Journeys in Meaning: Psychological Adjustment to Trauma in Resettled Syrian Refugees

• Main Author: de Matos, Lisa Marta Machado
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adjustment; Clinical psychology; Data Analysis; Demography; Demonstrations & protests; Education; Ethnic studies; Higher education; Human rights; International Relations; Islamic Studies; Literature Reviews; Mental disorders; Mental health; Middle Eastern Studies; Migration; Minority & ethnic groups; Muslims; Political activism; Political science; Post traumatic stress disorder; Psychology; Psychopathology; Refugees; Religion; Sociodemographics; Sociology; Undergraduate Students; Violations; Violence; War crimes
• ISBN: 9798381015119

The ability to make meaning of extreme events is a key determinant of psychological adjustment to trauma. Guided by Park’s (2010) integrated meaning-making model, the principal aim of this dissertation was to investigate the meaning-making experiences of resettled Syrian refugees and the impact of those experiences on posttraumatic adjustment. To this end, we conducted a mixed-methods cross-sectional study, with two phases of data collection and two independent samples. A total of 44 Syrian war-exposed adults living in urban communities across continental Portugal participated in Phase 1 Focus Groups (n = 2; 5 participants) and Phase 2 individual interviews (n= 39). Empirical results are described in Chapters 3 to 7. Key results identified: (1) exposure to significant meaning-shattering events pre-, during, and post-flight; (2) the centrality of pre-war global meanings related to identity, justice, control, God, expectations of normality, intact family and country, and peace to appraise the war and forced displacement; (3) situational appraisals as both intra- and interpersonal processes subject to revisiting with new trauma, new information, time, and context; (4) cognitive-specific, as well as immediate and gradual meaning violations; (5) determinants of search for meaning including cumulative stressors, availability of cognitive resources, stage of displacement, social support, coping strategies, and developmental age; (6) negative, positive, ambivalent, and unresolved meanings-made of trauma; and (7) psychological adjustment to refugee trauma as a continuum of responses, from distress to perceptions of growth. Findings suggest that meaning-making of refugee trauma entails a set of concurrent, dynamic, cognitive-specific trajectories that are informed by place and sociopolitical context, and thus prone to be repeatedly revisited. Findings further challenge the concept of successful psychological adjustment to trauma as an end-state. This work highlights the need to promote adaptive meaning-making as an integrated experience that prioritizes repairing the meanings most severely challenged by war, including sense of justice, belonging, control, as well as the possibility of a peaceful and safe future.