a major emotional impact on themselves, their children and on their family life. Although most of them thought breakdown could not have been avoided, three factors were reported: not assigning a study grant if the youngster is going to live independently, more psychological support for the URM, and connections to potential individuals or support systems who share the youths’ culture and traditions and who support the placement. All foster parents described multiple and various difficulties related to the care system, the URM and the social context that troubled the foster placement. Based on the experiences of foster parents several implications for practice and policy were formulated such as a better preparation, training and matching of the foster family and the URM, care planning that includes the needs of foster carers, their biological children and the URM for specialized support and adapted care; facilitating fellow contacts for foster parents and URM; organizing specialized training for foster care workers, and developing a post-intervention program for foster families who experienced breakdown.

Discretionary decision making in child welfare – An experimental vignette study of the use of interpreter services

This paper focuses on child welfare workers’ discretionary decision making. They can rely on routines, procedures and manuals as part of their work, but in the end, they still have to make a choice, based on the available information at the time. Discretionary decision making is a way of reasoning when facing uncertainty in professional work and when laws, rules and systematic knowledge must be applied in specific cases. A larger body of research on discretion and discretionary decision making in social work has developed, but there remains much ground to cover in terms of empirical analyses of how discretionary processes play out in real-life contexts.The two main research questions ask how the characteristics of each child and context and of social workers and their work situation affect the latter’s decision to use interpreter services in their work with unaccompanied minors and children from minority backgrounds. The decision to use or not to use interpreter services in different situations, as an act of discretionary decision making by child welfare workers, is analysed in this paper. To study discretionary decision making among child welfare workers, a combination of a traditional survey and a vignette experiment has been used, bringing together organisational features, individual traits and situational characteristics. The findings indicate that interpreter services are less likely to be used in acute situations and more likely to be used with the children whom the child welfare staff members know better, irrespective of the children’s language skills. The analyses also show varying effects of the staff’s training and educational backgrounds, and surprisingly, the negative effects of institutional guidelines. One possible interpretation of this is that the guidelines are perceived as rigid constraints, instead of positive recommendations for actions.

Examining socio-ecological factors contributing to the promotion and protection of education for unaccompanied and separated children in Jordan

ObjectivesLimited research exists on the underlying processes through which socio-ecological factors contribute to the educational resilience of UASCs. This can be attributed to a lack of quantitative reporting on the educational outcomes of UASCs. The study examined the relationship between UASC status and educational achievement among Palestinian refugees in Jordan using the PISA 2009 dataset. It identified socio-ecological factors at the student-level, teacher-level, and school-level that are associated with the promotion and protection of education for this vulnerable group. Methods and AnalysisThe sample comprised 410 Palestinian refugee students in Jordan, of which 91 were identified as UASCs. Correlational analysis examined the relationship between UASC status and educational achievement. Hierarchical regression analysis then identified socio-ecological factors impacting educational achievement after controlling for student, teacher, and school variables. Main effects and interaction effects in the regression models revealed key promotive and protective processes. FindingsFindings showed that UASC status negatively correlated with achievement across all subjects. However, female gender, higher educational, social, and cultural status, positive class disciplinary climate, positive teacher-student relations, and higher school use of ability grouping provided promotive effects on achievement for UASCs. Higher teacher use of structuring and scaffolding strategies provided a protective-enhancing effect on reading achievement for UASCs. Higher school use of ability grouping provided a protective-stabilizing effect on both reading achievement and scientific achievement for UASCs. In contrast, high school academic selectivity provided a vulnerable-reactive effect on scientific achievement for UASCs. Novelty and ImprovementThe study highlights the importance of adopting a socio-ecological and socio-interactional framework with robust quantitative approaches to gain in-depth understanding of UASCs' educational resilience. The identification of microsystemic and mesosystemic factors (those at teacher-level and school-level) as critical promotive and protective assets provides vital insights to inform research, policy, and practice aimed at supporting UASCs' ability to thrive academically despite risks associated with being UASC.

