IPROC iproc Iproceedings 2369-6893 JMIR Publications Toronto, Canada v8i1e36365 10.2196/36365 Abstract Abstract Behavioral and Emotional Problems Among Jordanian and Syrian Refugee Children in Noncamp Settings Eysenbach Gunther Sarsour Bayan MD 1
Ministry of Health Ministry of Health building, 6th floor Amman Jordan 962 65688373 962 65200230 ext 2640 Bayan_sarsour@yahoo.com
Aqel Sr Ashraf MD 1 Khader Yousef PhD, Prof Dr 2 Ministry of Health Amman Jordan Jordan University of Science and Technology Irbid Jordan Corresponding Author: Bayan Sarsour Bayan_sarsour@yahoo.com Jan-Dec 2022 4 2 2022 8 1 e36365 12 1 2022 13 1 2022 ©Bayan Sarsour, Ashraf Aqel Sr, Yousef Khader. Originally published in Iproceedings (https://www.iproc.org), 04.02.2022. 2022

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 Background

Refugee children have an increased risk of physical and psychological illness. Data on behavioral and emotional problems among Jordanian and Syrian refugee children in noncamp settings are scarce.

 Objective

This study aimed to assess the behavioral and emotional problems among Syrian school children refugees living outside camps in Jordan and their Jordanian counterparts.

 Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among Syrian and Jordanian school children, aged 12-17 years, studying in the same schools in 4 Jordanian cities with the highest density of Syrian refugees. A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect information about the sociodemographic characteristics of the children. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to measure behavioral and emotional problems among these children.

 Results

This study included a total of 1878 Jordanian adolescents (45.6% male and 54.4% female) and 1773 Syrian refugee adolescents (43.9% male and 56.1% female). The parents of the Syrian adolescents were significantly less educated and had significantly lower total family income than Jordanian parents. More than half of the Jordanian and Syrian adolescents had peer relation problems (53.6% and 55.5%, respectively), 36.9% of Jordanian and 35.5% of Syrian adolescents had hyperactivity or inattention problems, 44.8% of Jordanian and 47.6% of Syrian adolescents had conduct problems, and 30.8% of Jordanian and 32.0% of Syrian adolescents had emotional symptoms. On the other hand, 43.0% of Jordanian and 42.5% of Syrian adolescents had prosocial behaviors. In the multivariate analysis, Jordanian and Syrian children differed significantly in emotional symptoms and peer relationship problems. Compared with Jordanian children, Syrian children were less likely to experience emotional problems (odds ratio 0.81; P=.04) and peer relationship problems (odd ratio 0.80; P=.03).

 Conclusions

Emotional and behavioral problems are common among Syrian refugee schoolchildren as well as Jordanian school children. They are all in need of urgent psychosocial support.

 emotional problems behavioral problems schoolchildren Syrian refugees Jordanian