Importance: Adverse and traumatic experiences can lead to long-lasting DNA methylation changes, potentially mediating the link between adversity and mental health. To date, limited studies have investigated the impact of war on DNA methylation in children or adolescents, hampering our understanding of the biological impact of war exposure. Objective: To identify salivary DNA methylation differences…

Forcibly displaced children often face separation from their parents, particularly fathers. These children endure the hardships of war, displacement, and the loss of a key attachment figure. Despite the critical role of attachment in children’s well-being during periods of heightened stress, the impact of separation due to war and displacement has received little attention in…

Individuals with high environmental sensitivity have nervous systems that are disproportionately receptive to both the protective and imperilling aspects of the environment, suggesting their mental health is strongly context-dependent. However, there have been few consolidated attempts to examine putative markers of sensitivity, across different levels of analysis, within a single cohort of individuals with high-priority…

For numerous issues of convenience and acceptability, hair hormone data have been increasingly incorporated in the field of war trauma and forced displacement, allowing retrospective examination of several biological metrics thought to covary with refugees’ mental health. As a relatively new research method, however, there remain several complexities and uncertainties surrounding the use of hair…

Increasing research shows pubertal development accelerates following threats while it decelerates following deprivation. Yet, these environmental stressors are unlikely to occur in isolation.

Refugee children are often exposed to substantial trauma, placing them at increased risk for mental illness. However, this risk can be mitigated by a capacity for resilience, conferred from multiple ecological systems (e.g., family, community), including at an individual biological level.

Refugee children are at increased risk for mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress, depression, and externalizing problems. The refugee environment, maternal mental health, and parenting may reduce or exacerbate that risk.

War-exposed refugee children are at elevated risk for mental health problems, but a notable proportion appear resilient. We aimed to investigate the proportion of Syrian refugee children who can be considered resilient, and applied a novel approach to identify factors predicting individual differences in mental health outcomes following war exposure.

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Millions of people are currently displaced. About half of them are children who are at increased risk of mental health problems. While some risk factors such as war exposure are well established, less is known regarding the effects of the local refugee environment.