The Relationship between the Mental Health of Refugee Parents and Their Children: An Investigation of Australian Longitudinal Data.

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between parent and child mental health, including parents' general psychological distress, among refugees resettled in Australia. We utilised longitudinal data from a sample (N = 602 children and 377 parents) of recently settled refugees from the Building a New Life in Australia Survey). Parent psychological distress and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) were measured by the Kessler 6 and PTSD-8, respectively. Harsh and Warm parenting behaviours were also measured to explore the mechanisms underlying the parent-child mental health relationship. Child mental health was measured using the SDQ. Using path analysis, we found that increases in parent psychological distress directly contribute to harsher parenting practices, which in turn increase child mental health difficulties as reported by parents. Parent psychological distress at Waves 1 and 3 also directly impacted child emotional and conduct difficulties, whilst parent PTSS was indirectly associated with all measured child mental health problems. While both parent PTSS and psychological distress indirectly impacted child mental health, only psychological distress directly impacted on any area of child mental health difficulty and overall explained more variance in the final model. Our findings highlight that non-trauma specific symptoms warrant attention in refugee parents' and children's mental health. Clinicians should assess for general psychological symptoms in addition to trauma-specific symptoms, and we recommend that parental mental health is assessed and treated simultaneously when working with refugee children. Moreover, to reduce the impact of other stressors in refugees' lives, community sector organisations should be resourced adequately to support refugee families in settlement.