Citation

Swan LET, Im H. Traumatology 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Green Cross Academy of Traumatology, Publisher APA Journals)

DOI

10.1037/trm0000338

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Refugee youth experience tremendous trauma before and during forced migration, which has negative mental health impacts. It is important to identify and mitigate conditions that can increase the risk of refugee youth mental health issues and to search for potential protective factors; however, little research has considered these factors among Somali refugee youth. To fill this gap in research, this study examined the impact of child traumas and preventive factors on mental health outcomes among Somali refugee youth in urban Kenya. We used snowball sampling to recruit 250 Somali refugee youth, aged 15 to 35 years, living in Eastleigh, Kenya. We used a series of multiple linear regression models to examine the associations of child trauma (child abuse, witnessing domestic violence, corporal school punishment, female genital mutilation/cutting), symptom normalization, and parental death with symptoms of common mental disorders first in a mixed-gender sample and then with a female-only sample.

RESULTS indicated that child trauma significantly predicted mental health symptoms in all bivariate analyses with both samples and in all regression analyses with the mixed-gender sample. However, in regression analyses with the female-only sample, child trauma only significantly predicted anxiety and somatic symptoms. In addition, increased symptom normalization predicted mental health symptoms, and parental death predicted anxiety and somatic symptoms. These findings increase understanding of the impact of child trauma exposures in this understudied population and provide directions for future research, particularly regarding the impact of parental loss, and intervention to decrease mental health risk in Somali refugee youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Language: en