title: Resilience as a protective factor against the development of psychopathology among refugees.
abstract: Refugee research, to date, has predominantly focused on factors that make refugees more vulnerable for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or psychological distress. Few articles have studied potential protective factors such as resilience. A targeted nonrandom sample of Iraqi refugees (n = 75) and a control group of non-Iraqi Arab immigrants (n = 53) were recruited from a number of Iraqi/Arab community institutions in Michigan to complete a questionnaire that included measures for psychological distress, PTSD symptoms, exposure to trauma, and resilience. The refugees reported significantly more PTSD symptoms (t-test, p < 0.01) and psychological distress (p < 0.05) compared with the immigrants. There was no difference in resilience between the two groups. In linear regression, premigration exposure to violence was a significant predictor of psychological distress (p < 0.01) and PTSD symptoms (p < 0.01). After controlling for migrant status and violence exposure, resilience was a significant inverse predictor of psychological distress (p < 0.001) but not of PTSD. Resilience is associated with less trauma-related psychological distress and should be considered in assessing risk and protective factors among victims of war-related violence.
authors: Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Division of Occupational and Environmental Health, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.
authors: Judith
authors: J
authors: Arnetz
authors: Yoasif
authors: Y
authors: Rofa
authors: Bengt
authors: B
authors: Arnetz
authors: Matthew
authors: M
authors: Ventimiglia
authors: Hikmet
authors: H
authors: Jamil
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012306:Risk; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*