Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience

Biography

Vivian Lee is an Associate Professor in the Counselor Education Program at Johns Hopkins University. She has published numerous book chapters and articles on school and transcultural counseling. She has conducted research on immigrant populations in Malta. Dr. Lee received her EdD in Counselor Education from the University of Virginia. She is the recipient of the Ohana Award from the Counselors for Social Justice, a division of the American Counseling Association. Her main research interest is in the area of peace and conflict resolution.

Abstract

While a great deal of attention has been focused on those individuals who often flee their country of origin due to conflict or natural disaster seeking refugee or asylum-seeker status, there is another important group of immigrants who voluntarily immigrate for social or economic reasons. These individuals are classified as Third Country Nationals (TCNs). The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among acculturative stress, coping and quality of life among TCNs in a Southern European country. The study employed a mixed-methods research design. The overall research sample consisted of 117 adult TCNs who had been residing in the host country for more than one year. For the qualitative aspect of the study 13 adult TCNs were invited to take part in one-on-one interviews. They were asked a series of questions about their pre-migration experiences. For the quantitative aspect of the study TCNs were invited to respond to an anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaire measured acculturative stress with the Revised Social, Attitudinal, Familial and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale, coping with the Brief COPE scale, and quality of life with the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF scale. A total of 104 adult TCNs completed the questionnaire. Two themes emerged from the qualitative interviews related to the pre-immigration life of TCNs: Push/pull factors and loss. With respect to the quantitative analysis, negative correlations were found between the SAFE-R scores and the scores on the four domains of WHOQOL-BREF. This suggests that the lower the level of a TCNs acculturative stress, the higher the individual’s perception of his/her quality of life in the host country. In addition, negative correlations were found between problem-focused Brief Cope subscale scores and the scores on the four domains of WHOQOL-BREF, suggesting that the more ineffective one’s coping mechanisms, the lower the quality of life.