2025/01/01 by Angela Nickerson, Gülşah Kurt, Gulsah Kurt +22 · 9 citations
Medicine · Psychology · #Child Abuse and Trauma #Clinical psychology #Developmental psychology #Longitudinal study #Medicine #Mental health #Migration, Health and Trauma #Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research #Psychiatry #Psychological intervention #Psychology #Refugee #Social connectedness #Social media #Social network (sociolinguistics) #Social psychology #Social support #Structural equation modeling
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0033291724003519
published in Psychological Medicine 55, e40 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
BACKGROUND: Refugee experiences of trauma and displacement can significantly disrupt established social networks. While social functioning has been routinely associated with mental health, to our knowledge, no study has tested the direction of influence between social and psychological functioning within displaced refugee communities. This study investigated the temporal association between psychological symptoms (PTSD, depression, anger) and multiple facets of social functioning (including community connectedness, perceived social responsibility, positive social support and negative social support). METHOD: A culturally diverse sample of refugees (N = 1,235) displaced in Indonesia completed an online survey at four time-points, six months apart. Longitudinal structural equation modelling was used to investigate the temporal ordering between psychological symptoms and social functioning. RESULTS: Findings revealed that greater psychological symptoms were associated with a subsequent deterioration in social functioning (decreased positive social support and community connectedness and increased negative social support and perceived social responsibility). Greater perceived social responsibility was also associated with subsequent increases in psychological symptoms, while positive social support and community connectedness were bi-directionally associated over-time. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the potential utility of mental health interventions for displaced refugees as a means to improve social functioning and inclusion with host communities. Findings have important implications in guiding the development of interventions and allocation of resources to support refugee engagement and wellbeing in displacement contexts.