Coping with trauma and hardship among unaccompanied refugee youths from Sudan.
Author: Goodman JH.
Source:
Qualitative health research, 14(9), 1177-1196.
The purpose of this study was to explore how unaccompanied refugee youths from
Sudan, who grew up amid violence and loss, coped with trauma and hardship in
their lives. The author used a case-centered, comparative, narrative approach to
analyze the narratives of 14 male unaccompanied refugee youths from Sudan
recently resettled in the United States. She analyzed narratives for both content
and form and identified four themes that reflect coping strategies used by the
participants: (a) collectivity and the communal self, (b) suppression and
distraction, (c) making meaning, and (d) emerging from hopelessness to hope. The
findings underscore the importance of understanding the cultural variations in
responses to trauma and are discussed in relation to the concept of resilience.
Publication Types:
Comparative Study