Psychological distress in refugees: The role of traumatic events, resilience, social support, and support by religious faith

Abstract

Many refugees have been exposed to potentially traumatic events and report elevated levels of psychological distress. However, refugees vary greatly in the severity of mental health problems. Intra- and interpersonal factors help some refugees to cope effectively. To shed light on these factors, we scrutinized how potentially traumatic events, resilience, social support, and support by religious faith are associated with psychological distress in refugees in Germany and German residents. We assessed data from 205 German residents and 205 refugees (total N = 410). Questionnaires assessing psychological distress, potentially traumatic events, resilience, social support, and perceived support by religious faith were disseminated online in Arabic and German. Refugees reported higher levels of psychological distress, more exposure to potentially traumatic events, less social support, less resilience, and more perceived support from their faith than German residents. Using a pathway model, lower social support and resilience partially accounted for group differences of higher psychological distress in refugees. This study points to the importance of social support and individual resilience in explaining mental health discrepancies between refugees and residents. This, in turn, may inform future intervention studies to reduce elevated levels of psychological distress experienced by refugees.

Keywords: Refugee mental health; Resilience; Social support; Support by religious faith; Traumatic events.