During the last years, the number of refugees around the world increased to about 22.5 million. The mental health of refugees, especially of unaccompanied minors (70% between the ages of 16 and 18 years) who have been exposed to traumatic events (e.g., war), is generally impaired with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Several studies revealed (1) a huge variation among the prevalence rates of these mental problems, and (2) that post-migration stressors (e.g., language barriers, cultural differences) might be at least as detrimental to mental health as the traumatic events in pre- and peri-flight. As psychotherapy is a limited resource that should be reserved for severe cases and as language trainings are often publicly offered for refugees, we recommend focusing on intercultural competence, emotion regulation, and goal setting and goal striving in primary support programs: Intercultural competence fosters adaptation by giving knowledge about cultural differences in values and norms. Emotion regulation regarding empathy, positive reappraisal, and cultural differences in emotion expression fosters both adaptation and mental health. Finally, supporting unaccompanied refugee minors in their goal setting and goal striving is necessary, as they carry many unrealistic wishes and unattainable goals, which can be threatening to their mental health. Building on these three psychological processes, we provide recommendations for primary support programs for unaccompanied refugee minors that are aged 16 to 18 years.

The large number of adolescent refugees around the world constitutes a great challenge for societies. However, current models of acculturation have been developed for migrants, but not specifically for adolescent refugees. Crucial factors to describe adolescent refugee acculturation, such as intentions to return to their homeland, especially with respect to adolescent refugees with temporary residency and experiences of potentially traumatic events, are missing. Hence, the Multidimensional Intercultural Training Acculturation (MITA) model is introduced. The model proposes that two major concerns for adolescent refugees, which are socio-cultural adjustment and mental health, are predicted by intercultural and social–emotional competence, intentions to return to their homeland, and experiences of traumatic events. Moreover, the effects of three modes of acculturation are also proposed in the model. It is expected that these variables mediate the effects of intercultural competence, social–emotional competence, intentions to return to the homeland, and experiences of traumatic events on socio-cultural adjustment as well as mental health. Finally, it is also expected that in-group social support and out-group social support moderate the direct connection between the experiences of traumatic events and mental health.

Background: Young Middle Eastern male refugees are currently among the most vulnerable groups in Europe. Most of them have experienced potentially traumatic events (PTEs) such as rape, torture, or violent assaults. Compared to their peers, young refugees suffer more from internalizing and externalizing symptoms, especially when unaccompanied. Little is known about the cumulative impact of experiencing different types of PTEs on mental health outcomes (polytraumatization) of young male refugees from the Middle East. We investigated (1) whether there is a dose–response relationship between multiple PTE types experienced and mental health outcomes, (2) whether individual types of PTEs are particularly important, and (3) to what extent these are differentially associated with mental health outcomes among unaccompanied or accompanied peers. Methods: In total, 151 young Middle Eastern male refugees in Germany (M_age = 16.81 years, SD_age = 2.01) answered questionnaires on PTEs, mental health, and post-migration stress. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses revealed, while controlling for age, duration of stay, unaccompanied status, and post-migration stress, (1) a dose–effect between PTE types on both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Moreover, (2) regarding internalizing symptoms, violent family separation and experiencing life-threatening medical problems were particularly crucial. The latter was driven by unaccompanied refugees, who also reported higher levels of substance use. Conclusions: The results extend findings from the literature and suggest that not only may greater polytraumatization be related to greater depression among refugees, but also to a range of other mental health outcomes from the internalizing and externalizing symptom domains. Furthermore, the results highlight the mental health risks that unaccompanied and accompanied refugee adolescents face after exposure to PTEs, and provide information for practitioners as well as researchers about event types that may be particularly relevant.

Studying cultural preferences can provide valuable insights into individuals’ cultural identity, as it provides information on the degree to which they define themselves and their sense of belonging to a culture or ethnic group. Assuming that cultural identity has an explicit and implicit facet, this study aimed to investigate the quality of and relation between explicit and implicit measures of cultural preferences in different migration contexts. Middle Eastern young males aged between 14 and 22 years with different migration histories (75 refugees, 60 first or second-generation immigrants) and 60 young German native peers answered acculturation and mental health questionnaires (explicit measure) and responded to an adapted Implicit Association Test (IAT), which assesses implicit attitudes and preferences through reaction times to paired concepts. Despite being well-established in cross-cultural research, the explicit measure did not show sufficient measurement invariance when comparing the refugee and immigrant groups. For immigrant adolescents, the explicit and implicit measures showed a high degree of convergent validity. For refugee adolescents, a discrepancy was found between the implicit and explicit measures. These findings suggest qualitative differences in facets of cultural identity between refugee and immigrant youth and warn against a general and unspecific use of measurement methods across different migration contexts.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Group based Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (GCBT) for Iranian migrants with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in Austria. Twenty-three Iranian women and men with an average, 40.4 years old that met DSM-IV criteria for MDD were randomized to the GCBT, Individual CBT, and Waiting-List control groups. All two types of interventions comprised 17 sessions lasting 60 minutes for individual CBT and 120 minutes for GCBT. The results showed a significant reduction in depression symptoms in GCBT group, evaluated by BDI-II, BSI (scale 4), and ATQ. The significant decrease in depression was found for individual CBT group with respect to BDI-II and ATQ as well. However, individual CBT in this study was not successful to decrease depression mood evaluated by BSI (scale 4) from pre- to post-intervention. A significant group differences between GCBT and individual CBT in BSI (scale 4) at post-intervention may highlight that GCBT in this study showed a stronger effect on depressed mood compared to individual CBT. The follow-up measurements revealed a significant deterioration for both groups. The findings from this study suggest that the reasons behind the Iranian migrant’s depression may be related to their chosen dysfunctional acculturation strategies. Therefore, GCBT can be considered an appropriate treatment for Iranian migrants with MDD by encouraging them to be more in contact with people from their own socio-cultural background and motivating them to modify their acculturation attitudes.