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Understanding Refugee Parent-Child Discrepancies in Reporting Socio-Emotional Well-Being
Andrea De Bartolo, Yuying Huang, Hamza Qayumi, Kaja Kinga Jasińska ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The study looked at how Syrian refugee children and their parents in Canada each report the child's socio-emotional well-being. It included 55 children, with an average age of about 14, who had lived in Canada for around six years. Children reported more socio-emotional problems than their parents did. The gap between the two reports was larger the longer the family had been resettled. The authors say several informants should be used when assessing well-being and that culture and context should be considered.
Key points
- Children consistently self-reported more socio-emotional problems than their parents reported.
- Longer time resettled in Canada predicted greater parent-child discrepancies.
- Child self-reports, but not parent-reports, showed limited external validity.
- Parent-child communication barriers and differences in how parents and children understand and report socio-emotional constructs may contribute to the discrepancies.
- Assessments should include multiple informants and take cultural and contextual factors into account.
Limitations
The sample is small (55 children) and limited to Syrian refugee children resettled in Canada, so the findings may not apply to other groups or settings. The abstract does not describe the measures in detail or show how discrepancies related to learning outcomes, and it does not establish causes of the discrepancies.
Abstract
Canada has welcomed over 100,000 Syrian refugees since 2015, many of whom have faced displacement-related challenges that shape their socio-emotional well-being. Refugee children, in particular, are at heightened risk for socio-emotional difficulties due to their developmental sensitivity to adversity, exposure to traumatic events, and resettlement stressors. Assessing children’s socio-emotional well-being often relies on both parent-reports and child self-reports; however, discrepancies between these reports commonly occur, and the factors influencing such discrepancies are not well understood, particularly in displaced populations. The present study examined predictors of parent-child discrepancies in reports of socio-emotional well-being and explored whether such discrepancies were associated with children’s learning outcomes. Participants were Syrian refugee children (N = 55, Mage = 14.42) who were resettled in Canada for an average of six years. Results revealed that children consistently self-reported more socio-emotional problems than their parents reported. Moreover, longer time resettled in Canada predicted greater parent-child discrepancies, suggesting that resettlement-related factors and acculturation influence parent-child discrepancies. However, child self-reports, but not parent-reports, showed limited external validity; while parent-child communication barriers may contribute to discrepancies, differences in how socio-emotional constructs are understood and reported by parents and children are important to consider. These findings underscore the importance of including multiple informants in socio-emotional well-being assessments and carefully considering cultural and contextual factors when designing assessments, specifically given the complex dynamics in displaced families. Future research is important to advance the literature to determine whether assessments of socio-emotional well-being should be adapted for specific populations, as suggested by the present findings.