Psychosocial and integration needs of unaccompanied children in Greece

This article seeks to fill the research gap on the psychosocial and integration needs of unaccompanied children and the challenges they encounter to reach autonomy and social integration. To address this issue, the study utilized a qualitative research survey interviewing 18 field professionals, which indicated that the key challenges include insufficient preparation, institutionalization, uncertainty about the future, asylum procedures, and social exclusion, while proposing the implementation of an integration plan focusing on education, vocational training, and contact with the local community. This article aims to offer a better understanding of children’s needs and how practitioners could protect children more effectively.

Family Stabilization Services for Unaccompanied Children in the United States

Unaccompanied children are a growing and vulnerable population of immigrants who are arriving to the United States in increasing numbers, mostly from Central American countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. This study examines sociodemographic factors associated with unaccompanied children requiring family stabilization services as their primary need upon arrival to the United States. The sample includes children who received post-release services from nonprofits throughout the United States ( n = 851). Logistic regression analyses reveal that children from Honduras ( p < .05) and children who are placed with their fathers, compared with other sponsor types such as mothers or siblings ( p < .001), have greater odds of requiring family stabilization services as their primary need. In addition, older children have lower odds of requiring family stabilization services as their primary need ( p < .001). The study includes implications for practice and future research.

Narrating Paradox Affects: Unaccompanied Minor Asylum-Seekers in Austria

Asylum-seeking unaccompanied children and youngsters are situated at the crossroads between exclusionary and repressive asylum policies, on the one hand, and relatively inclusive and caring child welfare policies, on the other. This is the ‘asylum-child welfare paradox’ (Dursun and Sauer 2021). In this article, we explore the role of affect, feelings, and emotions in how unaccompanied minors respond to and process but also co-construct and resist this structural paradox through their ‘affective narratives’ (Bargetz and Eggers 2022). Based on qualitative interviews conducted with (former) unaccompanied minors in Austria in 2015, we observe that minors mobilize a set of feelings of fear, disappointment, frustration, and uncertainty due to experiences of rejection or loss of control; but unaccompanied minors also express feelings of confidence, joy, hope, and solidarity vis-à-vis their new environment and their future. Furthermore, the highly affective issues of belonging and non-belonging to their host country, of proximity and distance to other human beings hold an important place in their narratives as well as the ordering of time. We conclude that, rather than merely reacting to paradoxes that structure their social positions, minors actively shape such paradoxes and render them tangible and workable by means of narrating contradictory feelings and emotions and by mobilizing affectivity.

Infections in Asymptomatic Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children in London 2016-2022.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are at increased risk of infections and experience barriers to healthcare access. There is a lack of evidence to underpin existing national and international guidance regarding asymptomatic infection screening in this population. We describe the results from routine infection screening of 1104 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children attending for testing at 3 London centers. We performed a retrospective analysis of routinely collected data from all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children seen in 3 services in London, United Kingdom, between 2016 and 2022. A total of 1104 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children attended clinic; all accepted screening. The median age was 16 years (range 11-18 years) and 987 (89%) were male. 407 (37%) had at least 1 infection; 116 (11%) had multiple infections. Tuberculosis infection and schistosomiasis were common (found in 18% and 17%, respectively). Hepatitis B infection was identified with a prevalence of 3.9%. Giardia 7.7%, tapeworm 3.3% and Strongyloides 2.8% were also commonly identified. We report the largest known dataset to our knowledge of infection screening in asymptomatic unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Europe to date. This data supports recommendations for routine asymptomatic screening in this high-risk cohort, based on the significant prevalence identified of infections of both personal and public health significance.

Feeling Familial Separation: Emotions, Agency, and Holocaust Refugee Youths

Abstract: During the years of the Nazi regime, well over 1,000 European Jewish youths migrated to the United States in organized unaccompanied child migration schemes. These youths left an abundant, and largely untapped, trove of sources in which they constructed narratives of their lives and emotions to their parents in letters, to their social workers in their various interactions, and to themselves in their diaries. Though refugee youths undeniably felt a range of emotions, in this article I suggest that emotional expression tells us less about the emotional inner lives of youths than the attempt to exert and subvert control and power in a topsy-turvy world. By drawing attention to the language of emotions, their inherent power dynamics, and the potential gulf between emotions and experience, this article opens a conversation about our capacity to document children's agency and to study emotions to explain decision-making and experience.

