“Thinking Too Much”: Psychological distress, sources of stress and coping strategies of resettled Afghan and Kurdish refugees

Abstract

This article outlines the main findings of an exploratory, mixed methods study examining the health and resettlement experiences of predominantly Muslim Afghan and Kurdish refugees in New Zealand and Australia. As post-migration experiences can impact the psychological well-being of already traumatized individuals, this study aimed to identify major sources of stress and describe the coping strategies they use to deal with it. Spending too much time reflecting on past experiences and current international events, separation from family, and feeling overwhelmed by resettlement challenges and concerns were important sources of ongoing stress. High levels of psychological distress and morbidity continued to be observed for some participants, several years after arrival.

Psychological Distress in Afghan Refugees: A Mixed-Method Systematic Review

“…Eight quantitative studies were eliminated on grounds that prevalence rates for outcomes of interest were not specifically reported for Afghans [72–79]. Of the 23 remaining studies, two were mixed-method [80, 81], nine qualitative [3, 82–89], and 12 quantitative [90–101]. One quantitative study [95] was published in the Dutch language; however, the articles’ English language abstract provided relevant information with relation to answering our second research question, and was therefore retained in our final sample.…”

“…Ten studies were combined as they essentially used the same sample in separate publications. These combinations were as follows: one mixed-method [81] and one quantitative (validation) study [101] (the other mixed-method study [80] was later eliminated as findings were reported for only a subset (one-third) of the entire sample); four qualitative studies [3, 85, 87, 88]; and four quantitative studies [90, 91, 98, 99]. This subsequently resulted in a total sample size ( n ) of 17 studies (one mixed-method, seven qualitative, nine quantitative).…”

“…Purposive sampling techniques provided sample sizes ranging from as little as 8–62 participants. Ninety participants were recruited in the qualitative portion of the mixed-method study in our sample [81]. …”

“…However, only three reported psy-chometric properties such as reliability and validity coefficients [90, 91, 95, 101] and handling of missing data [95,100]. Studies took into account confounding variables through data analysis; however, few studies actually assessed plausible and distorting influences such as acculturative stress [94], employment status [81, 92, 101], and social support levels [93, 95]. …”

“…Many of the sources of stress (e.g. cultural changes, isolation, loss of social status, “thinking too much”) noted in the SF Bay Area have also been described in the qualitative portion of a mixed-method study recently conducted in Australia and New Zealand [81]. …”