The Effects of Emotion Regulation and Coping Skills on Mental Health in Refugee Children

Background Refugee populations around the world are exposed to violence and trauma. Research has demonstrated that a significant number of traumatic occurrences are experienced by refugees who become victims of human rights violations. It has been discovered that trauma exposure causes serious mental health issues in all populations. Emotion regulation and coping strategies for children living with these risks play an important role in maintaining and promoting mental health. The literature on the mental health of refugee children has several studies, but it is evident that when addressing life events that may affect mental health in these studies, crucial factors like emotion regulation and coping are not addressed and need to be looked into. Thus, this study aims to examine the effects of emotion regulation and coping on mental health in 120 refugee children with an average age of 10.91 ± 1.61. Methods The Demographic Information Form, the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC), the Coping Scale for Children and Youth (CSCY), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were administered to children who consented to participate in the study. Results It was found that there was a medium to strong significant relationship between SDQ sub-dimensions and total score and ERC and CSCY scores in refugee children (p < 0.001). We found that the emotion regulation and coping skills variables included in the regression model explained 83.3% of the SDQ score. Conclusion Our study establishes a correlation between the factors examined and mental health. Our results show that refugee children with high emotional regulation and coping strategies are more successful in reducing the difficulties they experience in attention, emotional, behavioral, peer relations and social areas, and that these children's emotional regulation and coping skills have an impact on their mental health. Therefore, we believe that health professionals can play a critical role in improving the mental health of refugee children, who are the most vulnerable group to war trauma, by reducing the effects of their traumatic experiences and helping them adapt to their new lives by developing emotional regulation and coping skills.