scholarly journals Differences in Neuropsychological Performance between Refugee and Non-Refugee Children in Palestine

Author(s):  
Ahmed F. Fasfous ◽  
María Nieves Pérez-Marfil ◽  
Francisco Cruz-Quintana ◽  
Miguel Pérez-García ◽  
Hala R. Al-Yamani ◽  
...  

Neuropsychological studies on refugee children are scarce, but there are even less in the case of Palestinian children. This work aims to study the neuropsychological performance of Palestinian refugee children in Palestine compared to other Palestinian children living outside refugee camps. A comprehensive Neuropsychological battery was administrated to 584 Palestinian school children (464 refugees and 120 non-refugees) aged 6, 7, and 8 years old. Results showed that non-refugee children outperformed refugee children in sustained attention, verbal comprehension, verbal memory, and visual memory. This study is the first to have performed a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, based on a standardized and validated battery with the Palestinian refugee children. It supports professionals in their evaluation of neurodevelopment and neuropsychological alterations in refugee and non-refugee children in Palestine.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
José María Faílde Garrido ◽  
María Lameiras Fernández ◽  
Marika Foltz ◽  
Yolanda Rodríguez Castro ◽  
María Victoria Carrera Fernández

Introduction. Very few studies have examined the neuropsychological performance of HIV-positive women, and even fewer have attempted a comparison of cognitive functioning by gender. The aim of this study was to describe the nature of the neuropsychological performance of HIV seropositive patients by gender.Methods. A clinical sample made up of 151 subjects was recruited to participate in this study. All of the subjects underwent the same assessment process, consisting of a neuropsychological evaluation and an interview to gather sociodemographic, toxicological, and clinical data.Results and Discussion. Despite the fact that men obtained higher scores in visual memory, attention/psychomotor speed, and abstract reasoning/verbal intelligence, these differences were not statistically significant. In contrast, significant differences were found depending on subjects’ serological status. Seropositive participants’ neuropsychological performance was significantly lower than that of the seronegative participants in all of the areas assessed as follows: (1) visual memory; (2) attention/psychomotor speed; (3) abstract reasoning/verbal intelligence; (4) verbal memory for texts; (5) verbal memory for digits and words.Conclusions. The results from this study reveal no significant gender differences in the cognitive performance of patients infected with HIV-1.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Vaitsa Giannouli ◽  
Nikolaos Syrmos

Few studies have examined longitudinally depression, stress and cognition in Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (HT) under levothyroxine (LT4) treatment. Although HT is claimed to cause several mood changes and cognitive deficits in patients who are left untreated, we still know little about the longitudinal profile of these patients when they are under stable treatment. Sixteen middle-aged euthyroid HT women and sixteen healthy control women were examined with a detailed neuropsychological battery covering different cognitive functions (attention, visual and verbal memory, executive functions and mood), and with thyroid functions tests at three time points at one and two years post-baseline. Depression and perceived stress, along with verbal and visual memory were found to be stable at a two-year retesting in euthyroid HT women. Only TMT-Parts A and B deteriorated at one and two years in euthyroid HT. Although impaired performance in attention and executive deficits are linked with heighted levels of depression and stress, here they were not accompanied by changes in mood. The present study failed to detect any noticeable changes longitudinally in the cognitive and emotional function in euthyroid HT women under stable and continuous LT4 treatment. Patients’ restricted deficits may indicate that the decline in attention and executive functioning performance might be related to the effects of a specific progressive degenerative process associated with the disorder, rather than the effects of aging. Keywords: Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, depression, stress, longitudinal neuropsychological assessment, LT4 treatment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37
Author(s):  
Merja Paksuniemi

This article seeks to demonstrate how Finnish refugee children experienced living in Swedish refugee camps during the Second World War (1939–1945). The study focuses on children’s opinions and experiences reflected through adulthood. The data were collected through retrospective interviews with six adults who experienced wartime as children in Finland and were evacuated to Sweden as refugees. Five of the interviewees were female and one of them was male. The study shows, it was of decisive importance to the refugee children’s well-being to have reliable adults around them during the evacuation and at the camps. The findings demonstrate that careful planning made a significant difference to the children´s adaptations to refugee camp life. The daily routines at the camp, such as regular meals, play time and camp school, reflected life at home and helped the children to continue their lives, even under challenging circumstances.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Sayigh

Colonialism deprives colonised peoples of the self-determined histories needed for continued struggle. Scattered since 1948 across diverse educational systems, Palestinians have been unable to control their education or construct an authentic curriculum. This paper covers varied schooling in the Palestinian diaspora. I set this state of ‘splitting through education’ as contradictory to international declarations of the right of colonised peoples to culturally relevant education. Such education would include histories that explain their situation, and depict past resistances. I argue for the production of histories of Palestine for Palestinian children, especially those in refugee camps as well as in Israel and Jerusalem, where curricula are controlled by the settler-coloniser. Black and Native Americans have dealt with exclusion from history in ways that offer models for Palestinians.


