Judith Brook

Refugees' and Immigrants' Mental Health: Association of Demographic and Post-Immigration Factors

Several demographic and post-immigration factors related to self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression of immigrants in New Zealand were examined in a study involving a sample of 129 Southeast Asian refugees, 57 Pacific Island immigrants, and 63 British immigrants to New Zealand. A questionnaire and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) in English and in three Southeast Asian translations were administered, followed by an interview in English or with an interpreter. The findings suggest that demographic characteristics are not associated with symptom level. Post-immigration factors, such as experiencing discrimination in New Zealand, not having close friends, being unemployed, and spending most of ones time with ones own ethnic group affected anxiety and depression scores.

Relationship of Migrant Status (Refugee or Immigrant) to Mental Health

This study investigated and compared mental health levels among refugees and immigrants living in New Zealand. One hundred and twenty-nine Indochinese refugees, 57 Pacific lsland immigrants and 63 British immigrants to New Zealand were surveyed. A questionnaire and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) in English and in three lndochinese translations, were administered face-to-face. The hypothesis that migrant status (being a refugee or immigrant) affects mental health and that refugees experience more emotional distress than immigrants was only supported by the comparison with British immigrants. Both lndochinese refugees and Pacific Island immigrants experienced relatively low levels of mental health. However, the incidence of clinical depression and clinical total emotional distress tended to be higher among lndochinese refugees than in either immigrant group. ln contrast clinical anxiety occurred most often among Pacific lslanders.

The Mental Health Pattern of Migrants: Is There a Euphoric Period Followed By a Mental Health Crisis?

Sluzkis 1986 mental health model of the migratory process was tested with migrants (both refugees and immigrants), to New Zealand. Its central feature, suggesting an initial symptom free and euphoric phase after arrival in the country of settlement, followed by a crisis stage, was examined for 129 Southeast Asian refugees, 57 Pacific Island immigrants and 63 British immigrants. A questionnaire and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25, in English and in three Southeast Asian language translations, were administered face-to-face. All respondents had arrived in New Zealand within the last 15 years. The findings did not support Sluzkis model. Refugees and immigrants in the group with less than six months of residence were not symptom free. Neither did the group with six months to six years residence demonstrate a deterioration in mental health. However, mean depression levels were slightly lower for those who had lived in New Zealand for over six years, suggesting that mental health may improve the longer both refugees and immigrants reside in the host country.

A Repertory Grid analysis of perceptions of vocational counseling roles

Abstract A Repertory Grid was constructed to determine the perceptions held by 143 secondary school students of people who gave them vocational counseling. Responses on the 22 × 22 grid were averaged over the whole group and for subgroupings of the sample, using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering analysis to examine the pattern of relationships and the composition of clusters of elements and constructs. As predicted, it was found that the subjects made their discriminations between people on two major construct dimensions, an intimacy and a potency factor, and that people filling vocational counseling roles appeared in two of the generalized figure clusters, each having different characteristics attributed to them. Eighteen subjects were unable to complete their grids. When school achievement was assessed there was no evidence that a relationship existed between academic achievement and the capacity of subjects to complete grid protocols.

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY USING REPERTORY GRID APPROACH FOR MEASUREMENT OF COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY

A pilot study is described to determine the usefulness of Bieris modified version of the Role Construct Repertory Test as a measure of cognitive complexity and as a means of testing relationships between complexity and factors of sex, age, individual response style and the effects of prolonged social interaction. Repertory grids from 5 male and 5 female subjects were first evaluated for degree of matching of construct rows, using a metric devised by Bieri to obtain a measure of cognitive complexity. There was a strong tendency for females to be more complex than males. There was also a tendency for mean cognitive complexity to increase from the youngest to the middle range of ages in the sample and decrease again for the older subjects. Although females were more cognitively complex than males, there was no appreciable difference in their use of extreme scores. Finally, subjects tended to perceive intimates as more similar to themselves than people with whom they had less social contact. The small sample size precluded the use of tests of significance but the trends apparent in the data generally agree with other published results, suggesting that Bieris method could be appropriate and useful to measure cognitive complexity.

COMMENT ON: MEASUREMENT AND APPRAISAL (DEWE, 1995)

Response to two issues raised by Dewe is provided. The tree diagram permits a different view of data and may be utilized with various models.