Browsing by Subject "yliaktiivisuus"

Objectives. Asylum-seekers are a population that has been exposed to multiple risk factors e.g. trauma and other severe stress. Most mental health services have not been developed to accommodate to the needs of this population and therefore might not be suitable. Also, diagnostic processes might fail taking into account their specific characteristics adequately. The potential post-traumatic symptoms of asylum-seekers can overlap with symptoms of hyperactivity and attention, but these might not be sufficiently disentangled in health care services. In addition, research concerning these issues has been sparse. This thesis attempts to bring more understanding of the factors that are connected to hyperactivity and attention in asylum-seeker children. My research question is whether the child’s and mother’s possible traumatic experiences and mother’s depression and anxiety are connected to the child’s hyperactivity and attention. My hypothesis is that possible traumatic experiences and the mother’s depression and anxiety increase the likelihood of the child having a higher level of hyperactivity and attention symptoms. Methods. The research data was collected for the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare’s (THL) TERTTU-study, which developed a Finnish health examination protocol for asylum-seekers. The data included asylum-seekers who were registered as first-time asylum-seekers in the Finnish Immigration Services between 19.2–30.11.2018. The original sample comprised 1087 asylum-seekers, of whom children 5 to 12 years old, whose information could be linked to their mothers, were included (n=106) in this thesis. The health examination was conducted on average within a month of the family’s arrival in Finland. The mothers estimated the child’s hyperactivity and attention symptoms using SCQ and their own depression and anxiety using HSCL-25. Possible traumatic events were reported with a form that was specifically developed for the TERTTU study. Results. Of the possible traumatic experiences and mother’s psychopathology the only statistically significant association emerged between the mother’s clinically significant depression score and the child’s higher hyperactivity and attention score. Possible traumatic experiences and mother’s anxiety were not associated to the child’s hyperactivity and attention. Conclusions. The child’s and mother’s possible traumatic experiences don’t seem to be connected to the child’s hyperactivity and attention in asylum-seeker families. The effect of traumatic experiences might however be mediated by the parent’s psychopathology or other factors. This study found an association between the mother’s depression and the child’s hyperactivity and attention. Nonetheless, the associations between trauma and hyperactivity and attention in asylum-seeker children require further research in the future with longitudinal study covering more possible mediating factors and mechanisms.