Abstract
The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effects of
return migration on the mental well-being of Finnish children and
adolescents in the short and long term. The thesis presents results
on the prevalence of mental symptoms and how mental well-being is
associated with social contacts and language use among returning
migrants. The children and adolescents in this study had lived part
of their lives in Sweden. Many Finnish young adults migrated to
Sweden in search for work in the 1960s and 1970s, when job opportunities
were better in Sweden than in Finland. In the 1980s the direction
of migration flow changed, and many of the migrants moved back with
their families.
The sample consisted all the 320 Finnish remigrant children
who remigrated from Sweden to northern Finland in the years 1984
and 1985 and who attended comprehensive school after their remigration.
A control group was formed by assigning each remigrant child a non-migrant
counterpart of the same sex, age and class level in Finland. Information
was gathered in three phases: In the first phase in 1986, questionnaires
were sent to the children and their parents and teachers. In the
second phase in 1992, questionnaires were sent to the adolescents
and their parents, but not to the teachers, because many had already
finished school. Thirdly, information on the hospital admissions
of these children was obtained in the years 1986-96 from the Finnish
Hospital Discharge Register (FHDR), which is held by the state.
The main outcome variables were obtained from Children"s
Depression Inventory (CDI) and Children"s Behavioural Questionnaire
for Parents (RA2) and Teachers (RB2). Remigrant children had more
depression and behavioural disturbances than their native peers
shortly after remigration. Six years later they still had more depression.
During the 10-year period after remigration, 13 remigrants had had
inpatient care because of a psychiatric diagnosis compared to only
two controls with such a diagnosis. Age at remigration and sex had
an influence on the manifestation of psychiatric symptoms after
remigration. Especially preadolescent boys had more psychiatric
symptoms shortly after migration. After remigration to Finland,
the remigrants had equally many friends as their controls, but they
still felt more lonely as long as six years after remigration. Simultaneous
maintenance of both the native language and the second language
together with the two cultures experienced in childhood enhanced
the remigrant"s mental well-being. However, the principle
of one person - one language was essentially important.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:oulo.fi/oai:oulu.fi:isbn951-42-5601-8 |
| Date | 03 April 2000 |
| Creators | Vuorenkoski, L. (Lauri) |
| Publisher | University of Oulu |
| Source Sets | University of Oulu |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess, © University of Oulu, 2000 |
| Relation | info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pissn/0355-3221, info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/1796-2234 |
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