Paper details

Paper authors	Julia Michalek
In panel on	Impacts of war and displacement on refugees’ educational trajectories
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Cognitive control – such as paying attention or inhibiting behaviour – is associated with reading acquisition, school readiness, classroom hyperactivity, and IQ. This study investigated the relationship between cognitive control and child internalising (anxiety/depression) and externalising (conduct) problems, as well as maternal war-related trauma and mental health in refugee mother–child pairs.
278 Syrian refugee children living in Jordan (mean age=6.6years, 50% female) completed a cognitive control task which assessed both attention control and response inhibition. Mothers reported on child internalising and externalising problems, as well as their own trauma exposure, depression, anxiety, and post–traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.
Child externalising problems significantly predicted child response inhibition when controlling for age and gender, whereby more conduct problems were predictive of less response inhibition. Maternal psychopathology – but not maternal trauma – significantly predicted both child internalising and externalising problems but was not associated with cognitive control.
These findings suggest that maternal war-related trauma and psychopathology might not have a deterministic effect on child cognitive control. Our results also indicate that response inhibition could be a potential intervention target for improving education trajectories amongst refugee children. This could be achieved through alleviating conduct problems which are linked to adverse psychosocial and educational outcomes.

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