Poverty, not war-related trauma, drives cognitive deficits in child refugees displaced by conflict, according to a new study of adolescents affected by the crisis in Syria.
While somewhat unexpected, given the high levels of war exposure in Syrian refugees, the findings align with recent studies of US children living in adversity, researchers say.
The study published in Child Development, is the first to test executive function—a set of higher-order cognitive skills required for abstract thinking, decision making, and executing complex plans—in displaced Syrian youth and their Jordanian peers.
Displaced and non-displaced youth did not significantly differ in their working memory (the ability to keep goals in mind) or their inhibitory control (the capacity to resist impulses), suggesting that war-related trauma itself may not negatively impact people’s executive function.
However, the study did find evidence that the burden of household poverty, rather than trauma and violence, affect displaced adolescents’ working memory—which, by extension, can harm their ability to succeed in school or the labor market.
Child refugees living under adversity
The finding is consistent with recent studies of children living under adversity in the United States that found a disassociation between poverty and violence in predicting executive function, the researchers note.
“It’s striking that poverty alone influenced working memory, given the multiple war-related trauma the Syrian youth in our study had experienced,” says Catherine Panter-Brick, professor of anthropology at Yale University and the study’s principal investigator.
“Our study is the first to test cognitive skills in real-life settings and to disentangle the impacts of poverty, violence, levels of insecurity, and symptoms of post-traumatic disorder for both refugee and non-refugee populations. It offers important insights into links between childhood adversity and cognitive function.”
Researchers looked at 240 Syrian refugee and 210 Jordanian non-refugee adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18. The participants lived in four cities in northern Jordan—Irbid, Jarash, Mafraq, and Zarqa—that the Syrian crisis has heavily affected. Researchers assigned the youth tasks on tablet devices to assess skills related to working memory and inhibitory control.
The researchers used survey measures to assess poverty, levels of trauma exposure, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and insecurity. They conducted analyses to learn whether any of those factors predicted the youths’ performance on tasks involving inhibitory control and working memory.
The only association they observed was between poverty and working memory in the displaced youth. They did not see the association among the Jordanian youth, potentially because not enough variation in household wealth existed in this sample, the researchers say.
5.7 million displaced people
Since hostilities began in 2011, the Syrian crisis has forced nearly 5.7 million people to flee the country while another 6.5 million Syrians are internally displaced, creating the world’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Currently, there are currently, 28 million displaced children worldwide.
“Humanitarian agencies working with war-affected populations often hope to boost the ‘soft skills’ of socioemotional learning as well as educational achievement in childhood and adolescence,” says Panter-Brick.
“Working memory matters for learning outcomes, and what matters for working memory is the ongoing burden of poverty, more so than past exposure to violence.”
Panter-Brick’s research team, working with the same cohort of Syrian youth, has developed and tested a tool for measuring resilience in Syrian refugee youth; evaluated the effectiveness of a humanitarian intervention meant to improve the mental health of youth affected by the Syrian crisis; and showed that a humanitarian program reduced levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress.
Additional coauthors are from Harvard University, Queen Mary University of London, Hashemite University and the University of Richmond, the University of Wisconsin Madison, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Funding for the research, conducted in collaboration with Mercy Corps, a global non-governmental, humanitarian aid organization, came from Elrha’s Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC), which in turn receives funding from the Wellcome Trust and the government of the United Kingdom.
