Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Mental health of internally displaced preschool children: a cross-sectional study conducted in Bogotá, Colombia

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Ongoing armed conflicts, like the one in Colombia, have forcibly displaced millions of people including many young children. This study aimed to assess the mental health of internally displaced preschoolers in Bogotá Colombia and to identify correlates of mental health in these children.

Methods

Cross-sectional study conducted among 279 children attending four kindergartens in a deprived neighbourhood in Bogotá. Child mental health was assessed with the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) 1.5–5 years, a parent-report. Univariate analyses and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to assess the association between displacement and child mental health and to identify correlates of mental health in displaced children.

Results

Displaced children (n = 90) more often met borderline cut-off scores for the CBCL scales than non-displaced children (n = 189) (e.g. total problems 46.7 vs. 22.8 %; p < 0.001). The association between displacement and presence of CBCL total problems remained after adjustment for socio-demographic factors (Adjusted OR 3.3, 95 % CI 1.5; 6.9). Caretaker’s mental health partly explained the association. In displaced children, caretaker’s mental health (p < 0.01) and family functioning (p < 0.01) were independently associated with child mental health. Exposure to traumatic events and social support was also associated with child mental health; however, associations were not independent.

Conclusion

In this deprived neighbourhood in Bogotá, preschool children registered as internally displaced presented worse mental health than non-displaced peers. Family functioning and caretaker’s mental health were strongly and independently associated with displaced children’s mental health.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. UNHCR (2007) Global trends: refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, internally displaced and stateless persons, vol 2011. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  2. UNHCR (2006) The state of the world′s refugees 2006-Human displacement in the new millenium. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  3. IDMC (2011) Colombia: Property restitution in sight but integration still distant. Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  4. Thabet AA, Karim K, Vostanis P (2006) Trauma exposure in pre-school children in a war zone. Br J Psychiatry 188:154–158

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Jensen PS, Shaw J (1993) Children as victims of war: current knowledge and future research needs. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 32(4):697–708

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Feldman R, Vengrober A (2011) Posttraumatic stress disorder in infants and young children exposed to war-related trauma. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 50(7):645–658

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Reijneveld SA, de Boer JB, Bean T, Korfker DG (2005) Unaccompanied adolescents seeking asylum: poorer mental health under a restrictive reception. J Nerv Ment Dis 193(11):759–761

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Leavey G, Hollins K, King M, Barnes J, Papadopoulos C, Grayson K (2004) Psychological disorder amongst refugee and migrant schoolchildren in London. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 39(3):191–195

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Halcon LL, Robertson CL, Savik K, Johnson DR, Spring MA, Butcher JN, Westermeyer JJ, Jaranson JM (2004) Trauma and coping in Somali and Oromo refugee youth. J Adolesc Health 35(1):17–25

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Hodes M, Jagdev D, Chandra N, Cunniff A (2008) Risk and resilience for psychological distress amongst unaccompanied asylum seeking adolescents. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 49(7):723–732

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Thapa SB, Hauff E (2005) Psychological distress among displaced persons during an armed conflict in Nepal. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 40(8):672–679

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Husain F, Anderson M, Lopes Cardozo B, Becknell K, Blanton C, Araki D, Vithana EK (2011) Prevalence of war-related mental health conditions and association with displacement status in postwar Jaffna District, Sri Lanka. JAMA 306(5):522–531

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Secretaria de la hacienda (2004) [Route through Kennedy. Physical and socio-economic diagnosis of the neighbourhoods in Bogotá]. Diagnostico Físico y socio-economico de las localidades de Bogotá. Secretaria de la hacienda, Bogotá

  14. Lozano M, Gomez M (2004) [Psychological, social and juridical aspects of forced internal displacement in Colombia] Aspectos psicológicos, sociales y jurídicos del desplazamiento forzoso en Colombia Acta colombiana de psicología 12:103–119

    Google Scholar 

  15. Constitutional Court of Colombia (2004) [Statement N° T-025 of 2004]. Sentencia N° T-025 de 2004. Constitutional Court of Colombia, Bogotá

  16. Achenbach T, Rescorla L (2000) Manual for the ASEBA Preschool Forms & Profiles. University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youths & Families, Burlington

  17. Rubio-Stipec M, Bird H, Canino G, Gould M (1990) The internal consistency and concurrent validity of a Spanish translation of the Child Behavior Checklist. J Abnorm Child Psychol 18(4):393–406

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Dehon C, Scheeringa MS (2006) Screening for preschool posttraumatic stress disorder with the Child Behavior Checklist. J Pediatr Psychol 31(4):431–435

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Achenbach T, Rescorla L (2000) Manual for the ASEBA Preschool Forms and Profiles. University of Vermont: Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families, Burlington

