Mental health and the role of culture and resilience in refugees fleeing violence
Vol 2, Issue 1, 2017, Article identifier:
VIEWS - 3008 (Abstract) 476 (SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION) 1068 (PDF)
Abstract
This study focuses on the mental health and the role of resilience in Mexican refugees in the El Paso, Texas border region who experienced acts of violence, extortion, kidnapping, torture, arson, or other traumatic events in Mexico. This is an exploratory study that uses using mixed methods. We gathered data using: the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the O’Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. We conducted extended interviews with adult participants (n=30) who escaped from the violence in Mexico to El Paso. Surprisingly, results did not show evidence of post- traumatic stress disorder. On the contrary, participants were highly resilient. Among the major themes that emerged from the interviews, cultural components identified by the participants consisted of: support to families (familism), the ability to talk to others about their own experiences (personalism), the idea that they have no control over their situation (fatalism), and putting things in God’s hands (faith), which mediate the effects of the experienced violence.
Keywords
References
1. Alqudah, A. F. (2013). Resiliency levels among Iraqi refugees in Jordan and its relation to some demographic variables. International Journal of Psychiatric Studies, 5 (4), pp. 50-59.
2. Becerra-Acosta, J.P. (2010). Huyen de Juarez 500,000 ciudadanos por la violencia. Milenio Online, Retrieved from: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/frontera-list/UXalgA5YmUw
3. Benedetto, M., Burns, G.L, Linder, H. & Kent. S. (2010). A Biopsychosocial model for depressive symptoms following acute coronary syndromes. Psychology and Health, 25 (9), pp. 1061-1075.
4. Campbell, H. (2009). Drug war zone: Frontline dispatches from the streets of El Paso and Juarez. Austin: University of Texas Press.
5. Chavez, S., Lusk, M. & Sanchez, S. (2015). Secuelas en la salud mental: El rol de la cultura y la resiliencia en migrantes y refugiados Mexicanos en la región de El Paso del Norte. In. P. Barraza, L. Torres, S. Sanchez & H. Diaz (Ed.s) Tácticas y Estrategias Contra la Violencia de Genero: Antología. Mexico, D.F.: FONCA, EON Sociales.
6. Connor, K.M. & Davidson J.R.T. (2003) Development of a new resilience scale: the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Depression and Anxiety, 18 (2), pp. 71-82.
7. Connor, K.M. & Davidson, J.R.T. (2016). User guide – The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Retrieved from: http://cd-risc.com/user-guide.php
8. Council on Foreign Relations (2015). Organized crime in Mexico. Global Conflict Tracker, Washington D.D.: Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from: http://www.cfr.org/global/global-conflict-tracker/p32137#!/conflict/organized-crime-in-mexico
9. Eisenman, D.P., Gelberg, L., Liu, H. & Shapiro M.F. (2003). Mental health and health-related quality of life among Latino primary care patients living in the United States with previous exposure to political violence. Journal of the American Medical Association, 290 (5), pp. 627-634.
10. Flores-Yeffal, N.Y. 2013. Migration-Trust Networks: Social Cohesion in Mexican U.S.-Bound Emigration. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
11. Fortuna, L., Porche, M., & Alegria, M. (2008). Political violence, psychosocial trauma, and the context of mental health services use among immigrant Latinos in the United States. Ethnicity & Health, 13 (5), pp. 435-463.
12. Heinle, K. Molzahn, C. & Shirk, D.A. (2015). Drug violence in Mexico: Data analysis through 2014. San Diego: Justice in Mexico Project. University of San Diego.
13. Jenson, J. M., & Fraser, M. W. (2006). Social Policy for Children & Families: A Risk and Resilience Perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
14. Karairmak, M.S. (2010). Establishing the psychometric qualities of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in a trauma survivor sample. Psychiatry Research, 3 (30), pp. 350-356.
15. Kimhi, S., & Yohanan, E. (2014). Determinants of Students’ Perceptions of War Threats. In Zysberg, L. (Ed.), Student Attitudes, (pp. 277-293). Upper Galilee, Israel: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
16. Lee, B. (2014). Mexico’s drug war. Washington D.C.: Council of Foreign Relations. Retrieved from: http://www.cfr.org/mexico/mexicos-drug-war/p13689
17. Levitt, P. (2007). God needs no passport: How immigrants are changing American religion. New York: The New Press.
18. Lusk, M. (2014). Hope and resiliency in a Mexican refugee. In E. Hoffler (Ed.) Hope matters: The power of social work, Washington DC: NASW Press.
19. Lusk, M. & McCallister, J. (2015). Resilience and trauma among Mexican refugees, In Moya, E. and Chavez, S. (Ed.s), Salud, Genero y Empoderamiento. pp. 89-119, Mexico, D.F.: Editorial EON.
20. Lusk, M., McCallister J., & Villalobos, G. (2013). Mental health among Mexican refugees fleeing violence and trauma. Social Development Issues, 35 (3), pp. 1 -17.
21. Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative Data Analysis. A Methods Sourcebook. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.
22. Miles, M.B., A.M. Huberman. (1994) Qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook. Vol. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
23. Mollica, R. (2006). Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths to hope and recovery in a violent world. New York: Harcourt Inc.
24. Mollica, R. F., Kirschner, K. E., & Ngo-Metzger, Q. (2011). The mental health challenges of immigration. Oxford Textbook of Community Mental Health, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 95-103.
25. Payan, T. (2014). Ciudad Juarez: A perfect storm on the U.S. – Mexico Border, Journal of Borderlands Studies, 29 (4) pp. 435-447.
26. Ramos, J. (2010). Cisen: 28 mil muertos por guerra a narco. El Universal, August 3, 2010.
27. Rutter, M. (1985). Resilience in the face of adversity: Protective factors and resistance to psychiatric disorders. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 147 (6), pp 598-611.
28. Scali, J., Gandubert, C., Ritchie, K. Soulier, M. Ancelin, L., & Chadieu, I. (2012). Measuring trauma in adult women using the 10-items Connor-Davison Resilience Scale: Role of trauma exposure and anxiety disorders. PloS one, 7 (6), e39879.
29. Schedler, A. (2014). The criminal subversion of Mexican democracy. Journal of Democracy, 24 (1), pp. 5-18.
30. Steel, Z., & Silove, D. (2000). The psychological cost of seeking and granting asylum. In Shalev, A., Yehuda, R., & McFarlane, A. (Eds.), International handbook of human response to trauma (Chapter 31). London: Plenum Series on Stress and Coping.
31. Steel, Z., Silove, D., Bird, K., McGorry, P., & Mohan, P. (1999). Pathways from war trauma to posttraumatic stress symptoms among Tamil asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 12 (3), 421-435.
32. Tedeschi, R.G. & Calhoun, L.G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. Psychological Inquiry, 15 (1), pp. 1-18.
33. Ungar, M. (2013). Resilience, trauma, context and culture. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 14 (3), pp 255-266
34. Ungar, M., Ghazinour, M., & Richter, J. (2013). What is resilience within the ecology of human development? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54 (4), pp. 348-366.
35. UNHCR (2015). Populations of concern to UNHCR, New York: United Nations High Commission on Refugees. Retrieved from: http://www.unhcr.org/564da0e3b.html
36. Walker, P., & Barnett, E. (2007). Immigrant Medicine. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18063/esp.v2.i1.96
(3008 Abstract Views, 476 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Downloads1068 PDF Downloads)
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2017 Lusk, M. W. and Chavez-Baray, S.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.