Developmental health and well-being of refugee children in resettlement contexts: population-level findings from Australia and Canada

BACKGROUND: There are critical global gaps in our understanding of the developmental health and well-being of children from refugee backgrounds in resettlement country contexts. Canada and Australia, two of the top refugee resettlement countries in the world that collect the same early childhood development data at a population level, are well positioned to make an important contribution. The study aimed to examine the developmental health and well-being of children from refugee backgrounds in Canada and Australia in comparison to children from immigrant (non-refugee) and non-immigrant backgrounds. METHODS: This cross-national, population-level study linked administrative data (demographic and immigration information) to teacher-reported Early Development Instrument (EDI) child development data (the Australian version is called the AvEDI). The study included kindergarten-aged children with an EDI/AvEDI record between 2009 and 2018 from first-generation refugee, first-generation immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds. Developmental health and well-being were measured across five broad domains of functioning: communication skills and general knowledge, language and cognitive development, emotional maturity, social competence and physical health and well-being. RESULTS: The study included 187 962 children in British Columbia, Canada (727 first-generation refugee and 7308 first-generation immigrant children) and 1 162 126 children from across Australia (3779 first-generation refugee and 49 925 first-generation immigrant children). In both Canada and Australia, children from refugee backgrounds had significantly lower scores on average than their non-immigrant peers across all five domains. Generally, immigrant (non-refugee) background predicted scores that were either significantly higher or not significantly different from their non-immigrant peers. Patterns of association in both Canada and Australia were remarkably similar. CONCLUSION: The evidence supports a broad, holistic approach to meeting the unique needs of children from refugee backgrounds - the similarity in findings across Canada and Australia suggests an international, collaborative approach could be fruitful.