Health, Life Satisfaction, Resilience and Discrimination among Refugees in Germany

Daria Mendola , Università degli Studi di Palermo, Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement (SPPEFF)
Annalisa Busetta, University of Palermo

In our analysis of a sample of refugees who recently arrived in Germany, we found very poor self-reported health conditions – especially psychological ones. Health is not only a matter of socioeconomic conditions but is highly dependent on perceptions and feelings. This paper analyses the relationship between some sociopsychological factors and health conditions. We focussed on the role of life satisfaction, resilience and perception of discrimination in explaining the health of refugees. Since both health, life satisfaction, resilience and perception of discrimination can be considered latent constructs, we estimated a structural equation model to explore relations among them. Standardised loadings show a higher relevance of depression over physical pain and anxiety in the health dimension. In the measurement model of life satisfaction, satisfaction with present health plays the key role, while feeling like an outsider concurs majorly to measure perceived discrimination. As expected, it stands out that higher resilience and lower perceived discrimination have a positive impact on life satisfaction. Furthermore, life satisfaction is positively associated with health. However, unexpectedly, resilience is negatively associated with health, although the path coefficient is very low. Further developments (in progress) for this work include multigroup analyses by nationality and a better understanding of the relationship between resilience and health as well as the direct and indirect effect of perceived discrimination on health.

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 Presented in Session 116. Refugee Realities and Resettlement Reflections