There is an emerging international crisis with conflict and persecution leading to more people leaving their homes and being displaced than at any other time since records began (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2015)⁵¹. Statistics are alarming; globally one person in every 122 is now either a refugee, internally displaced (forced to leave their homes but who have not crossed an international border), or seeking asylum (seeking international protection whose claims for refugee status have not yet been determined). In Australia, although the majority of people seeking asylum (known as “asylum-seekers”) are detained in detention centres, some have been moved into the community (community-living) whilst their asylum claims are being assessed (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2012; Fleay et al., 2013)³,¹³. Presently, those who arrived by boat between October 2010 and 13 August 2012, however, are unable to lodge an asylum seeking claim thus unable to live in the community. On 5 September 2013, there were 1,395 children (aged under 18) seeking asylum living in the Australian community (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2012).³

People seeking asylum have often been exposed to highly traumatic events in their country of origin including war, threatened death, serious injury, persecution and/or famine (Steel and Silove, 1998)⁴⁴. The ‘asylum-seeking’ process itself, including travel from overseas, subsequent periods of detention (Steel and Silove, 1998),⁴⁴ and/or fear of forceful removal and insecurity of tenure (Reesp, 2003),³⁹ also considerably increases susceptibility to negative mental health outcomes for individuals. Issues such as discrimination, poverty and denial of healthcare and employment further impact on the mental wellbeing for those seeking asylum and living in the community (Steel and Silove, 1998; McColl et al., 2008; Fleay et al., 2013)¹³, ³⁰,⁴⁴. Between 37% and 77% of adults seeking asylum experience Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and are ten times more likely to have PTSD than an individual within the general population (Laban et al., 2004; Keller et al., 2003; Fazel et al., 2005;Steel and Silove, 1998).²⁵,²¹,¹²,⁴⁴ The burden of this is immense: refugees or those seeking asylum, have high levels of distress, social impairment (Momartin et al., 2004)³³ employment disability, unemployment, educational attainment and decreased earning capacity (Steel et al., 2009).⁴² In addition, there is evidence that PTSD and resettlement stress may cause drug misuse in response to trauma-associated flashbacks, nightmares/ painful hyper-arousal symptoms, or adaptation and resettlement worries in a foreign country (Weaver and Roberts, 2010).⁵²

Although it is well-established that PTSD is highly disruptive during developmental years, there are few studies relating to trauma or the mental health of children and adolescents who are seeking asylum (Earnest et al., 2007; Ziaian et al., 2013). ^{10, 55}Adolescents with past traumatic experiences are more likely to display conduct disorder and aggression, drop out of school and experience lower academic performances (Gerson and Rappaport, 2013)¹⁵ There is also increased suicidal ideation and attempts in these adolescents (Gerson and Rappaport, 2013 Gradus et al., 2010).¹⁵,¹⁶Encouragingly, higher feelings of support and connectedness (protective relationships between individuals and their community (Whealin et al., 2013)⁵⁴) have been linked with lower Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms (PTSS) (McDermott et al., 2012)³¹. For adolescents, feeling connected involves being in contact with friends, trust in others, a sense of belonging and participation in community, such as their school (McDermott et al., 2012) ³¹. A longitudinal Australian study of secondary school students identified that feeling connected to school in year eight may be important for good mental health outcomes in later years (Bond et al., 2007)⁶. One study of adolescents from Bosnia and Herzegovina (living as displaced persons in Bosnia or as immigrants in Croatia and Austria) found a correlation between school connectedness and self-esteem, and that poor social support was associated with increased depression (Sujoldžić et al., 2006)⁴⁷. Social support from peers has also been found to be important for psychosocial adjustment of adolescents with refugee status settling in South Australia (Kovacev and Shute, 2004). ²⁴However, knowledge regarding support and connectedness in community-living adolescents seeking asylum remains sparse; this is despite the fact that this population is very likely to face problems socially, emotionally and academically (Gerson and Rappaport, 2013; Reed et al., 2007). ¹⁵,³⁸

Whilst there is preliminary information about mental stress in adults’ seeking asylum, at present, there is little existing data published about adolescents. Further. there is limited about demographic and emotional factors associated with post-traumatic and psychological stress. Thus this research focused on generating preliminary data to help fill this void. The primary aim of this pilot study was to identify the proportion of adolescents exceeding thresholds for post-traumatic stress disorder and psychological distress in a small sample of community-living adolescents seeking asylum within an urban capital city in Western Australia. The secondary aim was to examine the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and psychological distress and perceptions of support and connectedness with school and family for adolescents seeking asylum.

