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Resilience Mechanisms and Coping Strategies for Forcibly Displaced Youth – An Exploratory Rapid Review (2024)

November 7, 2024

smiling youth working together at table
 

What is this research about?

This study examines resilience mechanisms and coping strategies of forcibly displaced youth (FDY) in Canada, focusing on their health, well-being, and integration into host communities. Annual refugee claimant arrivals in Canada have seen a substantial rise over the last few years. This increase created a crisis in the availability of shelter beds, which led to many newly arrived refugee claimants sleeping outdoors. The challenges faced by the refugee claimants led some scholars to question the emphasis placed on refugees’ resilience to hardship, where they were left to their means to survive.

Researchers of Access Alliance MHCS, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, York University, and the University of Toronto, led by Dr. Akm Alamgir, conducted an exploratory rapid review to review existing literature on coping strategies and resilience among FDY populations. The research explores current models of resilience to identify best practices and the gaps and limitations in those models. Researchers recommend a culturally acceptable equity-informed model to guide future interventions aimed at promoting the resilience of FDYs in their host community.

What do you need to know?

  • By the end of 2023, over 117.3 million people were forcibly displaced globally due to persecution, violence, and human rights violations
  • Canada has welcomed over a million refugees since 1980. Many of them are young. The average age of a refugee in 2016 was 28.9 years old.
  • The study defines youth as persons aged 15-24 years.
  • Resilience in the context of this study refers to the capacity to withstand, adapt to, and recover from the significant adversities that youth face. This resilience is not about enduring hardship but involves thriving by actively engaging with challenges to mitigate their effects and foster positive outcomes.

What did the researchers do?

Methodology:

  • Researchers conducted an exploratory rapid review of the literature published between January 2019 and January 2024 on coping strategies and resilience among FDY populations. They included studies where 80% of the study population was between ages 15-24.
  • An initial search yielded 4,096 articles, narrowed down to 12 eligible articles
  • Two student researchers analyzed and charted data thematically together with the lead researcher.

Research questions:

  • What are the current models of resilience regarding refugee youth?
  • What are the enablers or barriers to resilience included in each model?
  • What are the gaps and limitations in each of these models?

What did the researchers find?

A new model:

This study suggests that we should take a culturally appropriate approach to helping people build resilience that is not Western-centric. This approach should recognize that people have diverse and changing ways of coping. It should also consider how different aspects of a person’s identity, like their culture, interact and affect their ability to be resilient.

Young people can adapt quickly to new situations, come up with creative solutions to difficult problems, and stay hopeful and positive. Resilience is not just about individual qualities, but also how a person interacts with their surroundings. To understand resilience in young people, we need to look at both their personal strengths and the ecosystem that can support their ability to be resilient.

By identifying successful models and factors, this study lays the foundation for a generalizable model that can guide future interventions aimed at promoting the resilience of FDYs in their host community post-migration. Considerations for the model include:

  • Characteristics of the individual, such as gender, age, ethnicity, legal residency status, socioeconomic status, religion, self-perception and other social-emotional resources and temperament.
  • Family and familial support, education, and connection to community (such as social connections at school and acceptance in the larger community).
  • Access to and ability to navigate social services and governmental programs.
  • Broader social, cultural, and economic dynamics in the community.

Background – addressing current models:

Current resilience models have limitations in addressing cultural specificity, the impact of trauma, and the intersectionality of FDY identities. These limitations suggest that current models need significant improvement to better understand and support forcibly displaced youth’s resilience development. The identified gaps and limitations call for a more generalizable yet culturally inclusive model of resilience while implementing standardized definitions of resilience and the factors that influence it.

Specific gaps and limitations in current models that can be addressed in a new model include:

Definition Problems – There is no standard way to define important terms like “resilience.” Different studies use different definitions, making it hard to compare results, and key factors aren’t clearly defined or measured consistently.

Inconsistent Measurement – Similar concepts (like self-perception) are measured in different ways, and studies use varying terms to describe the same thing, making it difficult to compare findings across different studies.

Cultural Blindspots – Most models don’t fully consider cultural differences, predominantly relying on Western or high-income country standards, without adequately addressing cultural influences on resilience building.

Oversimplification of resilience development – Models often present resilience as a straightforward, linear process, failing to capture the true complexity of how resilience develops.

Limited Focus on Trauma – The impact of trauma isn’t sufficiently addressed in most models, which is a significant oversight given the experiences of forcibly displaced youth.

Identity Intersection Issues – Models don’t adequately consider how different aspects of identity work together, including important factors like race, ethnicity, gender, and legal status, not capturing how these different identities interact to influence resilience development.

How can you use this research?

Service Provider Organizations:

  • Implement holistic support approaches considering multiple resilience factors
  • Develop culturally sensitive support programs
  • Consider both individual and community-level interventions in program design

Individual Practitioners:

  • Develop culturally appropriate interventions for forcibly displaced youth
  • Implement comprehensive support programs considering multiple resilience factors
  • Design interventions that address both individual and systemic factors

Policymakers:

  • Create policies that support forcibly displaced youth integration considering multiple resilience frameworks
  • Develop programs that address gaps in current support systems
  • Consider cultural sensitivity in policy development

Researchers:

  • Future research should focus on addressing identified gaps in current models
  • Develop more culturally specific resilience frameworks
  • Study the intersection of trauma and resilience in FDY populations

Study authors and journal/book name

Authors: Akm Alamgir, Christopher Kyriakides, Andrew Johnson, Gemechu Abeshu, Bay Bahri and Miles Abssy

Publication: International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health,  Volume 21, Issue 10 (original link)

Resilience publication Resilience Mechanisms and Coping Strategies for Forcibly Displaced Youth – An Exploratory Rapid Review (2024)Download

Related published articles:

Related Access Alliance Activities

Impact of Family Loss and Separations on Refugee Youth
This study examines how experiences of loss, disappearance or protracted separation of one or more family members due to war, conflict, and forced migration affect refugee children/youth and their families in terms of post-migration settlement and wellbeing. The project also seeks to build evidence on what kinds of services and supports can promote the wellbeing of these refugee children/youth and their families.

Impact of Social Isolation on Refugee Children and Youth
Long-term lockdown and social isolation, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are unprecedented experiences. To date, not enough studies have been conducted to fully understand the impact of this social isolation on refugee youth, and to be able to create a model for resilience. Over the past few years, the research team of Access Alliance has been working on the impact of family loss and separation on refugee youth.

Mental Health Determinants for Immigrant and Refugee Youth
Evidence from Census Canada and other research projects shows that immigrant and refugee youth (particularly those from racialized backgrounds) face disproportionately higher rates of unemployment and poverty compared to other groups. There is a small but growing body of evidence on how pre-migration determinants (e.g. forced migration faced by refugee youth) and post-migration determinants affect the mental health and wellbeing of immigrant and refugee youth. Access Alliance conducted two major community-based research projects to help build knowledge about social determinants of mental health for immigrant and refugee youth: Youth Mental Health focused on newly arrived youth from Afghanistan, Colombia, Sudan and from the Tamil community; Refugee Youth Health Project.

Building Capacity for Equity-Informed Planning and Evaluation
The overall aim of this project is to build organizational level knowledge, commitment and capacity to routinely use a health equity framework and evidence geared at overcoming systemic inequities in healthcare access, healthcare quality and health outcomes.

For more information contact: TalkToUs@accessalliance.ca OR research@accessalliance.ca