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

Sara Solà-SalesNatalia Pérez-GonzálezJulie Van HoeyIsabel Iborra-MarmolejoMaría José Beneyto-ArrojoCarmen Moret-Tatay
Published in: Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) (2021)
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.
Keyphrases
  • mental health
  • coronavirus disease
  • sars cov
  • climate change
  • social support
  • mental illness
  • public health
  • respiratory syndrome coronavirus
  • healthcare
  • randomized controlled trial
  • depressive symptoms