Investigating Outcomes of a Family Strengthening Intervention for Resettled Somali Bantu and Bhutanese Refugees: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study

Sarah Elizabeth Neville, Kira DiClemente-Bosco, Lila K. Chamlagai, Mary Bunn, Jordan Freeman, Jenna M. Berent, Bhuwan Gautam, Abdirahman Abdi and Theresa S. Betancourt ()
Additional contact information
Sarah Elizabeth Neville: Intenational Health Institute, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA
Kira DiClemente-Bosco: Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA
Lila K. Chamlagai: Brown Mindfulness Center, Behavioral Health and Social Science Department, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA
Mary Bunn: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
Jordan Freeman: Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Jenna M. Berent: Research Program on Children in Adversity, School of Social Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA
Bhuwan Gautam: College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA
Abdirahman Abdi: Shanbaro Community Association, Chelsea, MA 02150, USA
Theresa S. Betancourt: Research Program on Children in Adversity, School of Social Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: Pre- and post-migration stressors can put resettled refugee children at risk of poor mental health outcomes. The Family Strengthening Intervention for Refugees (FSI-R) is a peer-delivered preventative home visiting program for resettled refugees that aims to draw upon families’ strengths to foster improved family communication, positive parenting, and caregiver-child relationships, with the ultimate goal of reducing children’s risk of mental health problems. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, this study draws upon qualitative interviews with caregivers (n = 19) and children (n = 17) who participated in a pilot study of the FSI-R intervention in New England, as well as interventionists (n = 4), to unpack quantitative findings on mental health and family functioning from a randomized pilot study (n = 80 families). Most patterns observed in the quantitative data as published in the pilot trial were triangulated by qualitative data. Bhutanese caregivers and children noted that children were less shy or scared to speak up after participating in the FSI-R. Somali Bantu families spoke less about child mental health and underscored feasibility challenges like language barriers between caregivers and children. Interventionists suggested that families with higher levels of education were more open to implementing behavior change. In both groups, families appreciated the intervention and found it to be feasible and acceptable, but also desired additional help in addressing broader family and community needs such as jobs and literacy programs.

Keywords: prevention; child mental health; parenting; community-based participatory research; home visiting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12415/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12415/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12415-:d:929353

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().