Parent Perceptions of Residential Crowding and Child Behaviors in a Post-Migration Burundian Refugee Community

Residential crowding has been shown to negatively impact child socio-emotional development and behaviors. The current study explores residential crowding and positive social and distress behaviors of Burundian refugee children, aged 3 months-35 months, through naturalistic observations and interviews. Residential crowding was measured in three ways: the ratio of people per rooms in households, the number of people present during observations, and parents’ perceptions of crowding. Qualitative parent perceptions of crowding and conceptualizations of crowding were obtained through interviews. The results showed that child behaviors were not predicted by the ratio of people per rooms or the number of people present during observations. Rather, parent perceptions of crowding predicted the positive social behavior of children. Qualitative results showed that Burundian refugees conceptualize homes as crowded when non-family members are present and associate crowding with space constriction. This study expands the research on refugee children and indicates that Burundian parent perceptions of crowding predict child behaviors.