Abstract
The present study aimed to explore the coping resources and mental health of women who have fled Syria to a neighboring European country. To that end, we examined the roles of sociodemographic factors, situational factors, and personal and community sense of coherence (SOC and ComSOC, respectively) in mental-health outcomes. One hundred and eleven refugee women aged 19–70 filled out self-reported questionnaires during August 2018 in a refugee camp in Greece. The questionnaires asked the participants for demographic information (i.e., age, level of education level, and time spent in the camp) and also addressed the situational factors of having received aid from various organizations, appraisal of danger during the war in Syria, and exposure to war experiences, as well as the coping resources of SOC and ComSOC. The results show that time spent in the camp, appraisal of danger, SOC, and ComSOC all play significant roles in predicting the variance of various mental-health outcomes. Together, those factors predict 56% of anxiety, 53% of depression, and 58% of somatization. SOC was also found to mediate the relationships between time spent in the camp and outcome variables, as well as the relationships between the appraisal of danger and the outcome variables. This indicates that SOC is crucial for good adaptation. These results will be discussed in light of the salutogenic theory.
Highlights
Since 2011, more than 511,000 Syrians have lost their lives to armed conflict and more than 12 million others have been forced from their homes due to the civil war and the penetration of ISIS forces into Syria
We aimed to examine the roles of educational levels and the time spent in the refugee camp in these women’s adaptation to life in a new country
(3) We evaluated a model in which different demographic variables, as well as situational factors of exposure to war events, appraisal of danger, having received aid from organizations, and coping resources were entered as predictors of anxiety, depression, and somatization
Summary
Since 2011, more than 511,000 Syrians have lost their lives to armed conflict and more than 12 million others have been forced from their homes due to the civil war and the penetration of ISIS forces into Syria. More than 5.6 million of those in need have sought refuge outside Syria, mostly in neighboring countries [1] In fleeing for their lives, refugees face many other stressors related to their war experiences. We aimed to examine the roles of educational levels and the time spent in the refugee camp in these women’s adaptation to life in a new country Based on these sociodemographic factors, we compared the women in terms of several dimensions, namely, a personal sense of coherence (SOC), a community sense of coherence (ComSOC), exposure to the armed conflict, appraisal of danger in the war zone, and whether they had received aid from any of a variety of organizations. We wanted to further understand the variables that could explain mental health and adaptation among refugees
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