Estimates of psychological distress among Vietnamese refugees: Adolescents, unaccompanied minors and young adults

Abstract

This study focuses on the assessment of psychological distress among three subgroups of Vietnamese refugee youth: adolescents, unaccompanied minors, and young adults. Using translated and backtranslated instruments, data was gathered in refugee camps in the Philippines in order to provide baseline measurement for future comparisons, as well as to begin to develop normative standards for these populations. A rationale for the choice of instruments (Vietnamese Depression Scale, Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 and General Health Questionnaire) is offered and mean scores and percentages scoring above established clinical cut-offs are presented. Results indicate relatively high levels of depression and anxiety for the young adult group, although anxiety appeared high across all three groups. All three groups also scored poorly on self-reports of general health, with the young adults and unaccompanied minors being especially overrepresented in the clinical range. Significant method problems were noted regarding construct validity in the assessment of depression, and instructional set differences that may account for the relatively low intercorrelations between seemingly similar measures.refugee mental health psychological distress