Community Leads: Sarah Halligan (PI) (University of Bath); Laura Howe (University of Bristol); Nina Maxwell (Cardiff University); Anke Karl (University of Exeter).
There are approximately 37 million forcibly displaced children worldwide, many of whom have been exposed to significant trauma prior to leaving their home country and whilst journeying to their new home. Refugee children also face significant challenges when they arrive in a new country, with many facing a period of time living in camps or other settings where they are at risk of further trauma. Unsurprisingly, refugee children show high rates of mental disorders. Understanding how mental health outcomes can be improved for this particularly vulnerable group is essential.
Social support can be a major protective factor for trauma-exposed children, being associated with reduced risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental disorders. However, refugee children face profound erosion of their support structures. Their caregivers are often experiencing extreme stress relating to the multitude of complex challenges refugees routinely face, and/or suffering with significant mental health problems themselves. Refugee children frequently lose their wider support networks due to separation from peers, extended families, and other sources of support (e.g., teachers). Moreover, refugee children often find themselves unwelcome in their host countries, with cultural/language barriers being obstacles to forming new social networks, and negative attitudes towards them leading to exclusion or active victimisation. Each of these factors may maintain or increase child distress.
Led by Professor Sarah Halligan, Deputy Head of Department (Culture and Environment), Department of Psychology, Addiction and Mental Health Group (AIM) at the University of Bath, the goal of the ‘Understanding the Support Available to Refugee Children and their Families’ Community, is to initiate research that can ultimately inform how refugee children can be supported effectively, with a particular focus on the opportunities provided by informal sources of support and the barriers to receiving such support.
In 2023, the group were awarded just under £16,000 in funding as part of GW4’s Building Communities Generator Award. The GW4 Building Communities Generator Fund is an open research call offering up to £20k to support collaborative research and innovation communities across the four GW4 universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. It supports both the creation of new GW4 communities and the development of the strongest ideas emerging from our existing communities.
Using the funding, and with the support of The Trauma Centre in Cape Town and HAMI NGO in Iran, the community completed 92 qualitative interviews with refugee parents and children in South Africa, and refugee parents in Iran. These data will be analysed to provide insight into the opportunities provided by informal sources of support for refugee children and the barriers to receiving and accessing such support. It is expected that this research will yield several publications and provide the foundation for future funded research activity in this area.
The community have also used the Generator project to consolidate collaborative links across the GW4 institutions and with external partners, such as The Trauma Centre and HAMI NGO as above, and other academic institutions (including Manchester, Oxford, Turkey and Afghanistan) who will be engaged with research outputs and projects going forward.
Following on from the funding, the community anticipate that up to four research articles will be submitted, based on the research conducted as part of the project. Since the initiation of the community, the group have also submitted several joint funding proposals, and they expect that this activity will continue.
Professor Halligan said: “We have been able to develop a network of researchers and generate preliminary research evidence to give us a clear foothold in research relating to the mental health of refugee families. The research carried out was relatively high-risk, given the challenges that can arise in engaging refugees in research. The GW4 funding has been particularly important in allowing us to do this work and to demonstrate capacity for future, larger scale work in this area. There are few funding schemes that will support these kinds of small-scale research activities that are often essential to gaining traction in a new field.”
Our communities
The GW4 Building Communities Programme aims to build research and innovation communities of scale and capability, delivering a step change in world-class research that could not be achieved by one of the institutions alone. The Programme has two funding schemes:
- The annual Generator Fund which awards GW4 communities up to £20K for 6-month projects.
- The Development Awards which support new, and advance existing, collaborations across GW4 by funding single activities or resources with up to £5K. This is a rolling scheme, with no closing date.
More details of both schemes, and how to apply, can be found via the links above.
We have been able to develop a network of researchers and generate preliminary research evidence to give us a clear foothold in research relating to the mental health of refugee families. The research carried out was relatively high-risk, given the challenges that can arise in engaging refugees in research.
The GW4 funding has been particularly important in allowing us to do this work and to demonstrate capacity for future, larger scale work in this area. There are few funding schemes that will support these kinds of small-scale research activities that are often essential to gaining traction in a new field.”
