Post-traumatic Stress and Depression (PSTD) and general anxiety among Iraqi refugee children: a case study from Jordan

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of depression and anxiety among (12) Iraqi refugee children, 6 males and 6 females (aged 7–14) who had fled ISIS and are residing in Jordan awaiting resettlement. The authors used four scales to measure depression, field observation, and structured interviews with the mothers to examine exile-related variables and their association with depression: social isolation, lack of meaningful daily activities, lack of pleasurable activities, and emotional and behavioural problems. The results varied among the four scales as follows: Beck’s Scale (50%) the highest, were found to be moderately depressed; Burn’s (42%) the highest were found to be mildly depressed; DSRS (83.3%) the highest had major depression but not considered severe requiring hospitalization, and PTCI (75%) the highest were found to be mildly depressed. There was strong association between exile-related variables and depression: social isolation (92%), daily activities (100%), meaning to their daily lives (100%), and emotional and behavioural problems (59%).

KEYWORDS:

• War
• conflict
• Iraqi
• refugees
• children
• exile

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sinaria Kamil Abdel Jabbar is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Jordan. She received her BA in English Literature from The University of Petra in Jordan in 2002 and an M.Ed and PhD in Early Childhood Education and Adult Education from The University of Missouri-Saint Louis, in 2005 and 2008 respectively. Her research interests encompass adult education, international education, refugee studies, human rights, women studies, and youth and development and have published over 10 papers in world-class journals. Dr. Jabbar has served in various committees including parliamentary committees for education reform in Jordan, and has held two administrative positions as an assistant to the director at the Office of International Relations and the Director of the Quality Assurance Department, both at UJ. She has also supervised masters and doctoral students.

Haidar Ibrahim Zaza is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology/measurement and evaluation. His current research interests include data analytics, Big Data main issues of research, Educational Psychology Issues, Scaling and Item Response Theory applications. He received his B.A. degree in Educational Sciences from The University of Jordan (1997), MS and Ph.D. degrees in Educational Psychology from The University of Jordan (2000 and 2006, respectively). Dr. Zaza runs a number of local and regional projects, published over 15 papers in local, regional and world-class journals. Dr. Zaza's experience in measurement and evaluation extends to 10 years in service, research, and development. Dr. Zaza has served as the Head of Educational Psychology Dept. and the Director of Educational Psychology Program at UJ.