Psychological resilience and acculturation strategies of refugee children

The aim of the study was to examine the psychological resilience of the Syrian refugee children (11-18 ages) and their acculturation strategies.The quantitative data were collected from 957 Syrian refugee children and the qualitative data were collected from six people having working experience with Syrian refugee children. "Child and Youth Resilience Measure-12", "Vancouver Index of Acculturation", "Social Contact Scale-R", "Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support", "Sense of School Belonging Subscale", General Self-Efficacy Scale", "Children's Hope Scale", and "Turkish Proficiency Level Questionnaire" were used in data collection process. "Vancouver Index of Acculturation" was adapted to Turkish and Arabic, "Social Contact Scale-R" and "Sense of School Belonging Subscale" were adapted to Arabic. The results of the research showed that high level of hope, perceived social support from family, quantity of social contact and sense of school belonging increased the psychological resilience of the Syrian refugee children. When the integration strategy was taken as a reference category, Syrian refugee children with low quality and quantity of social contact, low perceived social support from friends and low hope level, and high perceived social support from significant others use separation strategy. Syrian refugee children with the low perceived social support from friends and family, and low hope level and high quantity of social contact prefere assimilation. Syrian refugee children with the low hope level, low quality of social contact, low perceived social support from family and low sense of school belonging level prefere marginalization. Additonally, the qualitative findings of the study supported the quantitative results. Keywords: forced migration, acculturation strategies, psychological resilience, hope, perceived social support, social contact, sense of school belonging