BACKGROUND Schools play a key role in supporting the well-being and resettlement of refugee children, and parental engagement with the school may be a critical factor in the process. Many resettlement countries have policies in place to support refugee parents' engagement with their children's school. However, the impact of these programs lacks systematic evaluation. This study first aimed to validate self-report measures of parental school engagement developed specifically for the refugee context, and second, to identify parent characteristics associated with school engagement, so as to help tailor support to families most in need. METHODS AND FINDINGS The report utilises 2016 baseline data of a cohort study of 233 Arabic-speaking parents (77% response rate) of 10- to 12-year-old schoolchildren from refugee backgrounds across 5 schools in Sydney, Australia. Most participants were born in Iraq (81%) or Syria (11%), and only 25% spoke English well to very well. Participants' mean age was 40 years old, and 83% were female. Confirmatory factor analyses were run on provisional item sets identified from a literature review and separate qualitative study. The findings informed the development of 4 self-report tools assessing parent engagement with the school and school community, school belonging, and quality of the relationship with the schools' bilingual cultural broker. Cronbach alpha and Pearson correlations with an established Teacher-Home Communication subscale demonstrated adequate reliability (α = 0.67 to 0.80) and construct and convergent validity of the measures (p < 0.01), respectively. Parent characteristics were entered into respective least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analyses. The degree of parents' psychological distress (as measured by the Kessler10 self-report instrument) and postmigration living difficulties (PLMDs) were each associated with lower school engagement and belonging, whereas less time lived in Australia, lower education levels, and an unemployed status were associated with higher ratings in relationship quality with the schools' cultural broker. Study limitations include the cross-sectional design and the modest amount of variance (8% to 22%) accounted for by the regression models. CONCLUSIONS The study offers preliminary refugee-specific measures of parental school engagement. It is expected they will provide a resource for evaluating efforts to support the integration of refugee families into schools. The findings support the need for initiatives that identify and support parents with school-attending children from refugee backgrounds who are experiencing psychological distress or resettlement stressors. At the school level, the findings suggest that cultural brokers may be effective in targeting newly arrived families.

中文翻译：

---

澳大利亚悉尼讲阿拉伯语的难民父母的心理困扰、重新安置压力和较低的学校参与度：一项横断面队列研究。

背景 学校在支持难民儿童的福祉和重新安置方面发挥着关键作用，家长与学校的参与可能是这一过程中的一个关键因素。许多重新安置国家都制定了政策来支持难民父母参与其子女的学校。然而，这些项目的影响缺乏系统的评估。本研究首先旨在验证专门为难民环境制定的父母学校参与的自我报告措施，其次，确定与学校参与相关的父母特征，以帮助为最需要帮助的家庭提供量身定制的支持。方法和结果 该报告利用了 2016 年一项队列研究的基线数据，该队列研究对来自澳大利亚悉尼 5 所学校的 10 至 12 岁学童的 233 名讲阿拉伯语的父母（77% 的回应率）进行了研究。大多数参与者出生在伊拉克 (81%) 或叙利亚 (11%)，只有 25% 的人英语说得很好。参与者的平均年龄为 40 岁，83% 是女性。对从文献综述和单独的定性研究中确定的临时项目集进行验证性因素分析。调查结果为 4 种自我报告工具的开发提供了信息，这些工具评估了家长与学校和学校社区的参与度、学校归属感以及与学校双语文化经纪人的关系质量。Cronbach alpha 和 Pearson 相关性与既定的教师-家庭沟通分量表的相关性分别证明了足够的可靠性（α = 0.67 至 0.80）以及测量的构造效度和收敛效度（p < 0.01）。将亲本特征输入到各自的最小绝对收缩和选择算子 (LASSO) 回归分析中。父母的心理困扰程度（由 Kessler10 自我报告工具衡量）和移民后生活困难 (PLMD) 均与较低的学校参与度和归属感有关，而在澳大利亚的时间较短、教育水平较低和失业状态与学校文化经纪人的关系质量更高。研究的局限性包括横截面设计和回归模型考虑的适度差异（8% 至 22%）。结论 该研究提供了针对难民的家长学校参与的初步措施。预计它们将为评估支持难民家庭融入学校的努力提供资源。调查结果表明，需要采取举措来识别和支持有来自难民背景、正在经历心理困扰或重新安置压力源的在校儿童的父母。在学校层面，调查结果表明，文化经纪人可能有效地针对新来的家庭。预计它们将为评估支持难民家庭融入学校的努力提供资源。调查结果表明，需要采取举措来识别和支持有来自难民背景、正在经历心理困扰或重新安置压力源的在校儿童的父母。在学校层面，调查结果表明，文化经纪人可能有效地针对新来的家庭。预计它们将为评估支持难民家庭融入学校的努力提供资源。调查结果表明，需要采取举措来识别和支持有来自难民背景、正在经历心理困扰或重新安置压力源的在校儿童的父母。在学校层面，调查结果表明，文化经纪人可能有效地针对新来的家庭。