Enhancing the awareness of emotions through art and drama among crisis-affected Syrian refugee children in southeast Turkey

By learning to identify feelings and express emotions, children can better cope with the difficulties they face, as well as increase their personal resilience. As the Syrian crisis has entered its seventh year, it has had a negative effect on vulnerable populations, especially children. It should be noted that while not all children have been traumatised, many have experienced conflict and crisis, and in turn face challenges expressing and regulating their emotions and behaviour.

Resilience building through alternative intervention : ‘STARTTS “Project Bantu Capoeira Angola”’; On the road to recovery

As a consequence of prolonged exposure to the high levels of cumulative trauma such as war, gross human rights violations and traumatic loss, refugee adolescents are at significant risk of developing psychological and behavioural complications. During resettlement in Australia, they are often faced with social challenges. It is vital to provide support at this vulnerable stage to reduce future setbacks.

Unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in the Netherlands : choice or chance?

Worldwide, many migrants leave their countries in search of safety and international protection. In 2015, the number of asylum seekers in Europe reached a peak. Among them were unaccompanied minor asylum seekers (UMAs). The current study aimed to investigate how and why UMAs who sought protection in the Netherlands during that year, ended up here. 

Public health actions to mitigate long-term consequences of child maltreatment

Child maltreatment (CM) is highly prevalent and one of the most injurious conditions that children may experience. Because it is often-clandestine, it is difficult to assure that existing prevention and treatment mechanisms reach those in need. CM’s consequences may take a long time to be recognized and expressed. We discuss the need to increase public health actions when the person reaches adulthood to mitigate the consequences of CM.

Children and natural disasters

The number of children affected by natural disasters each year is alarmingly high and can be expected to rise as climate change continues. The mental consequences have been documented not only in the rates of post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder, but also for depression and other mental health problems.

Children ‘disappeared’ at the United States/Mexico border : a symptom with consequences for the United States

‘Disappearing’ people as an act of torture has an ordinary language meaning, such that the United Nations could describe it and various torture treatment centres that address it as torture. The present United States policy of separating families into different prisons at its border with Mexico results in many such disappearances, and therefore is torture of both children and the families they are separated from. This article follows the United Nations description.

Early-life and pubertal stress differentially modulate grey matter development in human adolescents

Animal and human studies have shown that both early-life traumatic events and ongoing stress episodes affect neurodevelopment, however, it remains unclear whether and how they modulate normative adolescent neuro-maturational trajectories. We characterized effects of early-life (age 0–5) and ongoing stressors (age 14–17) on longitudinal changes (age 14 to17) in grey matter volume (GMV) of healthy adolescents (n = 37). Timing and stressor type were related to differential GMV changes.

The role and experience of local faith leaders in promoting child protection : a case study from Malawi

Frequently, community based strategies include engagement with local faith leaders. However, there have been few systematic attempts to document how faith leaders themselves define their roles in these initiatives. This study examined local faith leaders and their spouses, in flood affected areas of Malawi, who had been oriented to child protection issues through World Vision workshops aimed explicitly at relating protection concerns to religious teachings.

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