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.