Author
Listed:
- Belinda J. Liddell
(School of Psychological Sciences, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)
- Stephanie Murphy
(School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)
- Yulisha Byrow
(School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)
- Meaghan O’Donnell
(Phoenix Australia, University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia)
- Vicki Mau
(Australian Red Cross, Docklands, VIC 3008, Australia)
- Tadgh McMahon
(Settlement Services International (SSI), Ashfield and College of Public Health and Medicine, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia)
- Richard A. Bryant
(School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)
- Philippa Specker
(School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)
- Angela Nickerson
(School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic may have disproportionately affected forcibly displaced people due to parallel uncertainties such as visa insecurity and family separation. This study explicitly examined whether different sources of uncertainty contributed in specific ways to increased psychological symptoms for refugees during the pandemic. A large cohort of 733 refugees and asylum seekers settled in Australia completed a mental health survey in June 2020 (T1) and 12 months later in June 2021 (T2). Using cross-lagged panel modelling, we tested changes in post-traumatic stress (PTS), depression and anxiety symptoms, visa status, family separation and COVID-19 uncertainty stress, and the contribution of intolerance of uncertainty (trait prospective and inhibitory), controlling for age, sex, trauma exposure, language, and time in Australia. Visa status and family separation stress at T1 predicted increased depression (bidirectional pathways) and PTS symptoms at T2 (unidirectional pathways), respectively. Visa status uncertainty at T1 was also associated with increases in COVID-19 and family separation stress at T2. Intolerance of uncertainty showed limited associations with symptoms and stressors. Findings demonstrate that different forms of refugee uncertainty had specific impacts on psychopathology during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Refugees facing diverse kinds of stress may benefit from individual, community, and policy level support targeted to their specific circumstances and mental health needs during future crises.
Suggested Citation
Belinda J. Liddell & Stephanie Murphy & Yulisha Byrow & Meaghan O’Donnell & Vicki Mau & Tadgh McMahon & Richard A. Bryant & Philippa Specker & Angela Nickerson, 2025.
"Longitudinal Associations Between Sources of Uncertainty and Mental Health Amongst Resettled Refugees During the COVID-19 Pandemic,"
IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(6), pages 1-18, May.
Handle:
RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:6:p:855-:d:1668226
Download full text from publisher
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:6:p:855-:d:1668226. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.