Center for Torture Victims, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany;
Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2015 Sep 1;6:26286. doi: 10.3402/ejpt.v6.26286. eCollection 2015.
Asylum interviews within the asylum procedure are associated with psychological stress for traumatized asylum seekers. This study investigates the impact of asylum interviews on the mental health in a sample of 40 traumatized asylum seekers. The comparison group consisted of refugees (N=10) that had not been invited to an asylum interview. Additionally, the moderating effects of trial-related variables such as perceived justice of the trial, stress of giving testimony, and stress of waiting for the asylum interview were examined.
Participants were assessed on average 10 days before (t1) and 16 days after (t2) the asylum interview. Chi-square tests for dichotomous and categorical variables were used to compare the descriptive statistics of the two groups. To investigate symptom changes from t1 to t2, paired t-tests were calculated. The magnitude of effects was measured by Cohen's effect size d within groups. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for demographic and trial variables predicting posttraumatic intrusions, avoidance, and hyperarousal.
Data showed a significant increase in posttraumatic intrusions and a significant decrease in posttraumatic avoidance and hyperarousal symptoms from t1 to t2. No significant symptom changes in the posttraumatic stress disorder subscales were found in the comparison group. The results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed perceived justice of the interview to predict the increase of intrusions and the number of experienced traumata and testimony stress to predict posttraumatic avoidance.
The present findings underline the stressful impact of asylum interviews on traumatized refugees. They indicate that the asylum interview might decrease posttraumatic avoidance and trigger posttraumatic intrusions, thus highlight the importance of ensuring that the already vulnerable group of traumatized refugees needs to be treated with empathy during their asylum interview.
庇护程序中的庇护面谈会给创伤后寻求庇护者带来心理压力。本研究调查了在 40 名创伤后寻求庇护者样本中，庇护面谈对心理健康的影响。对照组由未被邀请参加庇护面谈的难民（N=10）组成。此外，还研究了与审判相关的变量（如审判的公正性感知、作证压力和等待庇护面谈的压力）的调节作用。
参与者在庇护面谈前平均 10 天（t1）和面谈后 16 天（t2）进行评估。使用二项式和分类变量的卡方检验比较两组的描述性统计数据。为了调查 t1 到 t2 期间症状的变化，计算了配对 t 检验。使用组内 Cohen's d 测量效应大小。对人口统计学和审判变量进行分层回归分析，预测创伤后侵入、回避和过度警觉的变化。
数据显示，从 t1 到 t2，创伤后侵入显著增加，创伤后回避和过度警觉显著减少。对照组在创伤后应激障碍子量表中没有发现显著的症状变化。分层回归分析的结果表明，面谈的公正性感知预测侵入的增加，经历的创伤数量和作证压力预测回避。
本研究结果强调了庇护面谈对创伤后难民的压力影响。它们表明，庇护面谈可能会减少创伤后回避，并引发创伤后侵入，因此强调了在庇护面谈中需要以同理心对待已经脆弱的创伤后难民群体的重要性。
