**Abstract**

One in four children around the world live in a conflict or disaster zone and crises can last for decades. Globally, refugee situations have become protracted with more children born to refugee parents spending their childhood, and at times their entire lives outside their country of origin. The challenges refugees face before, during, and after being displaced have serious consequences for families. Displacement often occurs multiple times and includes tremendous daily uncertainty. If families resettle, the process of adapting to new cultures requires and fosters remarkable resilience and navigational skills. This chapter tells the stories of how parents navigate challenging circumstances in three contexts: refugees within their own country, refugee camps outside of their country, and refugees who have resettled in a host country.

**Keywords:** refugee, parenting, resettlement, refugee camps, resilience

#### **1. Introduction**

The aim of this chapter is to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of current realities in refugee contexts and the adversity that children, parents, and families face. We discuss parenting and early childhood protective factors and review factors that cause families to flee from their home. We advocate for the need to consider parenting through an anthropological, cross-cultural, asset-based lens. Based on first-hand accounts of individuals in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, this chapter explores how parent/caregiver circumstances and well-being impact their ability to parent in emergency settings and the factors and strategies that reduce negative impact and foster resilience. We highlight the voices of parents navigating challenging circumstances in three contexts: refugees within their own country, refugee camps outside of their country, and refugees who have resettled in a host country. While similarities exist across the three groups, it is important to understand how their experiences and challenges differ if order to best meet their needs. The recommendations provided are relevant to policy makers, nonprofit organizations, aid agencies, mental health professionals, educators and educational institutions who can help families foster resilience at various stages of the refugee and/or resettlement process.
