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‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma

The centrality of the collective to Syrian identity and the ability of war to disrupt community ties have led to significant violations of Syrians’ pre-war assumptions about themselves, the world, and their place in the world. Guided by the integrated meaning-making model, this qualitative cross-sec...

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Autores principales: Matos, Lisa, Costa, Pedro A., Park, Crystal L., Indart, Monica J., Leal, Isabel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391383/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444235
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168481
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author Matos, Lisa
Costa, Pedro A.
Park, Crystal L.
Indart, Monica J.
Leal, Isabel
author_facet Matos, Lisa
Costa, Pedro A.
Park, Crystal L.
Indart, Monica J.
Leal, Isabel
author_sort Matos, Lisa
collection PubMed
description The centrality of the collective to Syrian identity and the ability of war to disrupt community ties have led to significant violations of Syrians’ pre-war assumptions about themselves, the world, and their place in the world. Guided by the integrated meaning-making model, this qualitative cross-sectional study assessed Syrian refugees’ meaning trajectories through their reappraisals of the war, attempts to repair community-informed shattered meanings, and those processes’ outputs (i.e., meanings-made) and outcomes (i.e., perceived psychological adjustment). We conducted semi-structured cognitive interviews with 39 Syrian war-exposed adults living in urban communities across Portugal, most of whom were beneficiaries of higher education programs for refugees. Interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis. Results suggest that the war severely disrupted Syrians’ sense of collective self, and that they repeatedly engaged in search for meaning, appraisals of the war, and reappraisals of shattered beliefs, life goals, and sense of purpose, both during wartime and in resettlement. In Portugal, despite persistent negative beliefs about the collective and ongoing and distressing searches for meaning, participants’ lived experiences concomitantly informed positive meaning reappraisals, including progressive restoration of worldviews, new opportunities for self-realization, and newly-found purpose, leading to perceived psychological benefits and growth. These findings suggest that meaning-making is both a trajectory and a dynamic process, informed by place and sociopolitical context. Clinical work to facilitate adaptive meaning-making and meaning-informed psychosocial interventions that help restore refugees’ shattered beliefs about safety, predictability, trust, and belonging, may be helpful directions to promote positive psychological adjustment and improve long-term integration prospects in refugees.
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spelling pubmed-83913832021-08-28 ‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma Matos, Lisa Costa, Pedro A. Park, Crystal L. Indart, Monica J. Leal, Isabel Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The centrality of the collective to Syrian identity and the ability of war to disrupt community ties have led to significant violations of Syrians’ pre-war assumptions about themselves, the world, and their place in the world. Guided by the integrated meaning-making model, this qualitative cross-sectional study assessed Syrian refugees’ meaning trajectories through their reappraisals of the war, attempts to repair community-informed shattered meanings, and those processes’ outputs (i.e., meanings-made) and outcomes (i.e., perceived psychological adjustment). We conducted semi-structured cognitive interviews with 39 Syrian war-exposed adults living in urban communities across Portugal, most of whom were beneficiaries of higher education programs for refugees. Interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis. Results suggest that the war severely disrupted Syrians’ sense of collective self, and that they repeatedly engaged in search for meaning, appraisals of the war, and reappraisals of shattered beliefs, life goals, and sense of purpose, both during wartime and in resettlement. In Portugal, despite persistent negative beliefs about the collective and ongoing and distressing searches for meaning, participants’ lived experiences concomitantly informed positive meaning reappraisals, including progressive restoration of worldviews, new opportunities for self-realization, and newly-found purpose, leading to perceived psychological benefits and growth. These findings suggest that meaning-making is both a trajectory and a dynamic process, informed by place and sociopolitical context. Clinical work to facilitate adaptive meaning-making and meaning-informed psychosocial interventions that help restore refugees’ shattered beliefs about safety, predictability, trust, and belonging, may be helpful directions to promote positive psychological adjustment and improve long-term integration prospects in refugees. MDPI 2021-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8391383/ /pubmed/34444235 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168481 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Matos, Lisa
Costa, Pedro A.
Park, Crystal L.
Indart, Monica J.
Leal, Isabel
‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma
title ‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma
title_full ‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma
title_fullStr ‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma
title_full_unstemmed ‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma
title_short ‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma
title_sort ‘the war made me a better person’: syrian refugees’ meaning-making trajectories in the aftermath of collective trauma
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391383/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444235
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168481
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