DR SOLOMON DRIBSA DANGA

Dr Danga is an alumna and post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Children, family and Society at the University of the Western Cape.

Solomon obtained a Bachelor of Arts in educational psychology and a Master of Arts in developmental psychology from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. In April 2023 he graduated PhD in child and family studies from the University of the Western Cape. Solomon has been awarded grants from the Mwalimu Nyerere African Union Scholarship Scheme [MNAUSS], Next-generation Social Science Research Council in Africa doctoral dissertation fellowship in 2019-2020, and ERASMUS Plus a scholarship for the student mobility exchange programme with partner universities in Germany in 2022, during his doctoral study.

Dr Danga's doctoral research was focused on the mental health of adolescent refugees in refugee camps in Ethiopia. His study tested a mental health model to examine how coping and resilience mediate the relationship between potential traumatic experiences and mental health outcomes and the moderation effects of age, gender and refugee camp duration. The model shows that coping and resilience buffered the effects of potentially traumatic experiences on adolescent refugees’ negative mental health outcomes. In addition, refugee camp duration also moderates the relationship between potential traumatic experiences and mental health outcomes. His research employed a mixed-method research approach, having two phases. In Phase One, scoping reviews were conducted to explore the nature of the associations between traumatic experience, coping and resilience and mental health of adolescent refugees. In phase two, a cross-sectional study was utilised employing a standardised self-reported questionnaire. As informed by the scoping reviews, the data from phase two, stage one were subjected to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to assess the mediating, moder-ating and total effects of the relationship between potential traumatic experience, coping, resilience and mental health to establish the stability of the final model.

Refugees routinely experience a number of traumatic events that may result in poor mental health due to persecution, conflict and displacement. Children and adolescent refugees particularly migrate with histories of exposure to traumatic events. Previous studies have also shown increased rates of mental health concerns among refugees forcibly displaced during adolescence, indicating that these young refugees may be a particularly vulnerable sub-group within the broader global refugee population. Dr Danga’s research is of critical importance given the historical and present-day context of conflict andrefugeesintheHornofAfrica.