Source: Yale University
Umaskini, na sio mateso yanayohusiana na vita, husababisha upungufu wa utambuzi kwa watoto wakimbizi waliohamishwa na migogoro, kulingana na utafiti mpya wa vijana walioathiriwa na mgogoro nchini Syria. Ingawa haikutarajiwa, kwa kuzingatia viwango vya juu vya kuathiriwa na vita kwa wakimbizi wa Syria, matokeo hayo yanalingana na masomo ya hivi karibuni ya watoto wa Marekani wanaoishi katika shida, watafiti wanasema. Utafiti huo uliochapishwa katika jarida la Child Development, ni wa kwanza kupima utendaji wa kiutawala - seti ya ujuzi wa utambuzi wa kiwango cha juu unaohitajika kwa kufikiri kwa abstract, kufanya maamuzi, na kutekeleza mipango tata - katika vijana wa Syria waliohamishwa na wenzao wa Jordan. Vijana waliohamishwa na wasio wahamishwa hawakuwa na tofauti kubwa katika kumbukumbu yao ya kazi (uwezo wa kuweka malengo akilini) au udhibiti wao wa kuzuia (uwezo wa kupinga msukumo), ikidokeza kwamba majeraha yanayohusiana na vita yenyewe hayawezi kuathiri vibaya kazi ya mtendaji wa watu. Hata hivyo, utafiti huo ulipata ushahidi kwamba mzigo wa umaskini wa kaya, badala ya majeraha na vurugu, huathiri vijana waliohamishwa - kumbukumbu ya kazi - ambayo, kwa upanuzi, inaweza kuharibu uwezo wao wa kufanikiwa shuleni au soko la kazi. Utafiti huo unalingana na utafiti wa hivi karibuni wa watoto wanaoishi chini ya hali mbaya nchini Marekani ambao uligundua uhusiano kati ya umaskini na vurugu katika kutabiri utendaji wa mtendaji. "Ni jambo la kushangaza kwamba umaskini peke yake uliathiri kumbukumbu ya kazi, ikizingatiwa majeraha mengi yanayohusiana na vita ambayo vijana wa Syria katika utafiti wetu walikuwa wamepitia, "anasema Catherine Panter-Brick, profesa wa anthropolojia katika Chuo Kikuu cha Yale na mtafiti mkuu wa utafiti huo. "Utafiti wetu ni wa kwanza kupima ujuzi wa utambuzi katika mazingira ya maisha halisi na kutenganisha athari za umaskini, vurugu, viwango vya ukosefu wa usalama, na dalili za ugonjwa wa baada ya majeraha kwa wakimbizi na watu wasio wakimbizi. """ Utafiti huo ulionyesha uhusiano kati ya matatizo ya utotoni na uwezo wa kufikiri na kuamua jinsi ya kukabiliana na matatizo hayo.Wanafunzi hao waliwahoji vijana 240 kutoka Syria na 210 kutoka Jordan wenye umri wa kati ya miaka 12 na 18. Washiriki waliishi katika miji minne kaskazini mwa Jordan - Irbid, Jarash, Mafraq, na Zarqa - ambayo mgogoro wa Syria umeathiri sana. Watafiti waliwapa vijana kazi kwenye vifaa vya kibao ili kutathmini ujuzi unaohusiana na kumbukumbu ya kazi na udhibiti wa kuzuia. Watafiti walitumia vipimo vya uchunguzi ili kutathmini umaskini, viwango vya mfiduo wa majeraha, ugonjwa wa mkazo wa baada ya majeraha (PTSD), na ukosefu wa usalama. Watafiti walifanya uchunguzi wa kugundua kama kuna sababu zilizohusika katika kuathiri utendaji wa vijana katika kazi zinazohusisha kudhibiti na kukumbuka. Ushirikiano pekee waliotazama ulikuwa kati ya umaskini na kumbukumbu ya kazi katika vijana waliohamishwa. Utafiti huo haukuona uhusiano kati ya vijana wa Jordan, labda kwa sababu hakuna tofauti ya kutosha katika utajiri wa kaya katika sampuli hii, watafiti wanasema. Tangu mapigano kuanza mwaka 2011, mgogoro wa Syria umesababisha karibu watu milioni 5.7 kutoroka nchini humo, huku watu milioni 6.5 wakihamishwa ndani ya nchi, na kuunda mgogoro mkubwa zaidi wa wakimbizi duniani tangu Vita Kuu ya Pili ya Dunia, kulingana na Ofisi ya Kamishna Mkuu wa Umoja wa Mataifa kwa Wakimbizi. Kwa sasa kuna watoto milioni 28 waliohamishwa duniani kote. <unk> Mashirika ya kibinadamu yanayofanya kazi na watu walioathiriwa na vita mara nyingi hutumaini kuongeza <unk> ujuzi laini <unk> wa kujifunza kijamii na kihisia pamoja na mafanikio ya kielimu katika utoto na ujana,<unk> anasema Panter-Brick. "Timu ya utafiti ya Pantera-Brick, inayofanya kazi na kikundi hicho hicho cha vijana wa Syria, imebuni na kupima chombo cha kupima uthabiti katika vijana wakimbizi wa Syria; ilikadiria ufanisi wa uingiliaji wa kibinadamu uliokusudiwa kuboresha afya ya akili ya vijana walioathiriwa na mgogoro wa Syria; na ilionyesha kuwa programu ya kibinadamu ilipunguza viwango vya cortisol, homoni inayohusishwa na mkazo. """ Wanasayansi wengine ni kutoka Chuo Kikuu cha Harvard, Chuo Kikuu cha Queen Mary cha London, Chuo Kikuu cha Hashemite na Chuo Kikuu cha Richmond, Chuo Kikuu cha Wisconsin-Madison, na Chuo Kikuu cha North Carolina huko Chapel Hill. Utafiti huo, uliofanywa kwa kushirikiana na Mercy Corps, shirika la kimataifa lisilo la kiserikali la misaada ya kibinadamu, ulitoka kwa Elrond Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC), ambayo kwa upande wake hupokea fedha kutoka kwa Wellcome Trust na serikali ya Uingereza. Chanzo: Chuo Kikuu cha Yale