Refugee Children: A World Problem

Researchers identified 5,296 potentially relevant reports through database searches, but noted that there is a paucity of data available on factors that protect the psychological well-being of refugee children. Their final sample consisted of

• 44 studies from high-income countries involving 5,776 displaced children and adolescents. The studies included forcibly displaced children from Bosnia, Cambodia, Central America, Chile, Croatia, Cuba, the Middle East, Somalia, Sudan, Vietnam, and the former Yugoslavia. The children and adolescents were either internally displaced or resettled in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, or the United States.

• 27 studies from low-income and middle-income countries involving 5,765 children and adolescents. They included forcibly displaced children from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bosnia, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guatemala, Iraq, Namibia, the disputed Palestinian territory, Sudan, and Tibet. The children and adolescents were either internally displaced or resettled in Costa Rica, Honduras, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, or Uganda.