The Role of Resilience for Migrants and Refugees' Mental Health in Times of COVID-19

Migrants and refugees need international protection, particularly during a crisis such as the current health pandemic. The aim of this research was to examine the mental health and attitudes towards COVID-19 in migrants and refugees compared to the general Spanish population. Moreover, the nature of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Healthcare (Basel) 2021-08, Vol.9 (9), p.1131
Main Authors: Solà-Sales, Sara, Pérez-González, Natalia, Van Hoey, Julie, Iborra-Marmolejo, Isabel, Beneyto-Arrojo, María José, Moret-Tatay, Carmen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Anxiety
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Higher education
Medical research
Mental depression
Mental health
Pandemics
Personality
Questionnaires
Refugees
Stress
Variables
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Summary:Migrants and refugees need international protection, particularly during a crisis such as the current health pandemic. The aim of this research was to examine the mental health and attitudes towards COVID-19 in migrants and refugees compared to the general Spanish population. Moreover, the nature of resilience was examined as a mixed component though life experiences. For this proposal, an interview was carried out in a sample of 245 participants who volunteered to participate in the study. The sample was divided into Spanish non-migrants, Spanish migrants, non-Spanish migrants and refugees. Attitudes towards COVID-19, resilience (based on BRCS) and mental health (based on DASS-21) were measured. The results obtained can be described as follows: (i) Migrant participants indicated worse mental health than non-migrants, and within the migrant group, refugees presented worse scores; (ii) No differences were found in attitudes towards COVID-19 in any of the subgroups; (iii) A moderating effect of group was found for the relationship between resilience and mental health but not between resilience and fear of COVID-19. These results might be of great interest in making visible the vulnerability of migrants and specifically refugees, and the proposal of intervention programs based on resilience training.
ISSN:2227-9032
2227-9032
DOI:10.3390/healthcare9091131