School-based mental health support for migrant children and young people: A scoping review

Abstract

Schools are increasingly considered as critical to the identification and support of child and adolescent mental health difficulties. However, research often fails to capture critical aspects of context and culture, such as migration, in assessing both the accessibility and effectiveness of school-based interventions. Although migrant youth may be at risk for poor mental health, little is known about the barriers and facilitators they face in accessing mental health support in schools. This scoping review aims to map existing research into school-based mental health interventions for migrant children and young people and, in particular, identify potential cultural and contextual effects related to accessibility. Drawing on scoping review methodology, we searched seven psychology, education, and health databases (i.e., Education Research Complete, British Education Index, ERIC, Web of Science, EMBASE, Medline, and PsycInfo) for studies published between 2002 and 2023. Study selection and data extraction were performed independently by reviewers. Narrative and thematic synthesis were used to analyze included papers and address the research questions. Thirty-eight studies met our inclusion criteria and are presented in this review. Our findings reveal a lack of targeted school-based mental health interventions for migrant young people despite the clear need among this growing population. Furthermore, few studies directly addressed issues of accessibility. Despite the range of migrant groups considered, the primary barriers and facilitators to access identified were contextual, cultural, and systemic, such as stigma, acculturative stressors, and partnerships between families, schools, and mental health services. The results of this scoping review highlight the need for a more intersectional framework for the design and implementation of school-based mental health support for migrant youth, arguably one that positions migration as a key social determinant of health and in particular, child and adolescent mental health.