Summary
This paper describes the results of a survey investigation on the adjustment of 1638 Indochinese refugees who have resettled in the United States. Refugees reported several areas of adjustment difficulty, although problems which reflected the trauma of separation and emigration were viewed as the most serious. Education, income, and employment were significantly related to indices of acculturation and alienation, thus indicating an interdependence between socioeconomic and sociocultural areas of adjustment. The importance of reinforcing mechanisms of social support among refugees is discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Billings A, Moos R (1982) Social support and functioning among community and clinical groups: a panel model. J Behav Med 5: 295–311
Brislin R (1981) Cross-cultural encounters. Pergamon Press, New York
Edwards A (1956) Paranoid reactions. Med. J Aust 1: 778–779
Eitinger L, Grunfeld R (1966) Psychosis among refugees in Norway. Acta Psychiatr. Scand 42: 315–328
Fried J (1959) Acculturation and mental health among Indian migrants in Peru. In: Opler M (ed) Culture and mental health. MacMillan, New York
Harding R, Looney J (1977) Problems of Southeast Asian children in a refugee camp. Am J Psychiatry 134: 407–410
Henderson S (1981) Social relationships, adversity, and neurosis: an analysis of prospective observations. Br J Psychiatry 138: 391–398
Hocking F (1970) Extreme environmental stress and its significance for psychopathology. Am J Psychother 24: 4–6
Kelly GP (1977) From Vietnam to American. Westview Press, Colorado
Lin K, Tazuma L, Masuda M (1979) Adaptational problems of Vietnamese refugees. Arch Gen Psychiatry 36: 955–961
Littlewood R, Lipsedge M (1981) Some social and phenomenological characteristics of psychotic immigrants. Psychol Med 11: 289–302
Liu W (1979) Transition to nowhere. Charter House Publishers, Tennessee
Mezey A (1960) Psychiatric illness in Hungarian refugees. J Ment Sci 106: 628–637
Odegaard O (1932) Emigration and insanity: a study of mental disease among the Norwegian population of Minnesota. Acta Psychiatr Scand [Suppl] 4: 1–206
Rahe R, Looney J, Ward H, Tung T, Liu W (1978) Psychiatric consultation in a Vietnamese refugee camp. Am J Psychiatry 135: 185–109
Schachter S (1959) The psychology of affiliation. Stanford University Press, CA
Seeman M (1975) Alienation studies. Annu Rev Sociol 1: 91–123
Smither R, Rodriguez-Giegling M (1979) Marginality, modernity, and anxiety in Indochinese refugees. J Cross-Cult Psychol 10: 469–478
Tomeh A (1974) Alienation: a cross-cultural analysis. J Soc Psychol 94: 187–200
Wittkower E, Dubreuil G (1973) Psychocultural stress in relation to mental illness. Soc Sci Med 7: 691–704
Zasloff J, Brown M (1975) Communism in Indochina: new perspectives. Lexington Books, MA
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by funding available through the Illinois Department of Public Aid and the Governor's Information Center for Asian Assistance under PL 95-549.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nicassio, P.M., Pate, J.K. An analysis of problems of resettlement of the Indochinese refugees in the United States. Soc Psychiatry 19, 135–141 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00595153
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00595153