Psychiatric disorders, substance use disorders and crime in immigrants to Sweden: The impact of neighbourhoods, peers and families

Civil unrest, political persecution, war and poverty have led to an increasing number of refugee families and children worldwide. The successful integration of these distressed families are among the most critical issues facing Europe today because lack of integration could lead to poor psychiatric health and deviant behaviours, such as substance use disorders (SUDS) and crime. Systematic studies based on access to nationwide health care, sociodemographic and crime data have the potential to detect protective and detrimental factors in the neighbourhood (e.g. employment rates, social capital, socioeconomic deprivation, physical availability of cultural resources, goods and services, alcohol outlets), peer (e.g. school achievements, SUDs, criminal behaviour in peers), family (e.g. parental employment, psychiatric disorders in parents, socioeconomic status [SES], family disruption, parental & sibling psychiatric disorders & SUDs), and individual (e.g. school achievement, SES) context that may impact psychiatric disorders, SUDs and criminal behaviour in the immigrants and their children. The study population will include 3,145,865 1st and 2nd generation immigrant children and young adults. We will use a life course perspective, defining childhood (4-12 y), adolescence (13-19 y) and young adulthood (20-40 y). Our research is highly timely and relevant and can inform public policies about strategies that may improve psychiatric health and integration in immigrants.