IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i19p6948-d417847.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring Social and Financial Hardship, Mental Health Problems and the Role of Social Support in Asylum Seekers Using Structural Equation Modelling

Author

Listed:
  • Mathilde Sengoelge

    (Department of Health Sciences, Red Cross University College, 141 57 Huddinge, Sweden)

  • Øivind Solberg

    (Department of Health Sciences, Red Cross University College, 141 57 Huddinge, Sweden
    Division for Implementation and Treatment Research, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, 0484 Oslo, Norway)

  • Alexander Nissen

    (Department of Health Sciences, Red Cross University College, 141 57 Huddinge, Sweden
    Division for Implementation and Treatment Research, Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, 0484 Oslo, Norway)

  • Fredrik Saboonchi

    (Department of Health Sciences, Red Cross University College, 141 57 Huddinge, Sweden
    Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden)

Abstract

Asylum seekers are exposed to a range of social and financial difficulties suggested to adversely impact mental health. Uprooted social networks and living conditions during the asylum seeking process potentially predispose this population to low access to social support. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between social and financial hardship and mental health problems, and assess the potential mediating role of social support among asylum seekers. Cross sectional survey data from a cohort of asylum seekers in Sweden (N = 455) were subjected to structural equation modelling for examining hypothesized pathways between social and financial hardship, common mental health problems (CMHPs) and social support. Fit indices showed adequate to excellent fit of the examined models with CMHPs as the outcome (all CFI ≥ 0.951, RMSEA < 0.05, SRMR < 0.056). CMHPs were positively regressed on social and financial hardship (B = 0.786, S = 0.102, p < 0.001) and negatively regressed on social support (B = −0.103, SE = 0.032, p = 0.001). Social support mediated the association between social and financial hardship and CMHPs (effect estimate = 0.075, 95% CI = 0.032–0.136). The results point to the importance of social and living conditions of asylum seekers and indicate that social support is both socially patterned and may act as a mitigating resource to inform interventions and policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathilde Sengoelge & Øivind Solberg & Alexander Nissen & Fredrik Saboonchi, 2020. "Exploring Social and Financial Hardship, Mental Health Problems and the Role of Social Support in Asylum Seekers Using Structural Equation Modelling," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-14, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:6948-:d:417847
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/6948/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/6948/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Meyer, Ilan H. & Schwartz, Sharon & Frost, David M., 2008. "Social patterning of stress and coping: Does disadvantaged social statuses confer more stress and fewer coping resources?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 368-379, August.
    2. Qais Alemi & Carl Stempel, 2018. "Discrimination and distress among Afghan refugees in northern California: The moderating role of pre- and post-migration factors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, May.
    3. Chadwick, Kathryn A. & Collins, Patricia A., 2015. "Examining the relationship between social support availability, urban center size, and self-perceived mental health of recent immigrants to Canada: A mixed-methods analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 220-230.
    4. Coltman, Tim & Devinney, Timothy M. & Midgley, David F. & Venaik, Sunil, 2008. "Formative versus reflective measurement models: Two applications of formative measurement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(12), pages 1250-1262, December.
    5. Kenneth Carswell & Pennie Blackburn & Chris Barker, 2011. "The Relationship Between Trauma, Post-Migration Problems and the Psychological Well-Being of Refugees and Asylum Seekers," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 57(2), pages 107-119, March.
