The overall purpose of this study was to achieve a contextual understanding of war and displacement stressors and coping mechanisms among urban refugee families from Syria living in Istanbul. This study was informed primarily by Walsh's family resilience framework and Weine's Family Consequences of Refugee Trauma empirical model. Qualitative family interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 30 Syrian refugee families from the Çapa and Esenler neighborhoods of Istanbul. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach and Atlas/ti software. The analysis identified a total of 21 war and displacement stressors for families across 3 categories: (a) Surviving war and border crossing; (b) Living as urban refugees, and; (c) Parenting children in refuge. The analysis also identified a total of 16 coping mechanisms for families across 4 themes: (a) Flexible and reciprocal family organization; (b) Hopeful family beliefs and communication; (c) Staying connected with family in Syria and in exile, and; (d) Making the best of living in a new country. These findings underlie the need for several practice and policy priorities including: (a) Increasing the number of children attending Turkish schools and decreasing child labor; (b) Incorporating faith into psycho-social and mental health interventions, and; (c) Developing family focused interventions conducted by community-based lay providers that draw upon empirical models of family stressors and coping. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Evidence-based anti-bullying programs are predominantly implemented in high-income countries, although there is a clear need for bullying prevention also in low- and middle-income countries. The present study reports the effectiveness of a short and ultra-short version of the ViSC Social Competence Program that was implemented in nine Kosovar schools. The ViSC program aims to empower adolescents to recognize bullying and to intervene in bullying situations. A quasi-experimental longitudinal control group design was realized to examine the effectiveness of the two program versions regarding different forms of self-reported perpetration and victimization. The short program version was implemented in 10 classes (N= 282, 52% girls,M_age= 13.45), the ultra-short program version was implemented in 13 classes (N= 354, 46% girls,M_age= 13.28), and 23 classes (N= 613, 50% girls,M_age= 13.31) served as control group. Multilevel growth models revealed intervention effects in favor of the ultra-short version when compared to the control group regarding physical victimization. All other effects were not significant. To conclude, educational and social policies supporting the implementation of evidence-based anti-bullying programs need to be issued in low- and middle-income countries, as even ultra-short versions might be effective in contexts with limited available resources.

This study focused on the specific challenges of university students in the face of the COVID‐19 pandemic and examined similarities and differences in COVID‐related concerns and difficulties in functioning in samples of undergraduate students in five countries. A sample of 4306 undergraduate university students (43.8% males, 56.2% females) from Israel, Kosovo, Ukraine, Cyprus and Germany participated in an anonymous online survey during the first wave of the pandemic, between March and June 2020. Study variables included the assessment of the exposure to COVID‐19, perceived health status, specific COVID‐related concerns and functional difficulties, social support, and the perceived level of coping. Similar concerns about the uncertainty regarding the termination of the health crisis and worry for the health of family members were identified as the most common concerns in the five countries. Challenges in online learning and financial difficulties were rated as the most central difficulties. Both COVID‐related concerns and COVID‐related difficulties predicted lower levels of perceived coping. Greater social support was associated with better perceived coping. Policymakers should be informed by the accumulating research showing the substantive relationships between academic difficulties and perceived COVID‐related distress and coping.

Suicide among adolescents continues to be a serious problem. Studies have found that substance use of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs is associated with suicide ideation and attempts. An article also analyzed gender differences in terms of suicide ideation and suicide attempts by considering substance use factors separately for males and females. The article is based on the data collected for the 2011 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD), which was carried out in 42 secondary schools in Kosovo. A total of 4709 students born in 1995 and 1996 were surveyed according to ESPAD methodology. Logistic regression results indicate that cannabis use during the last 30 days was strongly associated with suicide attempts for both males and females. Frequency of alcohol consumption over the last 30 days was also associated with suicide ideation and attempts. The lifetime use of illegal drugs (amphetamines, ecstasy or hallucinogenic) was highly associated with suicide ideation for males but not for females. Findings show gender differences in suicide ideation; females reported higher rates of suicidal thoughts (9%) than males (6.3%). On the other hand, there were no gender differences for lifetime self-reported suicide attempt rates (3.4%). Findings from this article have a major relevance for youth suicide prevention strategies and action plans, emphasizing that not only the illegal drugs but also legal drugs such as, tranquilizers and alcohol are strongly associated with suicide ideation and attempts.

Background: This case study describes research, which is located in Turkey, where more than 750,000 Syrian refugees reside autonomously in Istanbul. The research developed and pilot tested a novel model for helping urban refugee families with limited to no access to evidence-based mental health services, by delivering a transdiagnostic family intervention for common mental disorders in health and non-health sector settings using a task-sharing approach. This case study addresses the following question: What challenges were encountered in developing and piloting a low intensity trans-diagnostic family support intervention in a humanitarian emergency setting?Discussion: The rapidly growing scale of humanitarian crises requires new response capabilities geared towards addressing populations with prolonged high vulnerability to mental health consequences and limited to no access to mental health, health, and social resources.The research team faced multiple challenges in conducting this research in a humanitarian emergency setting including: 1) Non-existent or weak partnerships geared towards mental health research in a humanitarian emergency; 2) Lack of familiarity with task-sharing; 3).Insufficient language and cultural competency; 3) Fit with families’ values and demands; 4) Hardships of urban refugees. Through the research process, the research team learned lessons concerning: 1) building a coalition of academic and humanitarian organization partners; 2) investing in the research capacity building of local researchers and partners; 3) working in a community-collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach.Conclusion: Conducting research in humanitarian emergency settings calls for innovative collaborative and multidisciplinary approaches to understanding and addressing many sociocultural, contextual, practical and scientific challenge.

There is almost no data on the role of social support and in general on posttraumatic growth among people who have missing family member(s) as result of war and who experience ambiguous loss. This study explores relationship between reported posttraumatic growth and perceived social support and social activism in community-based organizations dealing directly with issues of missing persons. Family members who reported higher levels of social support from family, friends, and important others reported significant higher levels of posttraumatic growth. Family members that reported being active in community-based organizations reported significant higher averages in posttraumatic growth scores in total and its subscales. Regression analyses indicates that factors associated posttraumatic growth were as follows: being active in community organization dealing with missing person’s issues and higher levels of social support from friends and family. Findings provide insight for clinicians working with this population and psycho social experts working in postconflict contexts.