Posttraumatic Stress among North Korean Refugee Youths: The Role of Discrimination and Support

• In Event: Hearing Both Sides: Understanding Refugee Newcomers’ Resettlement in Canada and South Korea

Abstract

Most North Korean (NK) refugees have one or more traumatic experiences while living in and escaping from North Korea. Although discrimination makes people vulnerable to posttraumatic stress (PTS) (Pieterse, Carter, Evans, & Walter, 2010), social support helps recovery from PTS (Brewin, Andrews, & Valentine, 2000). This study focuses on moderated moderation effects of perceived discrimination and social support from South Korean (SK) and NK friends on the relation between traumatic experiences and PTS (Figure 1).

Ninety-four NK refugee youths (age 18~28, female 59.6%) completed self-report measures: trauma experiences (10 items), PTS (8 items), discrimination (9 items), and SK/NK friends support (8 items respectively). A moderated moderation model was analyzed using Hayes’ Process Macro (version 3.4) after mean-centering the variables.

NK friends support significantly moderated the interaction between trauma experiences and discrimination (t=2.29, p<.05; ΔR2=3.60%, p<.05), but SK friends support did not (t=.49, ns.). Traumatic experiences increased PTS only when levels of both discrimination and NK friends support equal to average or above average.
Although NK friends support itself reduced PTS (t=-2.27, p<.05), sufficient NK friends support, when the level of perceived discrimination was high (mean, +1SD), rather exacerbated PTS resulting from traumatic experiences. However, SK friends’ support was not even associated with reduced PTS (t=-.18, ns.). It might be due to lack of frequent interaction and close relationships with SK friends, compared to NK friends (t=-5.54, p<.001).

Strong connectedness with own ethnic groups along with the separation from mainstream groups would make them focus on negative sides of their acculturation process (e.g., discrimination). To alleviate PTS of NK refugee youths, not only increasing supportive interactions among NK refugees but also increasing their sense of belonging to the mainstream society is important. It might be helpful to increase tolerance toward the refugees within the mainstream culture as well as promote reciprocal understanding of each other. This study highlights the need to foster receptive socio-cultural atmosphere for better adjustment of refugee youths.

Authors

• Na Han, Ewha womans university
  Presenting Author

• Seung-Yeon Lee, Ewha Womans University
  Non-Presenting Author