| dc.description.abstract | The armed conflicts in Syria have caused the most extensive refugee crisis of our time, and a great proportion of the refugees are children and adolescents. This mixed methods study was conducted in Lebanon, and has aimed at giving Syrian adolescent refugees a voice on how their situation affects well-being and mental health. The study contributes with long-awaited knowledge on adolescent refugees in the flight phase. It was conducted in collaboration with Multi Aid Programs, an NGO founded and run by Syrian refugees. The first phase consisted of five focus group discussions amongst adolescents, parents of adolescents and teachers of adolescents. The second phase consisted of a survey completed by Syrian adolescent refugees ( N=174 ). The adolescents report the daily stressors of the refugee situations as great threats to well-being and mental health. Furthermore, they estimate mental health literacy (MHL) amongst their peers to be low. Through a set of three multiple regression analyses, this study has also found that the estimated level of MHL weakly predicts how useful the adolescents consider learning about three different topics through a mental health awareness program. A central implication of these findings is that facilitating personal and social resources available to refugees can reduce the stress of the situation and increase well-being. Nevertheless, it is also necessary to ameliorate the conditions they live under in order to satisfy basic human rights. | nb_NO |
