Supporting Prosociality and Resilience in Newcomer Transitions: An Evaluation of the SPRINT Pilot Training

Abstract

As a result of pre- and post-migratory traumas and adversities, Middle Eastern refugee families experience disproportionately high social-emotional and mental health challenges, and these traumas and challenges have been rehashed and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic (Hayward et al., 2021; Orcutt et al., 2020; Sieffien et al., 2020). In response to these compounding needs, the current training was implemented in fall 2021 to support the social-emotional development and mental health of Middle Eastern refugee families, and those who support them. Specifically, our aim was to promote refugee caregivers’ and service providers’ capacities to support protective factors in refugee children and themselves, including emotion regulation, empathy, positive early relationships, and stress coping.

The training was developed and culturally adapted based on a needs assessment in 2020. The needs assessment included in-depth, comprehensive interviews with refugee caregivers and service providers about the most prominent strengths and needs of the refugee population during and beyond COVID-19. We used this knowledge to culturally adapt the core content of our training, which is rooted in leading developmental theory and 20-years of research on social-emotional development and adversity (Malti & Noam, 2016; Malti, 2020).

This report provides an evaluation of a pilot implementation of the SPRINT project’s virtual social-emotional training initiative with 26 Middle-Eastern refugee caregivers and 24 service providers (N = 50) from the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area (GTHA), Ontario and Calgary, Alberta.

This research was funded by the Child and Youth Refugee Research Coalition through a SSHRC Partnership Grant and by a grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (Phase 1).