To Örebro University

Background: School context is an important arena to deliver interventions to children and adolescents, since it is a setting where diverse groups could be reached at once, including those who recently arrived at a host country as a refugee or immigrant. Nevertheless, most empirical and intervention studies targeting these groups adopt deficit-based approaches, leading to a scarcity of evidence-based interventions for recently arrived youth with a non-medical focus. This scoping review examines published studies on school-based intervention programs targeting recently arrived adolescents as refugee or immigrant.

Method: Extensive searches were conducted in five databases (Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, SCOPUS, ERIC) and published reviews and meta-analyses. Five independent reviewers screened titles and abstracts, determined the final study selection, extracted data, summarized, and synthesized the result descriptively.

Results: Eighteen studies that met the inclusion criteria reported evaluation of interventions implemented with approximately 2200 refugee and immigrant youth in school settings. Fifteen studies were conducted in Western countries, of which seven involved participants meeting with health professionals or equivalent support. The remaining eight studies in Western countries integrated interventions with classroom activities. Outside of Western countries, two studies from Lebanon targeted Syrian refugees in classroom settings. Most studies in Western countries (N=12), along with one study in Turkey, aimed to improve emotional and mental health outcomes, utilizing approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Only two of the eighteen studies explicitly focused on promoting social adjustment and integration as primary intervention goals.

Discussion: Most school-based interventions for recently arrived refugee and immigrant youth target emotional and psychological problems. There is a gap in research focusing on universal needs of immigrant and refugee youth. Social integration and adjustment should be addressed through promotive actions to mitigate potential challenges experienced by recently arrived youth and support their resettlement process.