An equity focused approach for systematic reviews: using community dialogue to interpret the implications of findings for safety and security of immigrant children and youth

Tags: Oral
Pottie K1, Dahal G1, Georgiades C2, Rader T1, Hassan G3
1Institute of Population Health, Canada, 2McMaster University & Offord Centre for Child Studies, Canada, 3Université de Québec à Montréal, Canada

Background: When languages and cultures clash there may be implications for safety and security of immigrant children and youth.

Objectives: This systematic review synthesizes literature examining the impact of cultural discordance on bullying and violence (physical and sexual) of immigrant children and youth.

Methods: Design: Equity focused Cochrane systematic review of published observational studies (OS) using the PRISMA- E 2012. We also used a community dialogue with immigrant parents from communities to explore our results and their practical implications. Data sources: Search of Medline, Embase, AIDSearch, LILACS, Global Health, Medline Africa, PsychInfo, CINAHL, Cochrane CENTRAL, Cochrane HIV/AIDS Group Specialized Register, abstracts of important meetings from 2001 to date without language restriction. Review/quality assessment: We selected OS that compared the safety and security of immigrant and refugee second or subsequent generation children or compared them to non-immigrant children. Data were extracted by two reviewers. The quality of each outcome was assessed using both Newcastle-Ottawa and the GRADE frameworks. The validity and reliability of the primary results was explored using a dialogue with parents from three different immigrant groups.

Results: Twenty eight papers met our inclusion criteria. Immigrant children and youth were at increased risk for bullying and physical violence. In addition immigrant girls were at increased risk for sexual violence. Preliminary results from community dialogue suggested that immigrant parents are often unaware of bullying and violence in their new country and unaware of what to do for their children and where to go for help.

Conclusions: The evidence synthesized suggests that adjusting to a new country can impact immigrant children and youth positively as well as negatively. The health hazards or health deterioration of immigrant children and youth highlighted in this study warrants further attention for policy makers, planners, teachers, parents and authority which assure safety and security of their citizens.