Therapy groups for refugee children in Finland - how were the children`s psychosocial well-being four years later?

Grupos de terapia para niños refugiados en Finlandia - como era el bienestar psicosocial de los niños cuatro años después?

A longitudinal study was initiated to explore the psychosocial health of refugee families. All refugee families who arrived to the southwestern part of Finland during 1995-1996 were asked to take part in the study. A total of 50 families - 15 unaccompanied minors, 150 children from Somalia, Former Yugoslavia, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Sierra Leone, and Zaire participated.

Biannual interviews and tests with the families were conducted over the course of three years. They were focused on traumatic experiences, psychological and physical health and socioemotional adjustment. The children completed The Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept scale, The Buss-Durkee Hostility Guilt Inventory, SCL-90, The Victimization Scale, The Family relations scale, The Attitudes of Acculturation test, Bender and Benton. Their parents completed The Symptom Checklist, and The Attitudes of Acculturation test. Teachers, social workers, and medical staff were also interviewed in order to get a more comprehensive picture of the children's adjustment.

The refugee families have had lots of traumatic experiences (death threats, grenades, shooting, bomb attacks, destroyed or robbed homes, prison, and torture). Possibilities to play or to attend school had been few. Most of the parents did not want to talk about the war anymore and just wanted to forget. The children, however, suffered from psychological symptoms; stomachaches, sleeping difficulties, headaches, concentration difficulties, depression, aggressiveness, and language problems. The Somali minors all had flashbacks and nightmares about their families, the sounds of guns, the killing of their fathers, the bombings, and dead bodies.

The children were offered the opportunity to take part in therapy groups where they could express feelings related to traumatic experiences. Thirteen therapy groups, consisting of Arabic, Bosnian/Iranian, Kurdish children, and unaccompanied Somali and Kurdish youth, were successful. Talking, drawing, claying, painting, playing, singing, dancing, storytelling, and role-plays combined with discussions were used as working methods. A group therapy intervention for the refugee children seemed to be one possible way to help the families in their psychosocial adjustment. Although the thirteen groups were very different in content, it seemed important for all the children to be with adults in safe surroundings, to create a relationship with them and to talk about important things.

The children changed in a positive way during the process, according to their parents as well as the psychologists. But how were the families doing four years later? Had they adjusted psychosocially, and had the therapy groups been effective? Preliminary results will be presented.