Testing a refugee family dynamics model: A study with Sri Lankan Tamils

说明(申请人提供)：难民家庭动态--如沟通和反应能力差、缺乏凝聚力和代际冲突--与身心健康之间的关系是复杂的。为了更好地了解家庭动态在促进或降低难民健康方面的作用，开展的研究很少。移徙日常压力等因素对难民家庭动态和难民健康都有理论上的影响，但很少有研究使用适当的统计方法来捕捉这些复杂的关系，导致严重缺乏基于家庭的资源和干预措施来解决这些问题。这一国际研究科学家发展奖(IRSDA)的目的是研究印度Gummidipoondi难民营中斯里兰卡泰米尔难民的难民家庭动态及其与移民日常压力、资源利用和家庭健康的关系。Gummidipoondi难民营的初步工作(George，2009)表明，与难民营中的其他难民相比，有家庭的难民可能会产生更多的负面健康后果。IRDSA K01研究和培训计划的结果将为未来开发以家庭为基础、文化上适当的干预措施以促进斯里兰卡泰米尔难民福祉的工作提供参考。这一混合方法研究方案的具体目的是：1)检查移民日常应激源、资源利用、家庭动态和父母/青少年健康之间的纵向联系，以确定干预发展的关键领域；2)确定对目标1中与家庭动态相关的研究结果的文化上的适当解释，以及为斯里兰卡泰米尔难民家庭制定干预措施的战略。这一方法具有创新性，因为它将定量数据与难民社区的经验知识结合起来，以确定干预发展的关键领域。这项拟议的研究具有重要意义，因为研究结果--了解难民家庭动态的精炼概念模型，以及使用纵向和定性方法确定干预策略的研究设计--将导致跨文化的TES设计和结果的辩证发展。归根结底，这些知识有可能为难民家庭提供具体的保健支持，这将对公共卫生产生积极影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The relationship between refugee family dynamics - such as poor communication and responsiveness, lack of cohesion, and intergenerational conflict - and physical and psychological health is complex. Little research has been conducted with the aim of better understanding the role of family dynamics in promoting or degrading the health of refugees. Factors such as migration daily stressors have a theoretical impact on both refugee family dynamics and refugee health, yet few studies have used appropriate statistical methods to capture these complex relationships, resulting in a severe lack of family-based resources and interventions to address these issues. The objective of this International Research Scientist Development Award (IRSDA) is to study refugee family dynamics and their association with migration daily stressors, resource utilization and family health among Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in the Gummidipoondi refugee camp in India. Preliminary work (George, 2009) from the Gummidipoondi refugee camp suggests that refugees with families may have more negative health outcomes than other refugees in the camp. The results of this IRDSA K01 research study and training program will inform future work developing family-based, culturally appropriate interventions for the promotion of Sri Lankan Tamil refugee well-being. The specific aims of this mixed method research proposal are: 1) To examine the longitudinal associations among migration daily stressors, resource utilization, family dynamics, and parent/adolescent health in order to identify critical areas for intervention development~ and 2) To identify culturally appropriate interpretations of findings related to family dynamics from Aim 1 and strategies for developing interventions for Sri Lankan Tamil refugee families. This approach is innovative because of the integration of quantitative data with the refugee community's experiential knowledge to identify critical areas for intervention development. This proposed research is significant because the study outcomes - a refined conceptual model for understanding refugee family dynamics, and a research design that identifies intervention strategies using longitudinal and qualitative methods - will lead to dialectical development of tes designs and findings across cultures. Ultimately, such knowledge has the potential to inform specific health care support for refugee families that will have a positive impact on public health