Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T19:18:45.563Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychological distress among recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel, I. Correlates of level of distress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

N. Zilber  and
Y. Lerner
N. Zilber*
Affiliation:
JDC Israel–Falk Institute for Mental Health and Behavioral Studies, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Y. Lerner
Affiliation:
JDC Israel–Falk Institute for Mental Health and Behavioral Studies, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr N. Zilber, JDC Israel–Falk Institute, JDC Hill, POB 3489, Jerusalem 91034, Israel.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

In most migrations some selection takes place either by the absorbing country and/or the individuals who emigrate. Israel has an open-door policy for immigrants and the recent large wave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union was made up of entire families rather than individuals. This provided an opportunity to examine the issue of migration and psychological distress more directly. A nationwide sample of 600 immigrants who arrived during the preceding year were interviewed in December 1990. Their psychological distress was measured by the PERI Demoralization questionnaire. For both genders, the mean demoralization score of the immigrant sample was found to be significantly higher than that reported for the Israeli-born population (after controlling for education). The factors that were found to be correlated with the level of distress were mostly individual characteristics of the immigrants (e.g. profession, religiousness, former residence in the Chernobyl region, previous contact with the health profession because of psychological problems). Increased distress was also significantly related to perceived lack of social support in Israel, which may in fact be partly determined by personality traits.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , May 1996 , pp. 493 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barrera, M. (1986). Distinctions between social support concepts, measures and models. American Journal of Community Psychology 14, 413–445.Google Scholar
Beiser, M. (1990). Migration, opportunity or mental risk. Triangle 29, 83–90.Google Scholar
Berry, J., Kim, J. & Minde, T. (1987). Comparative studies of acculturative stress. International Migration Review 20, 491–511.Google Scholar
Bromet, E., Parkinson, D., Schulberg, H. C., Dunn, L. O. & Gondek, P. C. (1982). Mental health of the residents near Three Mile Island reactor. A comparative study of selected groups. Journal of Preventive Psychiatry 1, 225–227.Google Scholar
Cagle, L. T. & Banks, S. M. (1986). The validity of assessing mental health needs with social indicators. Evaluation and Program Planning 9, 127–142.Google Scholar
Cochrane, R. & Stopes-Roe, M. (1981). Social class and psychological disorder in natives and immigrants to Britain. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 27, 173–182.Google Scholar
Creed, F. (1987). Immigrant stress. Stress Medicine 3, 185–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P., Levav, I. & Shrout, P. E. (1986). Screening scales from the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview (PERI). In Community Surveys of Psychiatric Disorders (ed. Weissman, M. M., Myers, J. K. and Ross, C. E.), pp. 349–376. Rutgers University Press: Brunswick, NJ.Google Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. P., Shrout, P. E., Egri, G. & Mendelsohn, F. S. (1980). Nonspecific psychological distress and other dimensions of psychopathology: measures for use in the general population. Archives of General Psychiatry 37, 1229–1236.Google Scholar
Eaton, W. W. (1978). Life events, social support and psychiatric symptoms: a re-analysis of the New Haven Data. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 19, 230–234.Google Scholar
Eitinger, L. (1959). The incidence of mental disease among refugees in Norway. Journal of Mental Science 105, 326–338.Google Scholar
Fenig, S. & Levav, I. (1991). Demoralization and social supports among Holocaust survivors. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 179, 167–172.Google Scholar
Figley, C. R. (1985). Trauma and its Wake. New York: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Flaherty, J. A., Kohn, R., Levav, I. & Birz, S. (1988). Demoralization in Soviet-Jewish immigrants to the United States and Israel. Comprehensive Psychiatry 29, 588–597.Google Scholar
Florsheim, Y. (1991). Immigration to Israel from the Soviet Union in 1990. Jews and Jewish Topics in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 15, 5–14.Google Scholar
Giel, R. (1991). The psychosocial aftermath of two major disasters in the Soviet Union. Journal of Traumatic Stress 4, 381–392.Google Scholar
