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Dong, L.; Peng, Y.; Zhang, R.; Ju, K.; Xi, J. Peer Support for Unaccompanied Children. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/47911 (accessed on 25 July 2024).
Dong L, Peng Y, Zhang R, Ju K, Xi J. Peer Support for Unaccompanied Children. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/47911. Accessed July 25, 2024.
Dong, Lizhang, Yanan Peng, Ran Zhang, Kang Ju, Juzhe Xi. "Peer Support for Unaccompanied Children" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/47911 (accessed July 25, 2024).
Dong, L., Peng, Y., Zhang, R., Ju, K., & Xi, J. (2023, August 10). Peer Support for Unaccompanied Children. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/47911
Dong, Lizhang, et al. "Peer Support for Unaccompanied Children." Encyclopedia. Web. 10 August, 2023.
Peer Support for Unaccompanied Children
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This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/children10081326

Unaccompanied children refer to those whose parents are still alive but unable to raise them due to various reasons.

unaccompanied children social support mental health

1. Unaccompanied Children in China

In China, unaccompanied children refer to a specific population of children whose parents are still alive but unable to care for them due to various reasons. Unlike the Western world, where unaccompanied minors are often immigrants fleeing from war, poverty, or exploitation, or searching for family members [1][2], unaccompanied children in China receive inadequate care due to reasons such as severe disability, serious illness, imprisonment of both parents, or the death of one parent with the other parent facing one or more of the aforementioned challenges [3]. These children are primarily located in mountainous and rural areas in China [4][5][6], where they experience impoverished living conditions and lack necessary social support networks crucial to their development.
As a result of these hardships, the mental health of unaccompanied children in China has been significantly challenged. Both Chinese research on left-behind children [7][8] and international research on children in distress [2][9][10][11][12][13] have demonstrated that unaccompanied children exhibit higher levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness, as well as lower life satisfaction. Research conducted in China has also revealed that unaccompanied children generally face psychological problems, such as low life satisfaction, depression, feelings of loss, low levels of interpersonal trust, and emotional instability [14][15][16]. Thus, the mental health of unaccompanied children necessitates immediate attention.

2. Social Support and Children’s Mental Health

Social support plays a vital role in children’s well-being. It encompasses both tangible and emotional assistance that individuals receive through interactions with others in their social networks [17][18]. Such support can make children in distress feel cared for and help them better cope with stress and difficulties, and is widely recognized as one of the most critical external factors affecting children’s mental health [19][20]. Recent research has highlighted the central role of enhancing the social support system in protecting unaccompanied children [4][5][21].

3. Different Sources of Social Support

Previous research has compared the impact of social support from various systems, such as relatives, family members, teachers, and peers on the mental health of children in distress, such as orphans [20][22][23] and left-behind children [19][24]. Most of the research emphasized the importance of family members, caregivers, and teachers However, it is challenging to directly apply these findings to unaccompanied children who may have unique needs and challenges due to different social environments and backgrounds. In the meantime, most studies on unaccompanied children have not focused on the relative impact of different sources of social support on the mental health of unaccompanied children in China. To provide unaccompanied children with more accurate and effective support, it is increasingly important to examine different sources of social support and their individual contributions to the well-being of these children.

