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- ‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective TraumaPublication . Matos, Lisa; Costa, Pedro Alexandre; Park, Crystal; Indart, Monica J.; Leal, Isabelfirst_pagesettings Open AccessArticle ‘The War Made Me a Better Person’: Syrian Refugees’ Meaning-Making Trajectories in the Aftermath of Collective Trauma by Lisa Matos 1,*ORCID,Pedro A. Costa 1ORCID,Crystal L. Park 2ORCID,Monica J. Indart 3 andIsabel Leal 1 1 William James Center for Research, ISPA—Instituto Universitário, 1149-041 Lisbon, Portugal 2 Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA 3 Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Academic Editors: Alessandra Talamo and Camilla Modesti Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(16), 8481; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168481 Received: 6 July 2021 / Revised: 3 August 2021 / Accepted: 6 August 2021 / Published: 11 August 2021 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Refugees across Communities: Health and Place Attachment in Resettlement) Download PDF Browse Figure Citation Export Abstract The centrality of the collective to Syrian identity and the ability of war to disrupt community ties have led to significant violations of Syrians’ pre-war assumptions about themselves, the world, and their place in the world. Guided by the integrated meaning-making model, this qualitative cross-sectional study assessed Syrian refugees’ meaning trajectories through their reappraisals of the war, attempts to repair community-informed shattered meanings, and those processes’ outputs (i.e., meanings-made) and outcomes (i.e., perceived psychological adjustment). We conducted semi-structured cognitive interviews with 39 Syrian war-exposed adults living in urban communities across Portugal, most of whom were beneficiaries of higher education programs for refugees. Interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis. Results suggest that the war severely disrupted Syrians’ sense of collective self, and that they repeatedly engaged in search for meaning, appraisals of the war, and reappraisals of shattered beliefs, life goals, and sense of purpose, both during wartime and in resettlement. In Portugal, despite persistent negative beliefs about the collective and ongoing and distressing searches for meaning, participants’ lived experiences concomitantly informed positive meaning reappraisals, including progressive restoration of worldviews, new opportunities for self-realization, and newly-found purpose, leading to perceived psychological benefits and growth. These findings suggest that meaning-making is both a trajectory and a dynamic process, informed by place and sociopolitical context. Clinical work to facilitate adaptive meaning-making and meaning-informed psychosocial interventions that help restore refugees’ shattered beliefs about safety, predictability, trust, and belonging, may be helpful directions to promote positive psychological adjustment and improve long-term integration prospects in refugees.
- “It’s the God factor”: A qualitative study of Syrian Muslims’ post-war religious meaning-makingPublication . Matos, Lisa; Park, Crystal; Indart, Monica J.; Leal, IsabelObjective: Religious meaning-making may facilitate psychological adjustment to even the most extreme traumatic stressors, including war and forced displacement. Yet few studies have examined the religious meaning-making trajectories of refugees and none from an Islamic perspective. Method: This qualitative cross-sectional study investigated Syrian Muslims’ post-war meaning-making experiences, guided by Park’s (2010) meaning-making model. Results: Thirty-three Syrian Muslim refugees living in Portugal were interviewed eight years after the onset of the war. Thematic analysis was used to explore cognitive reappraisal processes informed by Islam. Key results suggest: the recurrent nature of meaning-making throughout refugees’ displacement trajectories; religious struggles as a key determinant of religious meaning-making; meaning-making as dynamic trajectories with no clear end; place of settlement as a source of meaning; and the ability of Islam to withstand extreme challenges and provide a last-resort narrative, even for those individuals with severely eroded beliefs. Findings highlight the need for practitioners in host countries to incorporate faith and religious traditions in the provision of care.