Abstract

Witnessing many painful events such as war and systematic violence adversely affects children’s mental health and development. Refugee children are the most at-risk group with the incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The aim of this study upon working group of refugee children victims of war was to investigate the relationship between post-traumatic stress responses and anxiety and depression levels of children living in Turkey. This descriptive study was designed according to relational survey model. The sample of the study consists of 224 Syrian children who were randomly selected among the children living in Turkey. In the research, “Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scales Child Version (RCADS-CV)” and Child The Child Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (CPTS-RI) ”data collection tools were used. To analyze the study data, Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficients and frequency and percentage were used as descriptive statistical methods. As a result of the study, a positive, high and significant relationship was found between the total post-traumatic stress response levels and anxiety and depression levels of children (p

Key words: Refugee children, childhood trauma, depression and anxiety