Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.
Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.
Am J Hum Biol. 2022 Jul;34(7):e23747. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23747. Epub 2022 Mar 29.
Refugees seeking safety across international borders are often exposed to a wide breadth of psychosocially stressful experiences that may fracture existing sources of social support and impair the generation of new social relationships, with implications for their long-term health and resilience. Using data from recently settled refugees in two asylum centers in Serbia, we examined the associations between social support, mental health, and physiological markers.
In this mixed-method study of refugees (age 18-50 years, n = 76), we collected key socio-demographic information and conducted semi-structured interviews about refugees' journey and stay in Serbia, trauma/loss, and their sources of social support. We also collected self-reported measures of mental well-being as well as physiological markers relevant to repeated exposure to chronic psychosocial stress (fingernail cortisol and dried blood spots for analysis of Epstein-Barr virus [EBV] antibody titers).
We found that refugees with longer journeys reported lower social support than those with shorter journeys. Refugees with lower social support reported poorer mental well-being, greater PTSD-related symptoms, and higher recent perceived stress than those with higher social support. We also observed that refugees with lower social support and higher recent stress, respectively, tended to exhibit higher fingernail cortisol levels. However, we did not observe comparable patterns linking EBV antibodies with psychosocial functioning.
Our cross-sectional findings are consistent with the notion that social support is likely to be a critical component in effective interventions aimed at mitigating the adverse health effects of relocation-related illnesses and poor social functioning as they await resettlement.
跨越国际边界寻求安全的难民经常面临广泛的心理社会压力体验，这些体验可能会破坏现有的社会支持来源，并损害新的社会关系的建立，从而对他们的长期健康和适应能力产生影响。利用塞尔维亚两个庇护中心最近安置的难民的数据，我们研究了社会支持、心理健康和生理指标之间的关系。
在这项对难民（18-50 岁，n=76）的混合方法研究中，我们收集了关键的社会人口学信息，并对难民在塞尔维亚的旅程和停留、创伤/损失以及他们的社会支持来源进行了半结构化访谈。我们还收集了自我报告的心理健康衡量标准以及与反复暴露于慢性心理社会压力相关的生理指标（指甲皮质醇和干血斑，用于分析 Epstein-Barr 病毒 [EBV]抗体滴度）。
我们发现，旅程较长的难民的社会支持比旅程较短的难民低。社会支持较低的难民的心理健康状况较差，创伤后应激障碍相关症状较多，近期感知压力较大，而社会支持较高的难民则相反。我们还观察到，社会支持较低和近期压力较高的难民分别倾向于表现出较高的指甲皮质醇水平。然而，我们没有观察到类似的模式，将 EBV 抗体与心理社会功能联系起来。
我们的横断面研究结果与以下观点一致，即社会支持可能是缓解与重新安置相关的疾病和社会功能不良的不利健康影响的有效干预措施的关键组成部分。
