War and displacement stressors and coping mechanisms of Syrian urban refugee families living in Istanbul.

Abstract

The overall purpose of this study was to achieve a contextual understanding of war and displacement stressors and coping mechanisms among urban refugee families from Syria living in Istanbul. This study was informed primarily by Walsh's family resilience framework and Weine's Family Consequences of Refugee Trauma empirical model. Qualitative family interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 30 Syrian refugee families from the Çapa and Esenler neighborhoods of Istanbul. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach and Atlas/ti software. The analysis identified a total of 21 war and displacement stressors for families across 3 categories: (a) Surviving war and border crossing; (b) Living as urban refugees, and; (c) Parenting children in refuge. The analysis also identified a total of 16 coping mechanisms for families across 4 themes: (a) Flexible and reciprocal family organization; (b) Hopeful family beliefs and communication; (c) Staying connected with family in Syria and in exile, and; (d) Making the best of living in a new country. These findings underlie the need for several practice and policy priorities including: (a) Increasing the number of children attending Turkish schools and decreasing child labor; (b) Incorporating faith into psycho-social and mental health interventions, and; (c) Developing family focused interventions conducted by community-based lay providers that draw upon empirical models of family stressors and coping.

Enhancing Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) with Parenting Skills: RCT of TRT + Parenting with Trauma-Affected Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Utilising Remote Training with Implications for Insecure Contexts and COVID-19

“…For children who have been exposed to conflict and displacement, the need for strong healthy, nurturing caregiver relationships may assume even greater importance [12] when other extended support systems in their lives, such as community and extended family, have been destroyed. Positive family interactions can serve as a protective factor as families face the upheaval of migration [13,14]. Studies which explored the linkages between war and parenting in ongoing humanitarian crisis highlighted the key role that parents or primary caregivers play [8].…”

Promotion of Resilience in Migrants: A Systematic Review of Study and Psychosocial Intervention

“…Also, according to authors (72,19] resilience was a process influenced by the good functioning of the family, the members' ability to make sense of the crisis from past and present experiences, to stay connected, to cope with the crisis, and to move forward in their lives. In other cases, therefore, family resilience was explored by particular characteristics of the family like their belief systems, organizational patterns, and communication processes [88].…”

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