Forced displacement in Yugoslavia: a meta-analysis of psychological consequences and their moderators.

Abstract

A meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize what is known about differences in mental health between refugees and nonrefugees from the former Yugoslavia. The analysis focused on moderating effects of a variety of enduring, contextual stressors. Results indicated that refugees suffer significantly more mental health impairment than nonrefugees. The psychological consequences of forced displacement were found to vary significantly as a function of chronic stressors (e.g., locus of displacement and type of accommodation in exile) and were also associated with otherfactors (e.g., degree of war exposure in the nondisplaced groups, participant age, and time of data collection as reflected in year of publication). Implications for the study of refugee mental health are discussed.