Feeling Familial Separation: Emotions, Agency, and Holocaust Refugee Youths

Abstract: During the years of the Nazi regime, well over 1,000 European Jewish youths migrated to the United States in organized unaccompanied child migration schemes. These youths left an abundant, and largely untapped, trove of sources in which they constructed narratives of their lives and emotions to their parents in letters, to their social workers in their various interactions, and to themselves in their diaries. Though refugee youths undeniably felt a range of emotions, in this article I suggest that emotional expression tells us less about the emotional inner lives of youths than the attempt to exert and subvert control and power in a topsy-turvy world. By drawing attention to the language of emotions, their inherent power dynamics, and the potential gulf between emotions and experience, this article opens a conversation about our capacity to document children's agency and to study emotions to explain decision-making and experience.

The Unique Role of Peer Support: Exploring the Effects of Various Sources of Social Support on the Mental Health of Unaccompanied Children in China under Residential Education.

This study investigates the impact of various sources of social support on the mental health of unaccompanied children under residential education in China. Unaccompanied children refer to those whose parents are still alive but unable to raise them due to various reasons. The study utilized self-reported questionnaires administered at two time waves, with the first wave (T1) evaluating family support, teacher support, and peer support, and the second wave (T2) evaluating depression, subjective well-being, and resilience. A total of 202 participants completed both surveys. To examine the predictive effect of different sources of social support on the mental health of these children, the study used the structural equation model with depression and subjective well-being as indicators. The results show that neither family support nor teacher support (T1) had a significant effect on the mental health (T2) of the children. However, peer support (T1) had a significant positive predictive effect on mental health (T2), indicating the unique role of peer support in promoting the mental health of unaccompanied children. The study also explored the mediating role of resilience between social support and well-being, revealing that though the direct effect of teacher support (T1) on mental health (T2) was not significant, the indirect mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between teacher support and mental health was significant. Both the direct and indirect effect of family support (T1) on mental health (T2) were not significant. These findings highlight the importance of creating a positive peer environment for unaccompanied children to promote their mental health. This study has important practical implications for the development of effective intervention programs aimed at improving the mental health of this population.

Does emotion regulation in adolescents in residential care mitigate the association between sexual victimization and poor psychological well-being?

BackgroundChildhood sexual abuse/assault has been linked to mental health problems that affect an individual's psychological well-being. This study explores the facets of emotional regulation as mediating mechanisms in the relationship between sexual victimization and psychological well-being in adolescents in residential care in Eastern Spain. Furthermore, it examines the role of sex assigned at birth and being unaccompanied asylum seeker children as possible moderators of the mediation model. MethodsA total of 346 adolescents (34.1% girls, 65.9% boys) aged between 11 and 19 years old completed a battery of instruments. Parallel multiple mediation paths were tested to determine whether sexual victimization is associated to psychological well-being across emotional regulation dimensions. Moderated mediation models with sex assigned at birth and the condition of unaccompanied asylum seeker children were tested too. ResultsThis study demonstrates that high sexual victimization is associated with poor psychological well-being in adolescents in residential care through the lack of emotional clarity, non-acceptance of emotional responses, and limited access to emotional regulation strategies (β = −0.6, 95%CI = −1.26, −0.09; β = −0.38, 95%CI = −0.9, 0.002; β = −0.39, 95%CI = −0.93, −0.03, respectively). In addition, the latter indirect effect pathway was significantly moderated by the condition of being unaccompanied asylum seeker children (β = 1.46, 95%CI = 0.28, 2.84). Sex assigned at birth was not shown to be a significant moderator. ConclusionsIdentifying which mechanisms of emotional regulation mediate the relationship between sexual victimization and psychological well-being in adolescents in residential care may contribute not only to reducing the psychological distress of these adolescents but also to improving the effectiveness and efficacy of the child welfare system.

