Abstract
Background: Global forced displacement has reached record numbers. Refugees and asylum-seekers often experience multiple traumatic incidents and displacement-related stressors.Given high exposure to adversities, it is crucial to understand coping processes of refugeesto support mental health and social functioning. Little is known about coping resourcesfacilitating adaptive coping among refugees.
Objective: This study aimed to investigate coping resources (problem-focused and emotion-focused) and associated mental health and social functioning outcomes among refugees livingin Indonesia, a protracted transit country.
Method: In a sample of 1214 refugees in Indonesia, we conducted a latent profile analysis toidentify distinct profiles of problem-focused (self-efficacy) and emotion-focused (emotion-regulation ability) coping resources and examine associated predictors and mental healthand social functioning outcomes.
Results: Results supported the three profiles: 1) those higher on both problem-focused andemotion-focused coping resource (N= 590, 48.6%), 2) those higher on emotion-focused-lower on problem-focused coping (N= 315, 25.9%), and those moderate on both resources(N= 309, 25.5%). Those higher on both had fewer mental health problems and better social functioning than other profiles. Those higher on emotion-focused coping resource reportedlower level of mental health problems than the moderate profile, while there was nosignificant difference between these two on social functioning.
Conclusions: The findings revealed the importance of both coping resources for better mentalhealth and functioning among refugees, while drawing our attention to salience of emotion-focused coping resource for mental health and problem-focused one for social functioning.Practical implications will be discussed.