Titel
Relational Spirituality and Transgenerational Obligations: The Role of Family in Lay Explanatory Models of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Male Cameroonian Asylum Seekers and Undocumented Migrants in Europe
Autor*in
Freyja Grupp
Division of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Marburg
Sara Skandrani
University of Paris Nanterre, Hospital Cochin Paris
Marie Rose Moro
University of Paris, Hospital Cochin AP-HP, Unite Inserm 1018, CESP
... show all
Abstract
Context: Diasporic Cameroonians are increasingly leading a transnational life in which family members are sustained through networks of relations and obligations. However, before arriving in Europe, the vast majority of African migrants who take the Mediterranean route are exposed to trauma and hardship. Moreover, the joint occurrence of forced displacement, trauma, and extended separation from families has a significant impact on mental health.
Objectives: This study explores the role of culture-specific conceptualizations of family structures and transnationalism in explanatory models of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among male Cameroonian asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants in Europe.
Methods: An in-depth study of two samples of Cameroonian migrants with a precarious residency status in Europe was conducted. Focus group discussions and interviews were carried out with asylum seekers in Germany (n = 8) and undocumented migrants and failed asylum seekers in France (n = 9). The verbatim transcripts of these interviews served as the data for interpretative phenomenological analyses.
Results, Analysis, and Discussion: Family was conceptualized in religious and spiritual terms, and relational spirituality appeared to be a crucial element of family cohesion. Explanatory models of PTSD were mainly based on an intersection of family and spirituality. The disrespect of transgenerational, traditional, and spiritual obligations toward parents and ancestral spirits represented a crucial causal attribution for post-traumatic symptoms.
Conclusions: Conceptualizations of post-traumatic stress were based on a collective family and spiritual level instead of an individualized illness-centered perception. The Western psychological and psychiatric perspective on post-traumatic stress might conflict with traditional, religious, and spiritual practices in the context of family conceptualizations of Cameroonian forced migrants with a precarious residency status.
Stichwort
asylum seekersexplanatory modelsfamilypost-traumatic stresstransnationalismtraumaundocumented migrants
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1542493
Erschienen in
Titel
Frontiers in Psychiatry
Band
12
ISSN
1664-0640
Erscheinungsdatum
2021
Publication
Frontiers Media SA
Erscheinungsdatum
2021
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© 2021 Grupp, Skandrani, Moro and Mewes
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