“You hold your life in your hands until you arrive in another country”: young Afghans seeking onward mobility from Greece

ABSTRACT This article considers the interplay between mobility and immobility in the everyday lives of young people on the move. It looks at the ways interactions with and categorisations by protection structures and restrictive border and migration regimes lead to diverse trajectories. The article is based on research with young men from Afghanistan mostly classified as unaccompanied minors. Some of the young men were seeking to continue their journeys from Greece and others had managed and had arrived in Norway. The young people’s trajectories were marked by uneven rhythms and multiple forms of movement and stasis with various effects on the body and the intimate. Whether they were categorised as accompanied or unaccompanied children or as adults also governed their spatiotemporal mobility and led to different, partly contradictory, temporalities. Moreover, imagination, desire, and conditions endured in the places they had left and moved through interacted and encouraged onward mobility.

Persistence of Emotional Distress in Unaccompanied Migrant Children and Adolescents Primarily From the Northern Triangle of Central America

In the US, unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents (hereinafter referred to as children) are predominantly from Central America's Northern Triangle. While unaccompanied migrant children are at high risk for psychiatric sequelae due to complex traumatic exposures, longitudinal investigations of psychiatric distress after resettlement are lacking. To identify factors associated with emotional distress and longitudinal changes in emotional distress among unaccompanied migrant children in the US. For this retrospective cohort study, the 15-item Refugee Health Screener (RHS-15) was administered between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2019, to unaccompanied migrant children as part of their medical care to detect emotional distress. Follow-up RHS-15 results were included if they were completed before February 29, 2020. Median follow-up interval was 203 days (IQR, 113-375 days). The study was conducted in a federally qualified health center that provides medical, mental health, and legal services. Unaccompanied migrant children who completed the initial RHS-15 were eligible for analysis. Data were analyzed from April 18, 2022, to April 23, 2023. Traumatic events before migration, during migration, during detention, and after resettlement in the US. Emotional distress, including symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, as indicated by the RHS-15 (ie, score ≥12 on items 1-14 or ≥5 on item 15). In total, 176 unaccompanied migrant children completed an initial RHS-15. They were primarily from Central America's Northern Triangle (153 [86.9%]), were mostly male (126 [71.6%]), and had a mean (SD) age of 16.9 (2.1) years. Of the 176 unaccompanied migrant children, 101 (57.4%) had screen results above the positive cutoff. Girls were more likely to have positive screen results than boys (odds ratio, 2.48 [95% CI, 1.15-5.34]; P = .02). Follow-up scores were available for 68 unaccompanied migrant children (38.6%). On the follow-up RHS-15, most scored above the positive cutoff (44 [64.7%]). Three-quarters of unaccompanied migrant children who scored above the positive cutoff initially continued to have positive scores at follow-up (30 of 40), and half of those with negative screen scores initially had positive scores at follow-up (14 of 28). Female vs male unaccompanied migrant children (unstandardized β = 5.14 [95% CI, 0.23-10.06]; P = .04) and initial total score (unstandardized β = 0.41 [95% CI, 0.18-0.64]; P = .001) were independently associated with increased follow-up RHS-15 total score. The findings suggest that unaccompanied migrant children are at high risk for emotional distress, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress. The persistence of emotional distress suggests that unaccompanied migrant children would benefit from ongoing psychosocial and material support after resettlement.

Family Separation and Reunification Under President Trump's Zero-Tolerance Policy

The past decades have been characterized by sharp increases in the number of families, mainly from Central America's Northern Triangle, apprehended by US Border Patrol. In an effort to stem those flows, the Trump administration implemented a zero-tolerance policy (ZTP) aimed at criminally prosecuting all adults crossing the border without authorization, regardless of whether they traveled with children or sought asylum upon entry. Thousands of children were separated from their parents, reclassified as “unaccompanied,” and referred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Yet, to date, there has not been a careful evaluation of the impacts of the policy. We examine how ZTP affected the volume of unaccompanied minors, their time in ORR custody, and their likelihood of family reunification. We show that ZTP boosted the ranks of unaccompanied children through family separations by 48 percent, lowered their discharge rate from ORR's custody by 38 percent, and reduced their odds of family reunification by 49 percent. Given the growing number of families from the Northern Triangle seeking asylum in the United States, the documented mental health problems of separated children, and the rotating nature of immigration policies based on the administration in place, understanding the implications of policies like ZTP is imperative.

