A Child-Centered Approach to Investigating Refugee Children's Concerns

Colin MacMullin and Maryanne Loughry

Psychological interventions aimed at helping children who experience difficulties associated with forced migration require a substantial understanding of the inner concerns of these children. We really need to know precisely what it is that the children are worried about. Further, children's own theories about how they best cope with difficult circumstances, and how other children might successfully manage similar concerns, also provide an important source of knowledge for both the researcher and the practitioner. However, to date, the study of children's worries has typically centered around children's responses to predetermined lists of events thought by researchers to be worrisome to children. This research has suggested that children and adolescents worry most about family, social relationships, and school (Simon and Ward, 1974); and academic school work, money matters, and social efficacy (Millar and Gallagher, 1996).