Social environment and mental health in returning migrant children

One typical feature of population in Europe is migration, often accompanied with poor integration into the surrounding society. Their significance as risk factors for children's mental health was studied among the 320 school-aged children who returned from Sweden to Finland during the years 1984-85. Every one of the returnees was assigned a non-migrant control from the same class in the same school, matched by age and sex. The data was gathered by questionnaires to parents, children and teachers, concerning family environment, the children's mental health and school achievements (1). The returning migrant boys more often had psychiatric disorders in their teachers' estimations (2) than did the controls and they also scored higher in the self-report scale 'Children's Depression Inventory' (3), but no such difference was found among the girls. The families' poor integration into the society, as measured by the parent's unemployment history, present work situation, membership activities or hobbies and reading of daily newspapers was found to reflect on the child's mental well-being, especially increasing antisocial features in the boys' behaviour. Preventive mental health care in multisectorial cooperation is recommended.