4. Peer Support for Unaccompanied Children: Under the Mode of Residential Education

This study examines the role of peer support for unaccompanied children living in two non-profit boarding schools in south-central China. Residential education refers to a type of educational program where students live on campus or in a residential facility while attending school. It has been found to be an effective mode for rural children to establish deep friendships in school [15][25]. Furthermore, compared to non-residential alternatives, residential education is associated with better learning, relationships, and behavioral adaptation [16][24][25]. However, support from teachers in such schools may be uneven [24], and unaccompanied children may have a more isolated cultural and social experience [25].
Thus, this study assumes that peer support is of great and unique value in the social support system of unaccompanied children, especially those in residential education settings.
Firstly, peer support is the most stable and accessible form of social support for children under residential education. According to ecological systems theory [26], the microsystem for these children is primarily the boarding schools they live in. In these schools, peer support and teacher support are the two most important sources of support in schools. However, due to staff shortages, school teachers may find it difficult to care for all students equally. Moreover, in rural areas, high staff mobility can make it difficult to ensure the consistency and stability of teacher support [24]. Therefore, peers who study, live, and grow together provide the most accessible and reliable source of support.
Secondly, peer support meets the needs of school-age unaccompanied children in different development phases. To begin with, Erikson’s eight-stage theory of personality development [27] states that the core task of children’s development between the ages of 6 and 12 is resolving the conflict between diligence and inferiority. Peer support in school can help unaccompanied children in this stage and rebuild their sense of belonging, worth, social confidence, and skills, which can then aid in resolving this conflict. In addition, peer support is crucial for children aged 12 to 18, who are notably building their self-identity. This is especially the case for unaccompanied children, as they may have experienced trauma in their biological families, which can negatively impact their sense of self and lead to problems like self-identity stigmatization. For these children, weaker peer support may lead to lower self-esteem, which is particularly detrimental. However, with adequate peer support, children in residential education can reconstruct their self-identity through establishing healthy relationships with peers who have shared experiences or similar situations [28].
Thirdly, peer support is an important medium for the transmission of values in residential education. The theory of group socialization [29] highlights the significant role of peer groups in cultural transmission during children’s socialization processes. In many cases, the words and actions of peers are more influential than those of teachers and parents. In the case of unaccompanied children in residential education, who may have limited external contacts, their relationships with peers at school become even more important [25], amplifying the influence of peer groups. By paying attention to peer support, educators and practitioners can make better use of its positive influence on the well-being and development of these children.
Finally, peer support is closely related to children’s mental health. On the one hand, a higher level of peer support can directly improve children’s daily mental health [30][31] and mitigate the negative effects of stressful events such as rejection and bullying [22]. On the other hand, the quality of peer relationships can compensate for the absence or low quality of parent–child bonding [23][32][33][34][35]. Thus, peer support not only acts as a mental health booster and stress buffer, but also compensates for a lack of social support from other sources, which is particularly important for unaccompanied children who may face challenges in obtaining sufficient social support.

References

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  2. Zijlstra, A.E.; Menninga, M.C.; Van Os, E.C.C.; Rip, J.A.; Knorth, E.J.; Kalverboer, M.E. ‘There is no mother to take care of you’. Views of unaccompanied children on healthcare, their mental health and rearing environment. Resid. Treat. Child. Youth 2019, 36, 118–136.
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  9. Bronstein, I.; Montgomery, P.; Ott, E. Emotional and behavioural problems amongst Afghan unaccompanied asylum-seeking children: Results from a large-scale cross-sectional study. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 2013, 22, 285–294.
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  12. Whetten, K.; Ostermann, J.; Whetten, R.; O’Donnell, K.; Thielman, N. More than the loss of a parent: Potentially traumatic events among orphaned and abandoned children. J. Trauma. Stress 2011, 24, 174–182.
  13. Whetten, K.; Ostermann, J.; Whetten, R.A.; Pence, B.W.; O’Donnell, K.; Messer, L.C.; Thielman, N.M. A comparison of the wellbeing of orphans and abandoned children ages 6-12 in institutional and community-based care settings in 5 less wealthy nations. PLoS ONE 2009, 4, e8169.
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  16. Peng, Y. The Adversity and Resilience of Support-Less Children. Master’s Thesis, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, 2020.
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  35. Zhao, J.; Liu, X.; Zhang, W. Peer rejection, peer acceptance and psychological adjustment of left-behind children: The roles of parental cohesion and children’s cultural beliefs about adversity. Acta Psychol. Sin. 2013, 45, 797–810. Available online: https://journal.psych.ac.cn/xlxb/CN/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.00797 (accessed on 27 June 2023).
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Subjects: Psychology
Contributors MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register :
Lizhang Dong
,
Yanan Peng
,
Ran Zhang
,
Kang Ju
,
Juzhe Xi
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Update Date: 11 Aug 2023
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