Impact of asylum interviews on the mental health of traumatized asylum seekers

Autor: Christine Knaevelsrud, Rita Rosner, Katrin Schock
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: European Journal of Psychotraumatology, Vol 6, Iss 0, Pp 1-9 (2015)
European Journal of Psychotraumatology; Vol 6 (2015): incl Supplements
European Journal of Psychotraumatology
ISSN: 2000-8066
2000-8198
Popis: Background : Asylum interviews within the asylum procedure are associated with psychological stress for traumatized asylum seekers. This study investigates the impact of asylum interviews on the mental health in a sample of 40 traumatized asylum seekers. The comparison group consisted of refugees ( N= 10) that had not been invited to an asylum interview. Additionally, the moderating effects of trial-related variables such as perceived justice of the trial, stress of giving testimony, and stress of waiting for the asylum interview were examined. Method : Participants were assessed on average 10 days before (t1) and 16 days after (t2) the asylum interview. Chi-square tests for dichotomous and categorical variables were used to compare the descriptive statistics of the two groups. To investigate symptom changes from t1 to t2, paired t -tests were calculated. The magnitude of effects was measured by Cohen’s effect size d within groups. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for demographic and trial variables predicting posttraumatic intrusions, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Results : Data showed a significant increase in posttraumatic intrusions and a significant decrease in posttraumatic avoidance and hyperarousal symptoms from t1 to t2. No significant symptom changes in the posttraumatic stress disorder subscales were found in the comparison group. The results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed perceived justice of the interview to predict the increase of intrusions and the number of experienced traumata and testimony stress to predict posttraumatic avoidance. Conclusions : The present findings underline the stressful impact of asylum interviews on traumatized refugees. They indicate that the asylum interview might decrease posttraumatic avoidance and trigger posttraumatic intrusions, thus highlight the importance of ensuring that the already vulnerable group of traumatized refugees needs to be treated with empathy during their asylum interview. Keywords: Asylum seekers; asylum interview; trial; trauma; posttraumatic stress disorder (Published: 1 September 2015) Responsible Editor: Jane Herlihy, Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law, UK. For the abstract or full text in other languages, please see Supplementary files in the column to the right (under ‘Article Tools’) Citation: European Journal of Psychotraumatology 2015, 6 : 26286 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v6.26286 Citation: European Journal of Psychotraumatology 2015, 6 : 26286 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v6.26286 Responsible Editor: Jane Herlihy, Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law, UK. Copyright: © 2015 Katrin Schock et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially, under the condition that appropriate credit is given, that a link to the license is provided, and that you indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. Received: 10 October 2014; Revised: 31 July 2015; Accepted: 3 August 2015; Published: 1 September 2015 Competing interests and funding: There is no conflict of interest in the present study for any of the authors. * Correspondence to: Katrin Schock, Center for Torture Victims, Berlin, Turmstrase 21, 10559 Berlin, Germany, Email: k.schock@bzfo.de For the abstract or full text in other languages, please see Supplementary files under ‘Article Tools’
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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