Adjustment of Both Parents and Children of Exiled and Traumatized Refugees in the Host Country

This chapter aims to examine the adjustment processes among both parents and children of traumatized and exiled refugees who live in a host culture. It is also hoped that the work will help to answer a few important questions on how children react to the refugee experience, how they adjust to and cope in the host culture, and what their mental health problems are. The answers provided to these questions are important to a number of professionals and individuals, e.g. policy-makers, researchers and many practitioners such as psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, mental health nurses, etc. As well as identifying factors that contribute to traumatization in a refugee population, parental health and variables such as the duration and number of years spent in the host country, the group’s background, current level of social contact and support, numbers of family members sharing the household, and the nature of the traumatic experience prior to their flight are also investigated.