Migrant students' self-reported executive function skills in relation to mental health, postmigration stress, and positive appraisals of self and the social context.

Autor: Opaas M; Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS), Oslo, Norway., Wentzel-Larsen T; Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS), Oslo, Norway., Nissen A; Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS), Oslo, Norway., Hilden PK; Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS), Oslo, Norway., Punamäki RL; Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland., Spaas C; Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium., Jervelund SS; Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark., Kankaanpää R; Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.; INVEST Research Flagship Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland., Skovdal M; Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark., Peltonen K; INVEST Research Flagship Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland., De Haene L; Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium., de Smet S; Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.; Studies in Performing Arts & Media (S:PAM), Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium., Verelst A; Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR), Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium., Derluyn I; Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR), Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium., Andersen AJ; Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS), Oslo, Norway.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: European journal of psychotraumatology [Eur J Psychotraumatol] 2024; Vol. 15 (1), pp. 2430923. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Dec 09.
DOI: 10.1080/20008066.2024.2430923
Abstrakt: Background: Refugee and non-refugee migrant youths may carry a double burden of past adversities and post-migration stress while trying to continue schooling and adapt to their new social and cultural environment. Executive functioning skills are central to learning and navigating in the new context. Knowledge of how young migrants' executive functioning is associated with stressful factors and positive or potentially protective factors, could contribute to understanding and possibly finding ways to support these young learners. Objective: To investigate how potentially stressful and positive factors are associated with executive function skills. Method: In a secondary, explorative analysis of questionnaire responses from 1312 migrant students in secondary schools in five European countries, the associations of planning- and initiative executive function skills (PIS-EF) with stressful factors (e.g. emotional and behavioural problems, daily stress, discrimination) and positive factors (e.g. resilience, school belonging, social support) were analysed by linear regression. Furthermore, differences between male/female and refugee/non-refugee migrants were examined. Results: Positive factors accounted for almost one-fifth of the variance in the students' self-reported PIS-EF and stress factors only one-tenth. Resilience showed the strongest association with students' PIS-EF, followed by Prosocial behaviour and School belonging. Hyperactivity, and symptoms of anxiety and depression were negatively associated with PIS-EF. Posttraumatic stress symptoms were minimally associated with the investigated aspects of executive functions. Adjusted for other variables, no variables showed significant differences in the association with EF between males and females, and refugee and non-refugee migrant students. Conclusions: Positive factors were more strongly associated with executive functioning than stressful factors and could represent pathways to strengthen executive functioning. To support migrant youths' functioning, the school, healthcare, and social systems should take a resource-oriented perspective and lay the ground for migrant youth's feeling of belongingness and active use of their personal resources.
Databáze: MEDLINE