Global and Women's Health, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Sep 13;22(1):1739. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-14082-z.
Forced migration can lead to loss of social support and increased vulnerability to psychological distress of displaced individuals. The aims were to ascertain the associations of sociodemographic characteristics and social support received by resettled adult humanitarian migrants in Australia; determine the relationship between social support and mental health at different intervals following humanitarian migration; and examine the modification effects of gender, age and migration pathway on that relationship.
A secondary analysis was conducted of data generated in Waves One (three to six months after resettlement), Three (three years after resettlement) and Five (five years after resettlement) of the Building a New Life in Australia prospective cohort study. The association between sociodemographic characteristics and mental health were examined at each timepoint using a multivariate regression model. Exploratory factor analysis was used to develop a two-factor social support scale (emotional/instrumental and informational support) from a larger set of items collected in the BNLA. Psychological distress was measured by the Kessler-6 scale. Path analysis was used to analyse the relationships between social support and psychological distress among the three time points considering socio-demographic characteristics simultaneously.
A total of 2264 participants were included in the analyses. Age, gender, birth region, migration pathway, education level and English proficiency were significantly associated with both social support types. Main source of income was only significantly associated with informational support. Remoteness area was only significantly associated with emotional/instrumental support. As emotional/instrumental support increased by one standard deviation (SD) at Wave One, psychological distress at Wave Three decreased by 0.34 score [95% CI (- 0.61; - 0.08)]. As informational support at Wave Three increased by one SD, psychological distress at Wave Five decreased by 0.35 score [95% CI (- 0.69; - 0.01)]. The relationships between social support and psychological distress varied between genders, age groups and migration pathways.
Findings demonstrate the importance of emotional/instrumental support and informational support for the medium and long-term mental health of humanitarian migrants. This study also highlights the important of extending current social support provisions and tailoring programs to enhance support received by humanitarian migrant subgroups years after resettlement to improve mental health.
被迫迁移可能导致流离失所者失去社会支持并增加心理困扰的脆弱性。本研究旨在确定澳大利亚成年人道主义移民重新安置后社会人口特征和获得的社会支持之间的关联；确定社会支持与人道主义移民后不同时间点心理健康之间的关系；并检验性别、年龄和移民途径对这种关系的修饰作用。
使用澳大利亚新生活建设队列研究的第一波（重新安置后三至六个月）、第三波（重新安置后三年）和第五波（重新安置后五年）生成的数据进行二次分析。使用多元回归模型在每个时间点检查社会人口特征与心理健康之间的关联。从 BNLA 中收集的更大一组项目中，使用探索性因子分析开发了一个两因素社会支持量表（情感/工具性支持和信息性支持）。使用 Kessler-6 量表测量心理困扰。路径分析用于同时考虑社会人口特征分析三个时间点之间社会支持和心理困扰之间的关系。
共有 2264 名参与者纳入分析。年龄、性别、出生地区、移民途径、教育水平和英语熟练程度与两种社会支持类型均显著相关。主要收入来源仅与信息支持显著相关。偏远地区仅与情感/工具性支持显著相关。第一波的情感/工具性支持增加一个标准差（SD），第三波的心理困扰减少 0.34 分[95%置信区间（-0.61；-0.08)]。第三波信息支持增加一个 SD，第五波的心理困扰减少 0.35 分[95%置信区间（-0.69；-0.01)]。社会支持与心理困扰之间的关系因性别、年龄组和移民途径而异。
研究结果表明，情感/工具性支持和信息支持对人道主义移民的中长期心理健康非常重要。本研究还强调了扩大当前社会支持措施并调整计划以增强人道主义移民亚群体在重新安置多年后的支持的重要性，以改善心理健康。
