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Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Use of Refugee Youth

This study aims to explore the prevalence of alcohol and substance use among young refugees along with the indicators of experienced psychological difficulties. It is based on a sample of 184 children and adolescents aged 11–18 years old, residing at two refugee centers in the Republic of Serbia. Ou...

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Autores principales: Vasic, Jelena, Grujicic, Roberto, Toskovic, Oliver, Pejovic Milovancevic, Milica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8639593/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34867512
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.713152
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author Vasic, Jelena
Grujicic, Roberto
Toskovic, Oliver
Pejovic Milovancevic, Milica
author_facet Vasic, Jelena
Grujicic, Roberto
Toskovic, Oliver
Pejovic Milovancevic, Milica
author_sort Vasic, Jelena
collection PubMed
description This study aims to explore the prevalence of alcohol and substance use among young refugees along with the indicators of experienced psychological difficulties. It is based on a sample of 184 children and adolescents aged 11–18 years old, residing at two refugee centers in the Republic of Serbia. Out of 184 participants, the majority was male (N = 155; 84.29%). More than a half of participants (53.3%) displayed significant symptoms of PTSD. 50% consume energy drinks, 28% use tobacco; 13% use alcohol; 4.6% use marijuana; 1.7% use LSD, amphetamines, glue, tranquilizers and cocaine. Female respondents were more frequently expressing emotional difficulties (p < 0.05) while male participants were more frequent users of alcohol or substances (p < 0.01). Younger children were more frequently expressing symptoms of hyperactivity and prosocial behavior, while they were less frequently using substances. There is also a significant negative correlation between the years of education and individual proneness to substance use. Furthermore, those who resided in a greater number of refugee camps were found to experience greater levels of emotional and behavioral difficulties and face a greater risk of physical abuse. The burden of migration increases proneness to substance use, as a consequence of scarce coping resources and the stress of adjusting. Migrants are vulnerable to substance use, since some of them have commonly witnessed and/or personally experienced pre-and post-migration stress and trauma, including loss of homes and livelihoods, violence, torture and family separation. Preventive programs need to focus on the problem of alcohol and substance use among this vulnerable population.
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spelling pubmed-86395932021-12-04 Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Use of Refugee Youth Vasic, Jelena Grujicic, Roberto Toskovic, Oliver Pejovic Milovancevic, Milica Front Psychiatry Psychiatry This study aims to explore the prevalence of alcohol and substance use among young refugees along with the indicators of experienced psychological difficulties. It is based on a sample of 184 children and adolescents aged 11–18 years old, residing at two refugee centers in the Republic of Serbia. Out of 184 participants, the majority was male (N = 155; 84.29%). More than a half of participants (53.3%) displayed significant symptoms of PTSD. 50% consume energy drinks, 28% use tobacco; 13% use alcohol; 4.6% use marijuana; 1.7% use LSD, amphetamines, glue, tranquilizers and cocaine. Female respondents were more frequently expressing emotional difficulties (p < 0.05) while male participants were more frequent users of alcohol or substances (p < 0.01). Younger children were more frequently expressing symptoms of hyperactivity and prosocial behavior, while they were less frequently using substances. There is also a significant negative correlation between the years of education and individual proneness to substance use. Furthermore, those who resided in a greater number of refugee camps were found to experience greater levels of emotional and behavioral difficulties and face a greater risk of physical abuse. The burden of migration increases proneness to substance use, as a consequence of scarce coping resources and the stress of adjusting. Migrants are vulnerable to substance use, since some of them have commonly witnessed and/or personally experienced pre-and post-migration stress and trauma, including loss of homes and livelihoods, violence, torture and family separation. Preventive programs need to focus on the problem of alcohol and substance use among this vulnerable population. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8639593/ /pubmed/34867512 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.713152 Text en Copyright © 2021 Vasic, Grujicic, Toskovic and Pejovic Milovancevic. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Vasic, Jelena
Grujicic, Roberto
Toskovic, Oliver
Pejovic Milovancevic, Milica
Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Use of Refugee Youth
title Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Use of Refugee Youth
title_full Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Use of Refugee Youth
title_fullStr Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Use of Refugee Youth
title_full_unstemmed Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Use of Refugee Youth
title_short Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Use of Refugee Youth
title_sort mental health, alcohol and substance use of refugee youth
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8639593/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34867512
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.713152
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