Self-care and self-development practices among refugee adolescents: An art-based participatory qualitative study

Background This art-based participatory study attempted to investigate self-care/self-development (SC/SD) practices among refugee adolescents in Germany in order to develop health promotion programs for this vulnerable group.

Methods Sixteen male and female refugee adolescents from 4 countries participated in the study. Participants were asked to take their photos within 6 weeks and send them to the research team along with the answers to 5 questions, following a modified version of PHOTO protocol. For the photo-elicitation study, the participants were invited to join a group discussion session.

Results From the collected data including 41 photos and their related statements, four major themes of: “I adapt to the new situation”, “I start to learn again”, “I find new opportunities”, and “I love myself” emerged, illustrating how the refugee adolescents visualized their perspective and practices toward SC/SD. In the group discussion session, the participants mainly emphasized the importance of keeping the good aspects of the original culture in their SC/SD practices.

Conclusions The results improve the understanding about SC/SD practices among refugee adolescents and provide a support to the existing literatures for using art-based methods as an effective participatory tool to communicate with adolescents, especially in hard-to-reach populations. The findings also reveal the capacity of refugee adolescents to be involved in program planning, which can be a significant potential in health promoting services for this population.

Publication History

Article published online:
22 August 2023