Is the Refugee Health Screener a Useful Tool when Screening 14-to 18-Year-Old Refugee Adolescents for Emotional Distress?

The high number of asylum seekers in Sweden has highlighted the need for structured assessment tools to screen for refugee mental health problems in clinical services. We examined the utility of the Refugee Health Screener (RHS) in refugee adolescents, aged 14-18, attending routine clinical examinations or staying in group homes/refugee centres (N = 29). Participants completed a survey, including the RHS, administered through iPads in their native language. The RHS showed excellent internal consistency (alpha = 0.96) and correlated moderately with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (r = 0.41, p = 0.025). Mean scores and prevalence rates were comparable to a study of adult refugees in Sweden. Unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) scored significantly higher (M = 32.0, SD = 12.9) compared to youth staying with their families (M = 7.5, SD = 8.2, p<0.001, d = 2.27). Our findings confirm that the RHS can be used in the adolescent population in Sweden. These findings moreover suggest that URMs are a particularly vulnerable group with a large burden of mental health problems.