This study appears to be one of the first to investigate mental stress in Australian community-living adolescents who are seeking asylum. Nearly two thirds (63.0%) of the sample exceeded the PTSS threshold (i.e. screened positive for PTSD) and two thirds (66.7%) exceeded the psychological distress threshold consistent with a diagnosis of a moderate to severe depression and/or anxiety disorder. Of further concern, just over one half the sample (51.9%) screened above both PTSS and psychological distress thresholds suggesting co-occurrence of PTSD and moderate to severe psychological distress.

The high prevalence of mental stress symptoms found in this pilot research suggests that intervention and further research examining mental health in adolescents who are seeking asylum should be a priority for policy makers, researchers and practitioners. For people seeking asylum, a predisposition to psychological distress arises from war trauma, experiences of famine and displacement and post-migration stress (Silove et al., 1997; Murray et al., 2008)⁴¹,³⁴. Added to this burden is that 20%-40% of people seeking asylum have experienced a history of exposure to torture (Steel et al., 2004).⁴³ Additional factors leading to post-migration stress for refugee adolescents include; adjustment to a new school, marginalisation due to language and cultural differences, discrimination, inter-generational conflict and long-term parental unemployment (Hyman et al., 2000; Fozdar, 200; Tilbury, 2007)^{19, 14, 49}. In addition, cultural and family belief systems and pre-conceived notions regarding mental issues may be barriers to seeking professional help (O’shea et al., 2000).³⁵ It is also important to note than many young people seeking asylum are unaccompanied minors (nearly one third in 2012-13(Commonwealth of Australia; Department of Immigration and Citizenship, 2013)).⁷For children granted formal refugee status in Australia, the rates of PTSD have been reported at around 11% (Murray et al., 2008).³⁴ Although our study measured post-traumatic stress symptoms, as opposed to a diagnosis of PTSD, our results suggest that young people seeking asylum may be in a state of heighted trauma related stress compared to refugees. Further, in addition to the cultural barriers, limited access to health care for the young people seeking asylum (Milosevic et al., 2012) ³²may reduce the likelihood of their receiving mental health support other than that offered by the school. It is possible that one contributory factor to the feelings of stress in our study sample relates to the indeterminacy of their residency status and the possibility of being returned to their country of origin. Adolescents who are seeking asylum are highly vulnerable; increased attention to the potential impact of these combined stressors is vital.

The association between gender (i.e. being male) and higher psychological distress found in this study is congruent with international research (Fazel et al., 2012)¹¹. This also suggests that a particular focus is required to ensure that boys are engaged in programs that reduce their levels of psychological distress and PTSS, particularly as they report feeling lower levels of connectedness and support in the school and home environment. This study also found that longer time in Australia was associated with lower psychological distress but not lower PTSS. This may be because the adolescents in our sample who had resided in Australia longer were starting to feel more secure in a ‘safe’ country thus reducing psychological distress. Such findings signal the pressing need for further research to examine the trajectory of PTSS for adolescents who are seeking asylum and refugees (Thomas and Lau, 2002)⁴⁸ as well as the instigation of treatment strategies to help reduce the burden of this emotional trauma. While little can be done about pre-migration experiences for trauma, symptoms can improve when adequate treatment is provided (Stenmark H, 2013)⁴⁶. Post-migration trauma can also be reduced through support from government funded services and generating more positive societal attitudes towards asylum-seekers (Tilbury, 2007; Fozdar, 2009; Pedersen et al., 2012).^{49, 14, 37}

