Conceptualizing Refugee Resilience Across Multiple Contexts

Resilience in refugee children and youth: A critical literature review.

“…As refugee youth adapt to the new reality, their proximal contexts also undergo changes (Motti-Stefanidi et al, 2012). The aforementioned parallel changes at multiple levels of refugee youth’s ecology are speculated to impact their adaptation (Motti-Stefanidi & Masten, 2020; Panter-Brick et al, 2018; Spatrisano et al, 2020).…”

“…As a result, resilience was rarely conceptualized as a complex, transactional process nurtured dynamically by a protective gestalt of refugee youth’s individual strengths, supportive relationships, and cultural values, as well as practices and community resources (Theron & Theron, 2010). To respond to the challenge of individualization of the resilience-building factors, similar to the approach we took in this review article, it is crucial to adopt a systems approach that considers the interaction of individual characteristics with multiple factors situated across the various levels of refugee youth’s ecology, and to understand their impact on pathways to their positive adaptation (Panter-Brick et al, 2018; Spatrisano et al, 2020). By adopting an ecological perspective, it would be difficult to understand refugee youth’s individual functioning without considering the context in which they are embedded (Ungar, 2008).…”

“…While empirical research on the resilience of refugee youth has been gradually increasing to resolve this issue, current scholarship still lacks social, cultural, and contextual sensitivity (Güngör & Strohmeier, 2020; Motti-Stefanidi & Masten, 2020; Sleijpen, Mooren, et al, 2017). This highlights the need for more work to be conducted to develop a culturally and contextually grounded understanding of resilience (Panter-Brick et al, 2018; Spatrisano et al, 2020). Accordingly, this review article represents a purposeful attempt to address this gap by focusing on the extant literature on refugee youth’s resilience.…”

The psychological impacts of COVID-19 related stressors on Syrian refugees in Turkey: The role of resource loss, discrimination, and social support

“…Compared to traditional person-centered conceptualizations, the socio-ecological model defines resilience as the interplay between personal and contextual characteristics rather than a solely personal trait ( Ungar, 2008 , 2011 ). A growing number of studies show the utility of this model to elucidate the refugee resilience process (e.g., Schlechter et al, 2021 ; von Haumeder, Ghafoori, & Retailleau, 2019 ; Spatrisano, Robinson, Eldridge, & Rosich, 2020 ). Among many resilience promoting factors, social support appears to be among the most important ones for refugee mental health ( Wachter et al, 2021 ).…”

“…The other is via reducing stress reaction so that individuals become physiologically and psychologically less reactive to stressful situations ( Cohen & Wills, 1985 ). Since social support is conducive to the acquisition of other resources such as material goods, information, and guidance, it can be considered as one of the key facilitative factors of well-being in the resilience process of refugees ( Spatrisano et al, 2020 ). A systematic review ( Siriwardhana, Ali, Roberts, & Stewart, 2014 ) indicated that social support was an important protective factor against psychological distress.…”