Syrian Adolescents’ Refugees: How do they Cope During their Stay in Refugees Camps?

The aim of this study was to examine Syrian refugees who have escaped the Syrian war and arrived into a refugee camp in Europe. Based on the salutogenic theory (Antonovsky, 1987) and the stress and coping theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), which tries to explore coping resources and strategies, we asked, what facilitates well-being among these adolescents in spite of the difficult events that they have gone through.
Data were gathered from 110 adolescents ages 13-18 (M=15.48 SD=1.34) of whom 50.9% boys. Participants filled out self-reported questionnaires among which, demographic characteristics, exposure to war, feelings of danger, receiving help and aid, Adolescent Coping Scale (Frydneberg & Lewis, 1998), Sense of Coherence (Antonovsky, 1987) and Achenbach Youth Form (Achenbach, 1991).
Results showed, that older adolescents and boys reported lower SOC and more psychological problems. Moreover, newcomers to the refugees camps reported stronger SOC, more hope and fewer psychological problems compare to those who reside in the refugee camp more than six months. Furthermore, SOC and hope were the strongest predictors of internalizing and externalizing problems. The coping strategy of ‘worrying’ added additional explanation to the variance. While gender contributed to the explanation of internalizing problems, time of arrival contributed to both internalizing and externalizing problems.
The results of this study will be discussed on both salutogenic and stress and coping theories.