Quality of life among refugee children in Malaysia – a brief report

Abstract

Most refugee children in Malaysia face an extremely difficult situation. This report is therefore aimed to explore the demographic variables that are relevant to the quality of life (QoL) among refugee children in Malaysia. A total of 89 refugee children were recruited from five refugee education centres. Children were asked to complete their demographic information on the Youth QoL – short form (YQoL-S), and the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS). The results suggest that the main predictors of QoL were deported experience, level of education, and employment status among fathers of refugee children. Researchers, the government, and NGO programmers should work hand in hand to develop better policies to improve these indicators among refugee children.

Keywords:

• refugee children
• quality of life
• Malaysia
• demographic factors

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the contact person of the refugee educational centres who have given the approval of data collection and those teachers at the centres who have assisted in data collection.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Mr Frederick [grant number 4429/001].