    6. Albert Satorra & Peter Bentler, 2001. "A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 66(4), pages 507-514, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Øivind Solberg & Mathilde Sengoelge & Alexander Nissen & Fredrik Saboonchi, 2021. "Coping in Limbo? The Moderating Role of Coping Strategies in the Relationship between Post-Migration Stress and Well-Being during the Asylum-Seeking Process," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-16, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Øivind Solberg & Mathilde Sengoelge & Alexander Nissen & Fredrik Saboonchi, 2021. "Coping in Limbo? The Moderating Role of Coping Strategies in the Relationship between Post-Migration Stress and Well-Being during the Asylum-Seeking Process," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Finnigan, Charlotte & Brown, Jason & Al-Adeimi, Mohamed & Al-Abed, Rajaa, 2023. "Self-reported stressors experienced by migrant youth in Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    3. Bhumika Gupta & Salil K. Sen, 2019. "Carbon Capture Usage and Storage with Scale-up: Energy Finance through Bricolage Deploying the Co-integration Methodology," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(6), pages 146-153.
    4. Rajesh Srivastava & Thomas Tang, 2015. "Coping Intelligence: Coping Strategies and Organizational Commitment Among Boundary Spanning Employees," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 525-542, September.
    5. Sabarudin Zakaria & Arnifa Asmawi, 2015. "Work Responsibilities Stress among Academicians in Private Universities in Malaysia," Journal of Education and Vocational Research, AMH International, vol. 6(2), pages 42-47.
    6. Ruth Hancock & Marcello Morciano & Stephen Pudney & Francesca Zantomio, 2015. "Do household surveys give a coherent view of disability benefit targeting?: a multisurvey latent variable analysis for the older population in Great Britain," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 178(4), pages 815-836, October.
    7. Claudio Vitari & Elisabetta Raguseo, 2016. "Big data value and financial performance: an empirical investigation [Digital data, dynamic capability and financial performance: an empirical investigation in the era of Big Data]," Post-Print halshs-01923271, HAL.
    8. Sai-fu Fung & Esther Oi-wah Chow & Chau-kiu Cheung, 2020. "Development and Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of a Brief Wisdom Development Scale," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-14, April.
    9. Michael Hollifield & Eric C. Toolson & Sasha Verbillis-Kolp & Beth Farmer & Junko Yamazaki & Tsegaba Woldehaimanot & Annette Holland, 2021. "Distress and Resilience in Resettled Refugees of War: Implications for Screening," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-15, January.
    10. Sohn, Stefanie, 2017. "A contextual perspective on consumers' perceived usefulness: The case of mobile online shopping," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 22-33.
    11. Joseph A Crawford & Sarah Dawkins & Angela Martin & Gemma Lewis, 2020. "Putting the leader back into authentic leadership: Reconceptualising and rethinking leaders," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 45(1), pages 114-133, February.
    12. Samy Katumba & Julia Kadt & Mark Orkin & Paul Fatti, 2022. "Construction of a Reflective Quality of Life Index for Gauteng Province in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 373-408, November.
    13. Laura Castro-Schilo & Barbara L. Fredrickson & Dan Mungas, 2019. "Association of Positive Affect with Cognitive Health and Decline for Elder Mexican Americans," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(8), pages 2385-2400, December.
    14. Zi Jia Ng & Eugene Scott Huebner & Alberto Maydeu-Olivares & Kimberly Joy Hills, 2018. "Confirmatory Factor Analytic Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS) in a Longitudinal Sample of Adolescents," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(4), pages 1237-1247, August.
    15. Junjiao Feng & Liang Zhang & Chunhui Chen & Jintao Sheng & Zhifang Ye & Kanyin Feng & Jing Liu & Ying Cai & Bi Zhu & Zhaoxia Yu & Chuansheng Chen & Qi Dong & Gui Xue, 2022. "A cognitive neurogenetic approach to uncovering the structure of executive functions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    16. Michael Sheppard, 2020. "The relationship between discretionary slack and growth in small firms," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 195-219, March.
    17. Ghulam Raza Sargani & Yuansheng Jiang & Abbas Ali Chandio & Yun Shen & Zhao Ding & Asif Ali, 2023. "Impacts of livelihood assets on adaptation strategies in response to climate change: evidence from Pakistan," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6117-6140, July.
    18. Fosso Wamba, Samuel & Queiroz, Maciel M. & Trinchera, Laura, 2024. "The role of artificial intelligence-enabled dynamic capability on environmental performance: The mediation effect of a data-driven culture in France and the USA," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    19. Justina GineikienÄ—, 2013. "Consumer Nostalgia Literature Review And An Alternative Measurement Perspective," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 4(2).
    20. Xin Meng & Sen Xue, 2020. "Social networks and mental health outcomes: Chinese rural–urban migrant experience," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 155-195, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:6948-:d:417847. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.