  20. Munoz PE, Vazquez JL, Rodriguez Insausti F, Pastrana E, Varo J (1979) [Spanish adaptation of the General Health Questionnaire (G.H.Q.) of D. P. Goldberg (a method for identifying psychiatric cases in the community)] Adaptacion espanola del General Health Questionnaire (G.H.Q.) de D. P. Goldberg (un metodo de identificacion de casos psiquiatricos en la comunidad. Arch Neurobiol (Madr) 42 (2):139–158

  21. Goldberg DP (1978) Manual of the General Health Questionnaire. NFER Publishing, Windsor

    Google Scholar 

  22. Barroilhet S, Cano-Prous A, Cervera-Enguix S, Forjaz MJ, Guillen-Grima F (2009) A Spanish version of the Family Assessment Device. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 44(12):1051–1065

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Byles J, Byrne C, Boyle MH, Offord DR (1988) Ontario Child Health Study: reliability and validity of the general functioning subscale of the McMaster Family Assessment Device. Fam Process 27(1):97–104

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Kaufman J, Chambers W, Pulg-Antich J, Birmaher B, Rao U, Ryan ND (1996) Kiddie-SADS—Present and Lifetime Version. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburg

    Google Scholar 

  25. IDMC (2009) Colombia: New displacement continues, response still ineffective. Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Norwegian Refugee Council, Norway

    Google Scholar 

  26. Salamanca L, Gómez F (2009) Rasgos caracteristicos del desplazamiento. In: El reto ante la tragedia humanitaria del desplazamiento forzado: Superar la exclusión social de la población desplazada, vol 3. Comisión de Seguimiento a la Política Pública sobre Desplazamiento Forzado, Bogota, Colombia

  27. Dane (2005) Censo General 2005 Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística http://www.dane.gov.co. Accessed 15 Jan 2011

  28. Achenbach T, Rescorla L (2010) Multicultural Supplement to the Manual for the ASEBA Preschool Forms & Profiles. University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth & Families, Burlington

  29. Locke CJ, Southwick K, McCloskey LA, Fernandez-Esquer ME (1996) The psychological and medical sequelae of war in Central American refugee mothers and children. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 150(8):822–828

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Goldmann E, Aiello A, Uddin M, Delva J, Koenen K, Gant LM, Galea S (2011) Pervasive exposure to violence and posttraumatic stress disorder in a predominantly African American Urban Community: the Detroit neighborhood health study. J Trauma Stress 24(6):747–751

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Ainsworth MD (1979) Infant–mother attachment. Am Psychol 34(10):932–937

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Dekel R, Goldblatt H (2008) Is there intergenerational transmission of trauma? The case of combat veterans’ children. Am J Orthopsychiatry 78(3):281–289. doi:2008-19070-002

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Scharf M (2007) Long-term effects of trauma: psychosocial functioning of the second and third generation of Holocaust survivors. Dev Psychopathol 19(2):603–622

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Betancourt TS, Khan KT (2008) The mental health of children affected by armed conflict: protective processes and pathways to resilience. Int Rev Psychiatry 20(3):317–328

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Zahr LK (1996) Effects of war on the behavior of Lebanese preschool children: influence of home environment and family functioning. Am J Orthopsychiatry 66(3):401–408

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Kohrt BA, Jordans MJ, Tol WA, Speckman RA, Maharjan SM, Worthman CM, Komproe IH (2008) Comparison of mental health between former child soldiers and children never conscripted by armed groups in Nepal. JAMA 300(6):691–702

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Flanders WD, Lin L, Pirkle JL, Caudill SP (1992) Assessing the direction of causality in cross-sectional studies. Am J Epidemiol 135(8):926–935

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Ministerio de Educación (2010) [Sectorial statistics basic and medium level education; coverage according to state and level] Estadísticas Sectoriales Educación Básica y Media; Cobertura neta por departamento y nivel Ministerio de Educación. http://menweb.mineducacion.gov.co/seguimiento/estadisticas/. Accessed 1 Aug 2011

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Aura Hernandez and Armando Steven Prieto from Universidad del Rosario, for helping with the study administration. Our appreciation also goes out to the team of students from Universidad del Rosario for helping with the data collection and the teaching staff for their collaboration. Lastly, we would like to thank Professor Frank Verhulst (Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) for his suggestions on the manuscript and study design and Professor Thomas Achenbach (University of Vermont, BT, United States) for his suggestions on the administration of the CBCL/1.5–5 in Colombia. The Erasmus Mundus Program of the European Union provided the primary author with a grant to cover living and travel costs in Colombia. All costs related the design of the study, data collection, data management, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, and manuscript review were covered by the Erasmus University Medical Centre and Universidad del Rosario.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ilse J. E. Flink.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Flink, I.J.E., Restrepo, M.H., Blanco, D.P. et al. Mental health of internally displaced preschool children: a cross-sectional study conducted in Bogotá, Colombia. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 48, 917–926 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0611-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-012-0611-9

Keywords

Navigation