Resilience in re-entering missionaries: why do some do well?

Cross-Cultural Re-Entry for Missionaries: A New Application for the Dual Process Model

“…Re-entrants focus on processing and accepting the reality of changes in their home culture and their own personal, social, and spiritual domains (Selby et al, 2009b;Storti, 2001). This was illustrated in our study by Bernie who processed and accepted the difficulties his faith community were experiencing and reintegrated by accepting an invitation to become an elder in this community (Selby et al, 2009a). The importance of accepting and attending to the reality of the changes in the restoration-orientation parameter is demonstrated by the effect of positive reintegration of re-entering missionaries which has been associated with resilience (Selby et al, 2009a).…”

“…For missionaries in our study like Greta, a fragile participant who described her re-entry loss of lack of personal connection with God, spiritual connection played a significant part in the search for meaning (Selby et al, 2009b). Those returning missionaries who had a positive sense of connection with God which was associated with resilience (Selby et al, 2009a) may be facilitated in their ability to deal with meaning reconstruction in line with the literature describing the value of meaning as a buffer against stress (Mascaro & Rosen, 2006). Disenfranchised grief, however, may inhibit this process if the meanings of the losses have not been validated by significant others such as their family and friends, their faith community and their sending organization (Selby et al, 2009b).…”

“…Flexibility, social support, a positive sense of connection to God, and good mental health may facilitate this grief work (Caplan, 1990;Prigerson, Frank, Reynolds, George, et al, 1993;Selby et al, 2009a;ServatySeib, 2004;Strada-Russo, 2006). For example, in our study, Carrie, with support from her organization and family, recognized her need for a complete break after working as a health professional in an African village, rather than the usual missionary re-entry pattern of embarking on a hectic schedule of meetings on return.…”

“…Although re-entry from cross-cultural situations is associated with multiple losses (Selby et al, 2009b), resilience on re-entry has been associated with received social support which appears to moderate the effect of these losses (Selby et al, 2009a).…”

“…The dominant qualitative method involved semi-structured interviews with 15 re-entering Australian cross-cultural missionary aid workers, 3 to 12 months after their re-entry. These interviews gave a detailed collective experience of their psychological distress, while the less dominant quantitative method surveyed mental health indices and loss and grief measures: the results have been previously reported (Selby et al, 2007(Selby et al, , 2009a(Selby et al, , 2009b(Selby et al, , 2010. The loss and grief paradigm used in this study was based on Parkes' concept of psychosocial transition (1988) and Clark's concept, based on Corr (1999) of grief being a process of adaptation to loss over time that may affect the physical, emotional, cognitive, social, behavioral, and spiritual domains of the individual (Clark, 2003).…”