Rahim Haza F, Mooren Trudy T M, Knipscheer Jeroen W, Chung Joanne M, Laceulle Odilia M, Boelen Paul A
Department of Clinical Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre, Diemen, The Netherlands.
Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2025 Dec;16(1):2511524. doi: 10.1080/20008066.2025.2511524. Epub 2025 Jun 24.
The current study examined temporal associations between cultural identity conflict and psychological symptoms (posttraumatic stress [PTS] and anxiety/depression) in Syrian young adults, who recently migrated to the Netherlands. It was hypothesized that cultural identity conflict predicts intraindividual changes in PTS and anxiety/depression symptoms, in a course of one year, adjusting for trait-like stable invariant levels of both constructs. Data were obtained from Karakter, a four-wave longitudinal study, with a sample of 158 Syrian young adults with refugee backgrounds (= 96 at wave 4); 69% men and age range 18-35. Levels of cultural identity conflict, PTS, and anxiety/depression were assessed four times, over 13 months. Random intercept cross-lagged panel model analyses showed relative stability in levels of cultural identity conflict, PTS, and anxiety/depression from one wave to the next. No significant concurrent associations were found between deviations from people's usual levels of cultural identity conflict and PTS symptoms. Additionally, the results revealed two significant negative cross-lagged associations between cultural identity conflict and PTS. No cross-lagged associations were found between cultural identity conflict and anxiety/depression, except one negative directional effect from anxiety/depression at wave 2 to cultural identity conflict at wave 3. Findings indicate that after accounting for between-person differences, cultural identity conflict and psychological symptoms refer to stable, within-person processes over time. We speculate that early intervention focused on PTS, anxiety/depression as well as experienced cultural identity conflict may prevent these problems from becoming chronic, among Syrians with refugee backgrounds in the post-migration context.
本研究调查了近期移民到荷兰的叙利亚青年中文化认同冲突与心理症状（创伤后应激[PTS]和焦虑/抑郁）之间的时间关联。研究假设，在考虑到这两种构念类似特质的稳定不变水平后，文化认同冲突能够预测一年内PTS以及焦虑/抑郁症状的个体内部变化。数据来自Karakter这一四波纵向研究，样本为158名有难民背景的叙利亚青年（第四波时有96人）；男性占69%，年龄在18至35岁之间。在13个月内对文化认同冲突、PTS以及焦虑/抑郁水平进行了四次评估。随机截距交叉滞后面板模型分析表明，从一波到下一波，文化认同冲突、PTS以及焦虑/抑郁水平具有相对稳定性。在偏离人们通常的文化认同冲突水平与PTS症状之间未发现显著的同时关联。此外，结果还揭示了文化认同冲突与PTS之间存在两个显著的负向交叉滞后关联。在文化认同冲突与焦虑/抑郁之间未发现交叉滞后关联，只有从第二波的焦虑/抑郁到第三波的文化认同冲突存在一个负向的定向效应。研究结果表明，在考虑个体间差异后，文化认同冲突和心理症状在一段时间内指的是稳定的个体内部过程。我们推测，针对PTS、焦虑/抑郁以及所经历的文化认同冲突的早期干预，可能会防止这些问题在移民后的背景下，在有难民背景的叙利亚人中变得慢性化。
