Fostering Resilience: Protective Agents, Resources, and Mechanisms for Adolescent Refugees’ Psychosocial Well-Being

Abstract

Background Adolescent refugees face many challenges but also have the potential to become resilient. The purpose of this study was to identify and characterize the protective agents, resources, and mechanisms that promote their psychosocial well-being. Methods Participants included a purposively sampled group of 73 Burundian and Liberian refugee adolescents and their families who had recently resettled in Boston and Chicago. The adolescents, families, and their service providers participated in a two-year longitudinal study using ethnographic methods and grounded theory analysis with Atlas/ti software. A grounded theory model was developed which describes those persons or entities who act to protect adolescents (Protective Agents), their capacities for doing so (Protective Resources), and how they do it (Protective Mechanisms). Protective agents are the individuals, groups, organizations, and systems that can contribute either directly or indirectly to promoting adolescent refugees’ psychosocial well-being. Protective resources are the family and community capacities that can promote psychosocial well-being in adolescent refugees. Protective mechanisms are the processes fostering adolescent refugees’ competencies and behaviors that can promote their psychosocial well-being. Results Eight family and community capacities were identified that appeared to promote psychosocial well-being in the adolescent refugees. These included 1) finances for necessities; 2) English proficiency; 3) social support networks; 4) engaged parenting; 5) family cohesion; 6) cultural adherence and guidance; 7) educational support; and 8) faith and religious involvement. Nine protective mechanisms identified were identified and grouped into three categories: 1) Relational (supporting, connecting, belonging); 2) Informational (informing, preparing), and; 3) Developmental (defending, promoting, adapting). Conclusions To further promote the psychosocial well-being of adolescent refugees, targeted prevention focused policies and programs are needed to enhance the identified protective agents, resources, and mechanisms. Because resilience works through protective mechanisms, greater attention should be paid to understanding how to enhance them through new programs and practices, especially informational and developmental protective mechanisms.

Between power and powerlessness: a meta-ethnography of sources of resilience in young refugees

“…In order to be up to date, we refreshed our search in all databases to include studies between June 2013 and February 2015. We found four new articles (Betancourt et al 2015;Ndedngeyingoma, De Montigny, and Miron 2013;Thommesssen, Corcoran, and Todd 2015;Weine et al 2014). The results of these studies were in line with our results: The importance of the ecological model and the facilitating influences of school, social support, and acculturation strategies were strengthened after reviewing these publications.…”

“…Besides, the themes of discrimination, the constraining component of family dynamics (Betancourt et al 2015;Ndedngeyingoma, De Montigny, and Miron 2013) and responsibility (Ndedngeyingoma, De Montigny, and Miron 2013;Thommesssen, Corcoran, and Todd 2015) were discussed in some of these studies as well. Regarding religion, Betancourt et al (2015) and Weine et al (2014) described religion as protective resource that can promote young refugees' psychosocial well-being. On the other hand, Ndengeyingoma and collegues (2013) revealed that it was hard for many young refugees to maintain their religious beliefs in the new country and that some of them were reconsidering their religious engagement in favor of making friends.…”

Adolescent Burmese Refugees Perspectives on Determinants of Health

“…These findings are similar to those of a study that looked at young refugees resettled in Australia [22]. Family cohesion, faith, and religious involvement have been identified as protective factors against mental health disorders and promoters of psychosocial wellbeing among adolescent refugees [23,24]. Additionally, their freedom to practice their religion freely in the US was liberating to them.…”

Working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people: cultural considerations and acceptability of a cognitive behavioural group approach

“…Recent reviews highlight the multifaceted nature of the needs of refugee and asylum-seeking children and adolescents and the importance of considering their wider context (Eruyar et al , 2017; Fazel and Betancourt, 2017). A number of key protective factors have been identified that support the psychological wellbeing of adolescent refugees, including social support networks and maintaining cultural links, which have led to suggestions that potential areas for intervention include friends and peers (Weine et al , 2014).…”