Studies on the Acculturation of Young Refugees in the Educational Domain: A Scoping Review of Research and Methods

Abstract

Given that children and adolescents constitute a growing and significant share of forced migrants worldwide, assessing the state of research on and the methods used to study the acculturation of this group is both timely and essential. The acculturation of refugee children and adolescents in host countries occurs primarily within educational institutions and through the acquisition of the language of the new host society. This scoping review of peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1987 and 2016 (N = 192 eligible studies) examined the extent to which individual-level factors (e.g., gender, age) and contextual factors (e.g., country of residence) emphasized by acculturation models have been considered in research involving young refugees in the educational domain. In addition, the research designs and methods applied in these studies were evaluated, and content analysis was performed to examine whether individual-level factors considered in the sample of studies were related to educational outcomes of young refugees. Overall, the review revealed that very few studies provided adequate information on sample composition, or considered individual and contextual factors, thus leaving crucial gaps in the knowledge about the acculturation of young refugees. Guidelines for future research are proposed to remedy the identified research deficits.