Psychological vulnerability of unaccompanied refugee minors: a controlled cohort study using Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

ABSTRACT In recent years, the prevalence of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URMs) in Europe has increased and not much research has been carried out in the area of quantifying the psychological problems facing such minors. The aim of this study is to assess whether URMs have more emotional and behavioral difficulties than Italian children and if there were any significant differences in psychological problems comparing URMs who come from different countries. The URM group, composed of 98 males aged 11–17 years, was compared with 103 Italian adolescents aged 12–17 years. Psychological vulnerabilities were assessed using Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. What we found with our research is that URMs would seem to be much more pro-social than Italian boys, although they would seem to have more problems with peers and in managing their emotions. This high pro-sociality could be useful for the purposes of support and prevention of possible future psychological problems. Furthermore, Italian children scored higher in behavioural problems subscale than URMs, suggesting a probable relationship between low prosociality and high behavioural problems.