# Evidence on interventions that promote the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of migrant, refugee and asylum-seeker children and adolescents in transit: a scoping literature review

## TL;DR

This review explores interventions that help migrant and refugee children's mental health during their journey, finding mostly positive outcomes but highlighting gaps in research.

## Contribution

The study provides a comprehensive scoping review of interventions promoting mental health for migrant and refugee children during transit.

## Key findings

- Most interventions were implemented in refugee camps and combined approaches like psychoeducation and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
- All interventions reported some positive changes in children's mental health and psychosocial well-being.
- Few studies considered at-risk subgroups, and no interventions targeted Venezuelans and South Sudanese populations.

## Abstract

The population of migrant, refuge, and asylum-seeking children and adolescents across the globe has increased in recent decades. These minors often undergo adverse experiences that negatively impact their mental health and psychosocial well-being (MHPWB). In light of the transient nature and multiple stressors inherent in the transit stage, this scoping review was conducted to characterize the evidence on interventions aimed at promoting the MHPWB of minors during their migration journey.

Following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we systematically searched the MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, APA PsycInfo, and Web of Science databases, as well as the Google Scholar search engine, for studies published between January 2010 and September 2025 that included the evaluation of some aspect of interventions aimed at promoting MHPWB in minors during transit, regardless of the language and location where the study was conducted. Systematic reviews of the literature were excluded. The data most relevant to answering the research questions were presented in tables and accompanied by a narrative synthesis.

Of the 1,835 unique documents identified, 28 met the inclusion criteria. Most of the interventions had been implemented in refugee camps and were aimed at school-age children and adolescents who had been forcibly displaced, mainly from the Middle East. Most of the interventions combined different approaches, such as psychoeducation and cognitive-behavioral therapy, and had a family or group approach. All interventions reported some degree of positive change on children’s MHPWB. However, few studies considered at-risk subgroups, and no interventions targeted two of the main forcibly displaced populations at the time of the study, Venezuelans and South Sudanese.

Our study effectively describes existing interventions aimed at promoting MHPWB for minors in transit and their effectiveness and/or implementation process, as well as identifies gaps in the current evidence and lessons learned that can help improve future interventions.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-026-02812-3.