Garton Alana, Rogers Kris, Berle David
Discipline of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology, Broadway, PO Box 123, Sydney, NSW, 2007, Australia.
The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2022 May;57(5):1085-1095. doi: 10.1007/s00127-021-02204-8. Epub 2021 Nov 24.
Finding work is an important priority for many refugees in the initial years following settlement in a host country. Difficulties in finding work could conceivably both contribute to and be a consequence of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychological distress commonly reported by refugees.
We sought to determine the direction of these relationships and the possibility of a reciprocal association between employment status on one hand, and symptoms of PTSD and psychological distress on the other, in a large refugee sample.
A secondary analysis of three face-to-face interview assessments conducted across 5 years with 894 adult refugee participants (M = 39.9 years, SD = 12.8) from the Building a New Life in Australia study was conducted. Symptoms of psychological distress, posttraumatic stress, and employment status were assessed on each occasion. Preliminary analysis identified the cross-sectional relationships between psychological distress, PTSD symptoms, and employment status, while cross-lagged models were used to identify the longitudinal relationships between these respective symptoms.
Symptoms of psychological distress and not being in paid work were significantly correlated with each other at each time point (ranging 0.09-0.25) and they reciprocally influenced each other over time. Likewise, PTSD symptoms and not being in paid work were correlated with each other after 3 years and 5 years (r = 0.21 and 0.23 respectively), and a reciprocal relationship between these was found over time.
The current findings indicate that interventions which target either mental health or work opportunities could have multiple downstream benefits for refugees.
对于许多难民而言，在东道国定居后的最初几年里，找到工作是一项重要的优先事项。可以想象，找工作困难可能既是创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状的一个成因，也是其结果，而难民普遍报告有心理困扰。
我们试图在一个大型难民样本中确定这些关系的方向，以及就业状况与创伤后应激障碍症状和心理困扰之间相互关联的可能性。
对来自“在澳大利亚建立新生活”研究的894名成年难民参与者（平均年龄M = 39.9岁，标准差SD = 12.8）在5年期间进行的三次面对面访谈评估进行了二次分析。每次评估心理困扰症状、创伤后应激症状和就业状况。初步分析确定了心理困扰、创伤后应激障碍症状与就业状况之间的横断面关系，同时使用交叉滞后模型来确定这些各自症状之间的纵向关系。
在每个时间点，心理困扰症状与没有带薪工作之间均显著相关（相关系数范围为0.09 - 0.25），且随着时间推移它们相互影响。同样，3年后和5年后，创伤后应激障碍症状与没有带薪工作之间也存在相关性（相关系数分别为0.21和0.23），并且随着时间推移发现二者之间存在相互关系。
目前的研究结果表明，针对心理健康或工作机会的干预措施可能会给难民带来多种下游益处。