Book review of Herz, Marcus and Lalander, Philip 2021. Social Work, Young Migrants and the Act of Listening: Becoming an Unaccompanied Child. London: Routledge. 177 pp

Book review of Herz, Marcus and Lalander, Philip 2021. Social Work, Young Migrants and the Act of Listening: Becoming an Unaccompanied Child. London: Routledge. 177 pp

“Can my mother come?” Asylum interviews with unaccompanied and separated children seeking asylum in the Netherlands

IntroductionThe UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) accords children the right to give their views on all important decisions in their life (art.12 CRC). In the past decades increased awareness has risen among professionals who work with children in judicial and administrative proceedings, to hear their voices. The key question guiding this research was whether refugee children have the possibility to meaningfully participate in asylum proceedings, as required by international children's rights law and standards? Asylum application procedures are highly complex administrative procedures, that are often not adapted to the capacities and level of maturity of children. Recent studies suggest that the right to participation and information is insufficiently safeguarded for children involved in asylum procedures. Unaccompanied children seeking asylum as young as 6 years of age have to go through the asylum procedure in the Netherlands. Efforts have been put in making this procedure more child-friendly, by designing a child-friendly interview room and training immigration officers. The aim of this study was to explore to what extent the immigration authority takes into account children's voice, age and development, in line with international children's rights.MethodsObservations have been conducted of first instance asylum application interviews with children held by immigration officers. In total 13 interviews with children aged 7–11 have been observed, that were held between 2012 and 2019.ResultsThe results show that child-friendly conversation techniques and tools are used to some extent, however, immigration officers should be trained more extensively in order to enhance the effective participation of young children.DiscussionIt is concluded that interviews with children could be improved by giving children more information and using techniques to communicate with young children. In order to truly hear the child's voice the interviews should be better adapted to the age and level of development of unaccompanied children.

“Children don’t think about these things”: Qualitative research on the relationship views and experiences of former unaccompanied refugee children

Αlthough unaccompanied refugee minors have sadly been and still are a part of the movements observed worldwide of hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing persecution, violence and war, there seems to be limited research on their relationships from their viewpoint. The present study explored the relationship experiences of former unaccompanied refugee children (now older adults). During the Greek civil war (1944–1949) thousands of children between the ages of three to 14 were taken from their villages in Greece and settled as unaccompanied refugees in institutions in countries of the former Eastern Bloc. The research sought to gain a rich understanding of their views and experiences regarding personal relationships. Nine older adults (8 men and 1 woman), who were separated from their families when they were younger than 10 years of age, were interviewed. Their narratives were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The themes that emerged from the analysis demonstrated that attachment ties to their parents were severely affected by separation raising questions as regards the existence of attachment representations, the importance of relationships seemed generally undermined, while the role of peers was accentuated. The participants’ resilience and coping mechanisms are also discussed.

Governing resettlement beyond safety: Multilevel governance as a model for sustainable resettlement of unaccompanied refugee children in rural Sweden?

AbstractThis article explores the sustainability of the resettlement of unaccompanied refugee children from their perspective. Against the backdrop of a critical assessment of the multilevel governance of resettlement, it compares two rural municipalities. Unaccompanied refugee children in the municipality with a disempowering local governance model were hindered to engage with civil society, while in the municipality with an enabling model, their integration was enhanced. Achieving safety by legal residency does not by itself resolve the liminalities of belonging to unaccompanied refugee children. Beyond positive engagement by professionals, supporting encounters with civil society were found to enhance integration and belonging, while the lack of these strengthened marginalities. Unaccompanied refugee children resettlement is largely influenced by the benevolence of local actors when the state vacates its responsibility to co‐ordinate efforts. While civil society has an important role to play, a helping civil society cannot be assumed. Tensions rose also due to the collision between institutional styles. The marketisation of refugee reception at the national level led to loss of ability to plan schooling in rural municipalities, reinforcing practices of physical and symbolic segregation of children in the refugee context education. These accounts shed also light on the resilience of unaccompanied refugee children encountering local resettlement efforts emerging in the context of increasingly securitised asylum policies.