Social stress and refugee mental health: investigating the role of interpersonal emotion regulation.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Refugees experience a myriad of stressors, with social stressors having particularly adverse effects on mental health. This study examined interpersonal emotion regulation (ER), whereby individuals draw on social support to regulate their own emotions, as a potential mechanism underlying this effect. DESIGN: A sample of 561 refugees in Australia completed a survey assessing exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs), social and practical post-migration stressors, interpersonal ER, and posttraumatic stress, depression, and anger symptoms. METHODS: A confirmatory factor analysis validated a three-factor structure of the Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionn..