Recovery in Context: Mental Health in Relation to Psychotrauma and Postmigration Stress among Forced Migrants

Abstract

A continuously growing group of people are forced to flee their home countries to seek refuge from unsafe living conditions. Forced migrants are at relatively high risk for developing mental health problems, like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Common risk factors for psychopathology in this population are traumatic experiences and postmigratory daily stressors. Hence, there is a huge population suffering from the mental impact of uprooted and disturbed lives. Finding ways to overcome psychopathology related to traumatic experiences and daily stressors plays a central role in the different chapters of this dissertation. First by investigating the role of perceived daily stress in PTSD treatment and second by understanding the role of individual factors for mental health and its treatment. To increase knowledge on these issues, several quantitative studies were performed among five different samples of forced migrants. Findings suggest that the role of individual psychological resources, such as post-traumatic cognitions, coping styles, and self-efficacy, in mental health for forced migrants may vary in different settings. Although all these factors impact the wellbeing of forced migrants, their influence may be context-specific. For example, higher self-efficacy and beneficial coping styles may not always constrain mental health problems, while post-traumatic self-blame might mitigate PTSD symptoms under stressful living conditions. Meanwhile, perceived daily stress may not necessary block forced migrants’ abilities to recover from PTSD symptoms. Evidently, there is a need to optimise available treatments for forced migrants’ highly prevailing mental health problems. But factors promoting mental health and increasing PTSD treatment response among forced migrants should always be valued in the context of their psychopathology and living conditions. Henriëtte (Jetske) van Heemstra works as a licensed health care psychologist and researcher at ARQ Centrum’45.