School connectedness has previously been associated with lower depression in young people more generally (Kia-Keating and Ellis, 2007).²³ Although we found no relationship between feeling of connectedness to the school as an entity and PTSS or psychological distress, this may be due to the overall high scores and low variability for school connectedness and/or our sample size. The schools in our study have a strong emphasis on pastoral care, as exemplified by the employment at one school of a family liaison (who visits families at home and assists with integration of adolescents into the school). It is also worth noting that friendships are particularly important for refugee adolescents (Kovacev and Shute, 2004) ²⁴ and with mid-adolescence being a highly social time for youth (Blakemore, 2008; Steinberg and Morris, 2001)⁵,^45, future research examining friendships, loneliness and connectedness to peers is needed.

Unexpectedly, there was some suggestion in our results that lower psychological distress was associated with lower levels of perceived support by a significant adult at home. This may reflect higher levels of support provided by parents/caregivers for children exhibiting psychological distress. This also may relate to possible higher support offered to the adolescents who are unaccompanied minors and may be experiencing higher stress than those living with a biological parent or family. Further exploration of this is also needed.

In terms of seeking assistance, people seeking asylum often face multiple barriers that impede general health care access and experience difficulties navigating health services, including mental health (Hadgkiss and Renzaho, 2014)¹⁷. There are enormous mental health service provision gaps for adolescents seeking asylum, particularly with linguistic, social, historical, and cultural factors impeding service access (Correa-Velez et al., 2005).⁸ There is further imperative to reduce contributors to asylum seeker and refugee adolescent mental stress (such as being detained in centres (Robjant et al., 2009)). ⁴⁰There is also a place to examine in more detail the outcomes for adolescents that result from their stress, for example behavioural problems and early school drop-out. School is an ideal setting to provide interventions for adolescent refugee and asylum seeking youth, with many strategies demonstrating a positive impact (Tyrer and Fazel, 2014).⁵⁰Providing information for parents, schools and other service providers in identifying stress and understanding the outcomes of this stress is important. Exploration of culturally appropriate service availability for young asylum seekers is likewise needed.

Presently, the negative publicity and public sentiment towards people seeking asylum (Haslam and Pedersen, 2007; Pedersen et al., 2005; Markus A, 2014)^{29, 18, 36}is profound. This is particularly pertinent given the Australian Government’s recent labelling of those arriving by boat without a visa as ‘illegal maritime arrivals’. The Government’s assertion that they are ‘committed to not providing permanent protection visas to people who arrive illegally’ (Department of Immigration and Border Protection Australian Government, 2015) ⁹may further reinforce this negative sentiment. It is important to note however, that many of these people are indeed ultimately granted refugee status (90% of those arriving by boat during 2011/12). Past experiences of trauma, the disadvantages associated relocation and lack of citizenship combined with Australian ‘anti-asylum seeker’ sentiment and societal discrimination produce a highly stressful environment for adolescents who are seeking asylum. Addressing the mental stress of highly vulnerable adolescents who are seeking asylum is imperative.

Interpretation and generalisability of these study results are limited by its small sample and the use of purposeful sampling. The small sample size may have reduced the power to detect significant associations. School connectedness measures have been inconsistently used in prior research (Appleton et al., 2006),² and in the absence of a validated tool (Karcher et al., 2008),²⁰ the California Healthy Kids Survey school connectedness (WestEd for the California Department of Education, 2011)⁵³ survey was selected. Language proficiency or cultural factors may have affected comprehension of the questions, although teacher assistance was provided as necessary.

This pilot study indicates that post-traumatic stress and psychological distress are health concerns warranting further investigation in community-living adolescents who are seeking asylum in Australia. Larger and longitudinal research as well screening and subsequent clinical assessment within these populations is needed. The examination of the immediate and long term impact of this stress is important, as is the development of evidence-based, culturally appropriate mental health interventions for children and adolescents who are seeking asylum.

Dr Karen Martin was supported by the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (Healthway) through a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (#23347) during this research.

The authors would like to thank all of the school students who participated in the study, the school staff who assisted with facilitating this work and Charlotte-Monika Schiefler who assisted with manuscript preparation.