Lidija Hamzic stated, "Parents are just happy their kids are okay.  A health problem is not considered serious unless it is something like cancer.  For this reason, Bosnian parents are less likely than American parents to allow their child to stay home from school because they have a cold or something that resembles one.  But otherwise there are really no differences in Bosnian children's health and American children's health."

Bosnian Children's Health and Well Being

* Besides a potentially higher incidence of psychiatric illnesses due to past experiences, Bosnian children have no specific illnesses that differ from those of American children.
*Be aware of the implications on physical health that the state of a refugee child's mental health can cause.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Depression are common.
*Whenever possible, encourage parents and grandparents NOT to use their children as
   interpreters.
*Anorexia is growing among teenage Bosnian women who want to mimic the images of women they are bombarded with through the media.  This is an example of the negative effects of   "American pop culture" on refugees.

    Through our research and interviews with both Bosnian refugees (one of whom is currently a nurse and another a school teacher in Utica, NY) and an American patient registrar at Basset- St. Elizabeth's Residency Program, we have found no child-specific health problems that are more common for Bosnian refugee children than any other child residing in Utica, NY.  The most crucial factor in a refugee child's health is their mental status.  Nurses and doctors should look for signs of PTSD and/or depression among children.  Many physical health problems stem from poor mental health.  Some of the children who are now in Utica have been lucky enough to be too young to remember much of the persecution their family members endured or witnessed.  Further, many refugee children were born in Germany or in the United States, and thus never witnessed any war atrocities.  However, the negative effects of the war on their parents and older siblings may affect their well-being.  Children are often interpreters for parents and grandparents but parents should be encouraged to move away from utilizing their children as interpreters.  Dolores Gulowski, a Patient Registrar at Basset- St. Elizabeth's Family Medicine Residency Program, stated that the children often "take a back seat to the parents."  If the parents can not speak English and express to a doctor how their child has been behaving or what may be wrong, there is a dilemma.   Doctors and nurses should be aware of the possible mental and physical repercussions of the war and the process of becoming a refugee (interviews with Vesna Sin, Dolores Gulowski, Lidija Hamzic, and Fikreta Andelija). 

     "The norm is no sex before marriage," states Lidija Hamzic, a Bosnian refugee who works as an ESL teacher at Utica's Proctor High School, where she deals with many Bosnian teenagers.  Teen pregnancy is much lower among Bosnian refugees than American teens and this has a cultural basis.  Bosnian women are encouraged to marry young, which usually means directly out of high school (interviews with Lidija Hamzic and Ralph Leo, Jr.).  A caseworker in Utica stated, "If a young woman is not married by the age of 20, she is often considered to be an old maid" (interview with Ralph Leo, Jr.).   Another cultural implication is the fact that most Bosnians were raised in strong Muslim or Christian homes that frown upon sex before marriage.  In Bosnia, much more so than in the United States, teens are ostracized to a much greater degree for becoming pregnant before marriage.  There is simply less cultural tolerance.  However, as Lidija Hamzic noted, there has been a slight change in the generation of teens that have been exposed to "American pop culture."  In Bosnia, as well as in America, the school systems are doing a good job of teaching children about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, therefore they are aware of the implications of risky sexual activity.  Along the same lines, if a young woman does become pregnant, very rarely is abortion an option.  For most Bosnians abortion is killing.  Lidija Hamzic reinforced this point by stating, "If you get pregnant you have the baby, there is no debate."  It is important to understand how negatively abortion is viewed by Bosnians who are Muslim or Christian, especially by older generations (interviews with Lidija Hamzic and Ralph Leo Jr.).