ORCID
- Patricia Kanngiesser: 0000-0003-1068-3725
Abstract
Refugee youth constitute around a third of the refugee population in Germany. We studied the experiences of newly arrived Syrian and Iraqi refugee youth, aged 14 to 18 years (N = 20), in Germany. We utilized semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to investigate (a) the main challenges faced by youth and (b) their main coping resources to deal with these challenges. We grouped challenges into three levels: the individual level, the immediate social level, and the broader societal level. The most frequently mentioned challenges in our sample related to psychological wellbeing, school, friendship, accommodation, and discrimination. Youth reported relying on social support (friends, family, social services) and on themselves (through avoidance, persistence, activity seeking, active engagement) to cope with their challenges. Our findings provide insights into refugee youth’s experiences in Germany, encompassing the acculturative, developmental, and generational aspects of their lives and demonstrating their coping and resilience. We discuss our results in relation to the literature on refugee youth in high-income countries.
DOI Link
Publication Date
2021-11-13
Publication Title
Journal of Adolescent Research
Volume
38
Issue
6
ISSN
0743-5584
Acceptance Date
2021-08-30
Deposit Date
2022-03-21
Embargo Period
2022-03-22
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research was supported by a Freigeist Fellowship from Volkswagen Foundation (grant no. 89611-1) awarded to P. K.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Alhaddad, L., Goodwin, R., & Kanngiesser, P. (2021) 'Challenges and Coping: Perspectives of Syrian and Iraqi Refugee Youth in Germany', Journal of Adolescent Research, 38(6). Available at: 10.1177/07435584211056069
