Presents the results of a population survey designed to measure the impact of war trauma on the functional health and mental health status of Cambodian youth living as refugees along the Thai border. The study focused on a wide range of behavioral problems and used cross-cultural instruments specifically adapted for the target population. Study subjects were 182 adolescents and their parents who reported on traumatic life experiences as well as educational, social, and cultural activities in the refugee camp. Key findings revealed that: (1) the adolescents demonstrated high levels of emotional distress as a result of frequent shelling of the camp; (2) headaches and dizziness, the most common somatic complaints, could be understood as cultural expressions of emotion distress; and (3) social withdrawal and passivity, rather than anger and aggression, characterized emotional upset in Southeast Asian children. At the same time, adolescents demonstrated overall positive social functioning, which suggests that other factors such as religion and cultural expectations override symptoms of distress, producing high rates of involvement in social activities. However, this finding should not deter health care providers from diagnosing and treating underlying psychosocial distress in refugee adolescents.
