The assessment of psychopathology among traumatized refugees : measurement invariance of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 across five linguistic groups

Background: Questionnaires are widely used to assess the mental health status of refugees, whereas their construct validity largely remains unexplored.

Objective: This study examined the construct validity of two widely-used instruments for the assessment of PTSD symptoms (Harvard Trauma Questionnaire [HTQ]; 16 items) and symptoms of anxiety and depression (Hopkins Symptom Check list-25 [HSCL-25]; 25 items) among Dutch and refugee patients with different linguistic backgrounds.

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Lives on hold : A qualitative study of young refugees' resilience strategies.

Although the literature on positive adjustment following traumatic events is growing, only a few studies have examined this phenomenon in young refugees. Using the social-ecological framework, the aim of this study was to identify factors and processes that according to young refugees promote their resilience. A total of 16 treatment-seeking refugees aged 13-21years, living in the Netherlands, were interviewed.

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Crossing borders: trauma and resilience in young refugees : a multimethod study

Many adolescent refugees and asylum seekers have experienced traumatic events. They often suffer from intrusions of these events, and report avoidance behaviors, sleeping problems and hyperarousal. On top of that, they are dealing with many daily stressors caused by their new and marginal social position in the Netherlands. How do these adolescents keep up in the Dutch society?

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The Trauma of Facing Deportation

In Sweden, hundreds of refugee children have fallen unconscious after being informed that their families will be expelled from the country.
Georgi, a Russian refugee who came to Sweden with his family when he was five years old, could talk at length about the virtues of the Volvo. His doctor described him as “the most ‘Swedeified’ in his family.” He was also one of the most popular boys in his class. For his thirteenth birthday, two friends listed some of the qualities that he evoked: energetic, fun, happy all the time, good human being, amazingly kind, awesome at soccer, sly.

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Invisble wounds : the impact of six years of war on the mental health of Syria’s children

For the past six years, children in Syria have been bombed and starved. They have seen their friends and families die before their eyes or buried under the rubble of their homes. They have watched their schools and hospitals destroyed, been denied food, medicine and vital aid, and been torn apart from their families and friends as they flee the fighting. Every year that the war goes on plumbs new,  previously unimaginable depths of violence against children, and violations of international law by all sides.

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The mental health of trafficked persons

Trafficking in human beings (THB) has been described as modern slavery. It is a serious criminal activity that has significant ramifications for the human rights of the victims. It poses major challenges to the state, society and individual victims. THB is not a static given but a constantly changing concept depending on societal changes and opinions, economic situations and legal developments. THB occurs both transnationally and within countries. The complexity of THB is such that it requires a wide range of expertise fully to address the phenomenon.

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Predicting post‐traumatic stress disorder treatment response in refugees : Multilevel analysis

Abstract
Objectives
Given the recent peak in refugee numbers and refugees’ high odds of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), finding ways to alleviate PTSD in refugees is of vital importance. However, there are major differences in PTSD treatment response between refugees, the determinants of which are largely unknown. This study aimed at improving PTSD treatment for adult refugees by identifying PTSD treatment response predictors.
Design

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Psychosocial support among refugees

The aim of this paper is to examine the psychosocial needs and stressors among refugees of con￡icts within

developing countries, and their group based, social support mechanisms. Systematic literature searches

of peer reviewed journal articles (nU60 articles) were carried out using the following factors: type

(refugee); cause (con’icts); location (developing countries). As refugees move towards a prolonged

urban displacement phase, needs and stressors became di!erent than those of the acute phase.While

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Mental health on the move : short review on migration and mental health

The first studies on migration and mental health focused primarily on immigration in the Unites States in the beginning of the 20th century. Higher levels of mental health problems or “insanity” were observed among migrants as compared to host populations. Selective migration of mentally ill people was understood to explain this difference. Although hypomanic traits such as impulsiveness, extraversion and risk seeking behaviour may seem to predispose individuals to emigrate, the so-called selective migration hypothesis has never been empirically supported.

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The factor structure of complex posttraumatic stress disorder in traumatized refugees

Background
The construct of complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) has attracted much research attention in previous years, however it has not been systematically evaluated in individuals exposed to persecution and displacement. Given that CPTSD has been proposed as a diagnostic category in the ICD-11, it is important that it be examined in refugee groups.
Objective
In the current study, we proposed to test, for the first time, the factor structure of CPTSD proposed for the ICD-11 in a sample of resettled treatment-seeking refugees.

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