Citation

Drogendijk AN, van der Velden PG, Gersons BPR, Kleber RJ. Br. J. Psychiatry 2011; 198(4): 317-322.

Affiliation

Institute for Psychotrauma, Nienoord 5, 1112 XE, Diemen, The Netherlands. annelieke.drogendijk@ivp.nl.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Royal College of Psychiatry)

DOI

10.1192/bjp.bp.110.077644

PMID

21972280

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Disaster research suggests that immigrant groups who are affected by a disaster receive less emotional support than their native counterparts. However, it is unclear to what extent these differences can be attributed to post-disaster mental health problems or whether they were present before the event. AIMS: To examine the association between lack of social support, immigration status and victim status, as well as differences in support between immigrants and Dutch natives with disaster-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHOD: Social support and psychological distress were assessed among immigrants and Dutch natives, among affected and non-affected individuals 4 years post disaster. Post-traumatic stress disorder was examined in the affected groups. RESULTS: Affected immigrants more often lacked various kinds of perceived social support compared with affected Dutch natives. Remarkably, we found no differences in support between affected immigrants and non-affected immigrants. Immigrants with PTSD differ on only two out of six aspects of support from the Dutch natives with PTSD. CONCLUSIONS: Results clearly indicate that differences in support between immigrants and Dutch natives are not so much a consequence of the disaster but were largely present before the disaster.

Language: en