Satisfaction with life of refugees and immigrants

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dc.contributor.advisorRude, Stephanie Sandra.en
dc.contributor.advisorAinslie, Ricardo C.en
dc.creatorBowen, Neal Anthonyen
dc.date.accessioned2008-08-28T21:23:28Zen
dc.date.available2008-08-28T21:23:28Zen
dc.date.issued2002en
dc.descriptiontexten
dc.description.abstractThe relationship between satisfaction with life (SWL), acculturation attitudes and distress generated by trauma was explored in a regression study of a community sample of refugees and immigrants living in Central Texas. A total of 71 participants came from 9 different countries, with the immigrant group (N = 36) coming from Mexico and the refugees (N = 35) predominantly from Cuba and Vietnam. Most participants were female (77%) and married (75%), with an age range of 18 to 73. Immigrant participants had completed fewer years of formal education than the refugees, and were in general younger. Most participants completed a back-translated Spanish version of the measures. The Satisfaction With Life Scale was used, while the Los Angeles Symptom Checklist provided a measure of distress generated by trauma. Acculturation attitudes were examined with the Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale, which provides orthogonal measures of orientation towards the ethnic group of origin and towards the dominant, Anglo society in the United States. There were no significant differences between the refugee and immigrant samples on these measures. Distress related to trauma was a significant negative predictor of SWL for refugees (b = -.57, p = .001), but not for the immigrant sample. Similarly, orientation towards the dominant society was a significant positive predictor of SWL for refugees (b = .41, p = .009) but not for immigrants. A cross sectional analysis was performed to determine how the variables were related to length of time in the US. While a lack of statistical power precluded the use of ANOVA, means comparisons indicate a curvilinear relationship between time and the attitude towards Anglo society among the immigrant sample. Those present 2 to 5 years were less immersed than either those more recently arrived or those who have been here longer. This middle group also reported more psychological distress. Among refugees the direction of the curvilinear relationship was contrary. Implications for the organization of social services to immigrants are discussed.
dc.description.departmentEducational Psychologyen
dc.format.mediumelectronicen
dc.identifierb56727409en
dc.identifier.oclc55984557en
dc.identifier.proqst3097862en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/470en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.en
dc.subject.lcshRefugees--Texasen
dc.subject.lcshImmigrants--Texasen
dc.subject.lcshSatisfaction--Testingen
dc.titleSatisfaction with life of refugees and immigrantsen
dc.type.genreThesisen

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