2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ala Al-Hamarneh

At least 50 per cent of the population of Jordan is of Palestinian origin. Some 20 per cent of the registered refugees live in ten internationally organized camps, and another 20 per cent in four locally organized camps and numerous informal camps. The camps organized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) play a major role in keeping Palestinian identity alive. That identity reflects the refugees' rich cultural traditions, political activities, as well as their collective memory, and the distinct character of each camp. Over the past two decades integration of the refugees within Jordanian society has increased. This paper analyses the transformation of the identity of the camp dwellers, as well as their spatial integration in Jordan, and other historical and contemporary factors contributing to this transformation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110139
Author(s):  
Tobias Hecker ◽  
Edna Kyaruzi ◽  
Julia Borchardt ◽  
Florian Scharpf

Parental violence poses a considerable, yet mitigable risk for the mental health and well-being of refugee children living in resource-poor refugee camps. However, little is known about potential risk factors for parental violence in these settings. Using an ecological systems perspective and a multi-informant approach, we investigated ontogenic (parental childhood experiences of violence), microsystem (parents’ and children’s psychopathology) and exosystem (families’ monthly household income) risk factors for child-directed parental violence in a sample of 226 Burundian families living in refugee camps in Tanzania. Data were collected through individual structured clinical interviews with mothers, fathers, and children. In the child-report path model [ χ2 (6) = 7.752, p = .257, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.99, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.036 ( p = .562)], children’s posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, externalizing symptoms and paternal PTSD symptoms were positively associated with violence by both parents. Maternal psychosocial impairment was positively associated with child-reported paternal violence. In the parent-report path model [ χ2 (6) = 7.789, p = .254, CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.036 ( p = .535)], children’s externalizing problems as well as a lower monthly household income were positively related to maternal violence. Each parent’s childhood victimization was positively linked to their use of violence against children. Maternal psychosocial impairment and paternal alcohol abuse were positively associated with paternal violence. Child and paternal psychopathology, maternal psychosocial impairment, parents’ childhood victimization, and families’ socioeconomic status may be important targets for prevention and intervention approaches aiming to reduce parental violence against refugee children living in camps.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Ephrat Huss ◽  
Smadar Ben Asher ◽  
Tsvia Walden ◽  
Eitan Shahar

The aim of this paper is to describe a unique, bottom-up model for building a school based on humanistic intercultural values in a post-disaster/refugee area. We think that this model will be of use in similar contexts. This single-case study can teach us about the needs of refugee children, as well as provide strategies to reach these needs with limited resources in additional similar contexts. Additionally, this paper will outline a qualitative arts-based methodology to understand and to evaluate refugee children’s lived experience of in-detention camp schools. Our field site is an afternoon school for refugee children operated and maintained by volunteers and refugee teachers. The methodology is a participatory case study using arts-based research, interviews, and observation of a school built for refugee camp children in Lesbos. Participants in this study included the whole school, from children to teachers, to volunteers and managers. The research design was used to inform the school itself, and to outline the key components found to be meaningful in making the school a positive experience. These components could be emulated by similar educational projects and used to evaluate them on an ongoing basis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura del Hoyo Soriano ◽  
Tracie C. Rosser ◽  
Debra R. Hamilton ◽  
Danielle J. Harvey ◽  
Leonard Abbeduto ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study examined the contribution of the Apgar score at 1 and 5 min after birth to later cognitive functioning in 168 individuals with Down syndrome who were between 6 and 25 years of age at time of cognitive testing. Our results showed that a lower Apgar score at 1 min was related to a worse performance in later cognitive measures of receptive vocabulary, verbal comprehension and production, visual memory and working memory. Results also showed that a lower Apgar score at 5 min was only related to worse later outcomes of verbal comprehension and production and auditory working memory. Our findings suggest a need for future studies investigating how specific perinatal events reflected in the Apgar score are linked to later cognitive functioning in individuals with Down syndrome.


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