Syrian refugee children face more peer victimization in schools what leads to poor mental health: a brief report

Abstract

The Syrian Civil War has contributed to one of the worst humanitarian crises affecting civilian populations in the twenty-first century. It has forced over 12 million people to leave their homes and has led to the untimely death of hundreds of thousands of people [17]. Children living in Syria have experienced being starved, bombed, besieged and deprived of basic life necessities, as well as significant disruptions to their education. High proportions have also witnessed the suffering of close family and friends [11, 13]. Although exposure to potentially traumatic experiences which are encountered during the pre-migration period can have adverse effects on the mental well-being of children; post-migration experiences of discrimination, hostility and bullying are commonly reported and represent a significant threat to the mental well-being of refugee children [6, 9, 14]. Turkey, which shelters more than three and a half million Syrian refugees, has been the country hosting the highest number of Syrian refugees since 2014 [17]. While 46.4% of Syrian refugees in Turkey consists of children and young people under the age of 18, children younger than 4 years old make up 14.7% of Syrian refugees. Of more than 1 million school-age children of Syrian refugees in Turkey 643,000 continues to school [5]. Istanbul is the city with the highest number of refugees. There are 520,067 Syrians registered in Istanbul as of 21 July 2017. There are more than 22,000 Syrian refugees in Sultanbeyli district of Istanbul. This numbers corresponds to 7% of the district population [4]. There are 5,853 schoolage Syrian children, aged 6–17, in Sultanbeyli, and 43% (2530) of them are attending school [4]. We aimed to investigate whether refugee children in schools in Sultanbeyli district of Istanbul face peer bullying more frequently than their Turkish classmates. We also aimed to compare the impact of pre-migration war trauma and post-migration peer bullying on mental health problems in Syrian refugee children. We investigated a sample of 154 Syrian (50.6% Female) and 128 Turkish (55.5% Female) children (10–16 years, mean age 12.3) from randomly selected four schools in Sultanbeyli district of Istanbul using the War Trauma Questionnaire, Victimization Scale for Middle School Children, the Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-8) and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) self-report forms. We invited all Syrian refugee children and families at the identified schools to participate in the study. The study was approved by the Ethical committee of Marmara university REF: 09.2018.049. Informed consent was given by the parents and children were asked to assent to participation. Of the 154 refugee children, 71 were attending mixed classes with Turkish and refugee children learning together and 83 were in classes that consisted of only refugee children. 128 Turkish children who attended the mixed classes with refugee children were also included in the study. The parents of the refugee children had higher education levels with more university degrees than those with Turkish parents [mothers (p = 0.000); fathers (p = 0.006)]. The average time after resettlement in Turkey was 3.4 years (SD: 1.32). 36 (23.7%) of refugee children reported, that as a result of the war, experiencing the death of a first degree relative while 37 (24%) children reported the death of other relatives and 33 (21.4%) reported the death of one of their friends. 19 (12.5%) refugee kids reported injuries as a result of blasts or clashes and 53 (34.6%) children stated that they had felt close to death whilst in Syria. With Address for Correspondence related to ESCAP Communications: