Figure - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
Introduction
There is growing recognition that daily stressors, such as social and material deficiencies, can be highly detrimental to the mental health of refugees. These stressors are in addition to stressful life events, which have been widely studied in the context of migration and forced displacement. Despite increasing evidence for an ecologi...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... the samples from the ChildMove project, item 11 was changed to "feeling bored" as this is supposedly easier to understand than "Having no satisfaction with how free-time is filled in. " Likewise, item 5 ["Other difficulties in the family (such as an illness)"] was changed to "Worrying about my family at home" for participants of the ChildMove project (see Table 1). Participants answered each item on a 4-point Likert scale (never, sometimes, often, always) and also had the option to indicate "I do not know/I do not want to answer. ...Context 2
... answered each item on a 4-point Likert scale (never, sometimes, often, always) and also had the option to indicate "I do not know/I do not want to answer. " Table 1 shows the items of the Daily Stressors Scale for Young Refugees, as used in both studies. ...Context 3
... our case, this means that stressors, events or mental health outcomes associated with the same cluster play a similar role with respect to other stressors, events or mental health outcomes. Table 1 shows the items of the DSSYR and their mean ratings. Participants were particularly concerned about their family, not having enough money and feeling uncertain about the future. ...Citations
... Migrant's health outcomes are influenced by many factors, including their country of origin, where differences in endemic diseases, health infrastructures and prevailing health behaviours play an important role in defining health profiles (9). In addition, the physical and psychological stress associated with the migration process can exacerbate existing health problems and introduce new health challenges (14). Socioeconomic status is another determinant, as limited access to essential resources such as nutritious food, stable housing and health services has a significant impact on overall health outcomes (11). ...
Introduction
Health literacy among migrants is a matter of public health and social justice. Migrants from diverse backgrounds encounter challenges such as linguistic barriers, cultural disparities, restricted access to health services, and heterogeneous migration statuses. Addressing these challenges requires careful consideration of their unique experiences and needs to promote equitable health outcomes. This can hinder their ability to navigate the healthcare system, understand health information, and engage in health-promoting behaviours. However, there is still a significant gap in our understanding of health literacy within migrant communities. This study has a dual aim: to identify health literacy strengths and needs among migrants from Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PALOP) countries in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and to examine associations between demographic, socioeconomic, migration and health condition characteristics and the health literacy domains.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey was conducted. Data were collected from 506 PALOP migrants using the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ). We also collected demographic, socioeconomic, migration, and health condition data. We employed multiple linear regression to understand the relationship between the HLQ nine domains and these characteristics.
Results
The HLQ scores revealed distinct patterns of health literacy between the groups. Health literacy needs were particularly evident in the domains related to feeling understood and supported by healthcare providers and navigating the healthcare system. Conversely, higher scores and potential strengths were observed in actively managing one’s health and understanding enough health information to make informed decisions. However, in these, the average scores suggest that a high proportion of people recognised difficulties. ‘The results also indicated that a higher educational level was associated with increased health literacy. In contrast, low self-perceived health status, living alone, shorter duration of residence in Portugal, and being either undocumented or in the process of obtaining legal status were associated with lower health literacy.
Conclusion
Our study highlights the importance of migration-related variables and self-reported health status in understanding health literacy among migrant communities. Factors such as length of stay and low self-perceived health status are associated with potentially disadvantageous levels of health literacy, which could exacerbate health inequalities. Assessing these variables is critical to identify gaps in health literacy and develop tailored interventions to reduce health inequalities.
Aims
Forcibly displaced people, such as refugees and asylum-seekers (RAS), are at higher risk of mental disorders, mainly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety. Little is known about the complex relationships between these mental disorders among culturally and linguistically diverse RAS. To investigate this, the present study applied a novel network analytical approach to examine and compare the central and bridge symptoms within and between PTSD, depression and anxiety among Afghan and Syrian RAS in Türkiye.
Methods
A large-scale online survey study with 785 Afghan and 798 Syrian RAS in Türkiye was conducted in 2021. Symptoms of PTSD (the short form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders Checklist [PCL-5]), depression and anxiety (Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-25) [HSCL-25]) were measured via self-administrated validated instruments. We conducted network analysis to identify symptoms that are most strongly connected with other symptoms (central symptoms) and those that connect the symptoms of different disorders (bridge symptoms) in R Studio using the qgraph package.
Results
Overall, Afghans and Syrians differed in terms of network structure, but not in network strength. Results showed that feeling blue, feeling restless and spells of terror or panic were the most central symptoms maintaining the overall symptom structure of common mental disorders among Afghan participants. For Syrian participants, worrying too much, feeling blue and feeling tense were identified as the central symptoms. For both samples, anger and irritability and feeling low in energy acted as a bridge connecting the symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety.
Conclusion
The current findings provide insights into the interconnectedness within and between the symptoms of common mental disorders and highlight the key symptoms that can be potential targets for psychological interventions for RAS. Addressing these symptoms may aid in tailoring existing evidence-based interventions and enhance their effectiveness. This contributes to reducing the overall mental health burden and improving well-being in this population.
(الاعتماد على الذات في القدرة على التكيف والصمود في مخيمات النزوح)
كيف يواجه الأفراد الذين يعيشون في مخيمات النزوح تحديات حياتهم؟ وماهي التحديات النفسية والاجتماعية التي تواجههم في مخيمات النزوح؟ وهل يمكن الاعتماد على الذات في عملية التكيف للعيش في المخيمات؟ وما هي استراتيجيات الاعتماد على الذات في التكيف النفسي والاجتماعي؟
دراسة حالة: التغلب على التحديات النفسية والاجتماعية في مخيمات النزوح، والاعتماد على الذات في بناء القدرة على الصمود.
Under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) seven-decade mandate, Afghan refugees have faced some of the largest and most protracted experiences with forced displacement. This intergenerational exposure to forced migration has had innumerable consequences for the mental health of this population across different stages of their displacement. Afghan refugees who have resettled into Western nations face a unique set of challenges as they must navigate resettlement into societies that are linguistically, culturally, and spiritually distinct from their own backgrounds. This systematic review explores the (a) effectiveness and (b) cultural adaptation of interventions that have addressed the mental health of Afghan refugees resettled into Western countries since the year 2000. This systematic review will employ the Cultural Treatment Adaptation Framework (CTAF) to organize the extent of cultural adaptations. Through the systematic search of four databases, 1709 studies emerged from our search terms, seven of which met the criteria for this review, for example, study includes more than 2/3 Afghan participants; study includes outcome variables. Studies included programs in Germany, Serbia, Sweden, and Austria. The most common outcomes that interventions addressed included posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ( n = 5), depression ( n = 3), and quality of life ( n = 3). Program modalities ranged between Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ( n = 4), emotion regulation ( n = 1), family therapy ( n = 1), and multimodal interventions ( n = 2). Most studies only incorporated peripheral changes to interventions in the service of cultural adaptation, and only one intervention included core changes. This program reported the highest effect sizes in reducing PTSD and depressive symptoms when compared with the rest of the studies. These findings provide a direction for future studies as they consider whether the extent of cultural adaptations can influence the effectiveness of programs for Afghan refugee populations. We provide recommendations for mental health practice with this population, including a special attention to the role of daily stressors, the significance of faith and culture-based meaning making in the service of coping, and the salience of isolation.
