Perspectives of Refugee Children Resettling in Australia on Indicators of Their Wellbeing

Indicators of the well-being of refugee children are under explored, especially from children’s perspectives. We used a child-friendly computer-assisted interview (CAI) to investigate patterns in refugee children’s positive and negative indicators of well-being as they resettled in Australia. Thirty-seven children aged 7 to 13 years were clients of a specialized refugee trauma service. Analyzes revealed 3 cluster subgroups with distinctive patterns of indicators of high, moderate, low levels of well-being indicators. One subgroup with a high level of well-being differed from low and moderate level subgroups in consistently expressing indicators of faring well with little worrying, and the absence of intrusive worries. A subgroup with a low level of well-being expressed indicators of not faring well, worrying about family members, and having worries that intruded in daily functions. A subgroup with a moderate level of well-being differed from the low cluster in having less severe and less intrusive worries. Subgroups expressed common positive indicators of what they needed to help them feel better, their reliance on family members for help, and the forms of close interactions and talk they received as help from family members. Implications include the value of enabling refugee children to express their perspectives, and the importance of including these perspectives as a basis for tailoring intervention strategies for children and their families and for including children’s perspectives in policy and service decisions and strategies.