Developmental psychopathologic analyses in childhood and adolescence : with particular focus on migration background

Theoretical background. Different burden factors in migrant children and adolescents are discussed, such as a low socioeconomic status, low language competences in the language of the immigration country or, compared with non-migrant children, often poorer school performance. Even though the number of migrant children has increased, there are actually almost no German studies analyzing the mental constitution of these children and adolescents in detail. Questioning. This research project questioned if the prevalence of mental disorders in migrant children is higher than that of their counterparts without migration background and whether they are at risk for certain specific burden factors. Furthermore, particular attention was paid to their mental health care visits. In addition, the identification of risk factors in specific disorders or in syndromes was of interest. Methods. In order to operationalize the questions European and American literature was systematically researched and retrospective child and adolescent psychiatric health care data of Bremen (2005-2012; N = 5594) were analyzed. Results. Migrant children and adolescents showed a higher prevalence in mental disorders than their non-migrant counterparts, particularly in internalizing disorders. Furthermore, specific migrant risk factors were found, such as child-related factors (e. g. cultural identity, acculturation stress), familyrelated factors (e. g. discrepancy in child and parent cultural orientation, strong family cohesion) or environment-related factors (e. g. discrimination experiences, ethnic density in school class). Even a specific ethnic affiliation (e.g. African, Asian, Turkish or Moroccan) or a different cultural orientation (e. g. collectivistic) influenced their mental constitution negatively. Analysis of risk factors identified disorder-specific and syndrome-specific risk factors, such as gender, educational background or the family situation. Conclusions. Based on these results more selective study designs and analyses in ethnic minority groups in research context are recommended. Additionally, in consideration of transdiagnostic perspective relevant risk factors in children and adolescents are presented. For psychodiagnostic the implementation of standardized interviews or questionnaires with cross-cultural contents is recommended to identify migration specific risk factors adequately