Brance Kristine, Chatzimpyros Vasileios, Bentall Richard P
Department of Psychology, the University of Sheffield, UK.
South East European Research Center, SEERC, Thessaloniki, Greece.
J Migr Health. 2022;6:100127. doi: 10.1016/j.jmh.2022.100127. Epub 2022 Sep 5.
The COVID-19 public health emergency has led to changes in people's attitudes towards minority groups, increasing prejudice and discriminatory behaviors, especially towards migrants. These prejudicial attitudes and discrimination negatively influence migrants' mental health increasing anxiety and depression and loneliness. However, the sense of belonging can be beneficial in mitigating these mental health issues especially in adverse social situations. Within this context, the aim of the study was to examine to what extent overall social connectedness plays a role in immigrant mental health during the COVID-19 crisis, hypothesizing that reduced sense of belonging to the social world will be part of the pathway from the negative effects of perceived discrimination on mental health during the pandemic. We recruited 104 immigrants from Greece who completed online self-report measures of perceived discrimination, social connectedness, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and loneliness, and conducted mediation analyses to test our predictions. Mediation models indicated that perceived discrimination has a negative impact on sense of belonging, which in turn increases anxiety and paranoia symptoms. Findings suggest that while perceived discrimination has a negative impact on mental health, this effect is less severe if participants remain socially connected. Results are discussed with regard to the need for social inclusion practices.
新冠疫情公共卫生紧急事件导致人们对少数群体的态度发生变化，偏见和歧视行为增加，尤其是针对移民群体。这些偏见态度和歧视对移民的心理健康产生负面影响，加剧了焦虑、抑郁和孤独感。然而，归属感有助于缓解这些心理健康问题，尤其是在不利的社会环境中。在此背景下，本研究旨在探讨在新冠疫情危机期间，整体社会联系在移民心理健康中发挥的作用程度，假设社会归属感降低是疫情期间感知到的歧视对心理健康产生负面影响的部分路径。我们招募了104名来自希腊的移民，他们完成了关于感知到的歧视、社会联系、抑郁、焦虑、偏执和孤独感的在线自我报告测量，并进行了中介分析以检验我们的预测。中介模型表明，感知到的歧视对归属感有负面影响，进而增加焦虑和偏执症状。研究结果表明，虽然感知到的歧视对心理健康有负面影响，但如果参与者保持社会联系，这种影响就不那么严重。我们结合社会包容措施的必要性对研究结果进行了讨论。
