Before you start researching it is a good idea to identify the keywords in your topic and to brainstorm alternative words or synonyms. This will increase your chances of finding information on a topic.
Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Use quotation marks to search for phrases
Searching for climate change might find articles that talk about because of the change in her health, she moved to where the climate was warmer. If you search for "climate change" it only searches for the phrase with both words together.
2. Use AND to combine different terms
AND will find items that contain both terms e.g. refugees AND Australia will return items that are most likely about refugees in Australia (both concepts)
3. Use OR to combine synonyms
OR will find items that contain either term e.g. adolescent OR teenager OR young person
4. Use truncation
In most databases searching for child* is the same as searching for child OR children OR childhood. The asterisk (shift 8) works in most academic databases.
For more detailed information on searching for journal articles see this guide on Searching for journal articles
Here's a search strategy worksheet you can print and use for your topic and a sample of one already filled out.