Gilboa, S., Levav, I., Gilboa, L. & Ruiz, F. (1990). The epidemiology of demoralization in a kibbutz. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 82, 60–64.Google Scholar
Golding, J. M. & Burnam, M. D. (1990). Immigration stress and depressive symptoms in a Mexican-American community. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 178, 161–171.Google Scholar
Halldin, J. (1985). Prevalence of mental disorder in an urban population in Central Sweden in relation to social class, marital status and immigration. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 71, 117–127.Google Scholar
Helmsi, L. (1967). Psychiatric morbidity of West Indian immigrants. Social Psychiatry 2, 95–100.Google Scholar
Hubert, D. (1990). Four years after Chernobyl: medical repercussions Bulletin du Cancer 77, 419–428 (in French).Google Scholar
Hull, D. (1979). Migration, adaptation and illness: a review. Social Science and Medicine 13, 25–36.Google Scholar
Konstantinov, V. (1991). Jewish population of the USSR on the eve of the great exodus. Jews and Jewish Topics in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 16, 5–23.Google Scholar
Kuo, W. H. & Tsai, Y. M. (1986). Social networking, hardiness and immigrant's mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 27, 133–149.Google Scholar
Lerner, Y., Mirsky, J. & Barasch, M. (1994). New beginnings in an old land: Refugee and immigrant mental health in Israel. In Amidst Peril and Pain: The Mental Health and Well-being of the World's Refugees (ed. Marsella, A. J., Bornemann, T., Ekblad, S. & Orley, J.), pp. 153–189. American Psychological Association: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Levav, I., Kohn, R., Flaherty, J. A., Lerner, Y. & Aisenberg, E. (1990). Mental health attitudes and practices of Soviet immigrants. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences 27, 131–144.Google Scholar
Levav, I., Gilboa, S. & Ruiz, F. (1991). Demoralization and gender differences in a kibbutz. Psychological Medicine 21, 1019–1028.Google Scholar
Levav, I., Kohn, R., Dohrenwend, B. P., Shrout, P. E., Skodol, A. E., Schwartz, S., Link, B. G. & Naveh, G. (1993). An epidemiological study of mental disorders in a 10-year cohort of young adults in Israel. Psychological Medicine 23, 691–707.Google Scholar
Link, B. G. & Dohrenwend, B. P. (1980). Formulation of hypotheses about the true prevalence of demoralization in the United States. In Mental Illness in the United States – Epidemiological Estimates (ed. Dohrenwend, B. P., Dohrenwend, B. S., Gould, M. Schwartz, Link, B. G., Neugebauer, R. and Wunsch-Hitzig, R.), pp. 114–132. Praeger: New York.Google Scholar
Mavreas, V. & Bebbington, P. (1990). Acculturation and psychiatric disorder: a study of Greek Cypriot immigrants. Psychological Medicine 20, 941–951.Google Scholar
Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (1991). Immigration to Israel 1990. No. 1, Supplement. Central Bureau of Statistics: Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Morrison, S. D. (1973). Intermediate variables in the association between migration and mental illness. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 19, 60–65.Google Scholar
Murphy, H. B. M. (1977). Migration, culture and mental health. Psychological Medicine 7, 677–684.Google Scholar
Naveh, G., Noam, G. & Benita, E. (1995). The Employment and Economic Situation of Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union: Selected Findings from a National Employment Survey. Research Report 219–295. JDC Brookdale: Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Nicassio, P. M. (1985). The psychosocial adjustment of the Southwest Asian refugee: an overview of empirical findings and theoretical models. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 16, 153–173.Google Scholar
Nie, N. H., Hull, C. H., Jenkins, J. G., Steinbrenner, K. & Bent, D. H. (1975). Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. McGraw-Hill: New York.Google Scholar
Rabinovitz, S. (1977). The Ulpan as a model for effective integration of new immigrants: a psychological overview of an Israeli absorption center. Israel Annals of Psychiatry and Related Sciences 15, 397–402.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1979). Protective factors in children's response to stress and disadvantage. In Primary Prevention of Psychopathology, Vol. 3: Social Competence in Children (ed. Kent, M. W. & Rolf, J. E.), pp. 49–74. University Press of New England: Hanover, NH.Google Scholar
Shuval, J. T. (1982). Migration and stress. In Handbook of Stress: Theoretical and Clinical Aspects (ed. Goldberger, L. and Breznitz, S.), pp. 677–691. Free Press: London.Google Scholar
Tolts, M. (1992). Jewish marriages in the USSR: a demographic analysis. East European Jewish Affairs 22, 3–19.Google Scholar
Tsvang, R. (1991). Chernobyl: emigration of a problem. Environmental Policy Review 5, 11–29.Google Scholar
Tyhurst, L. (1951). Displacement and migration: a study in social psychiatry. American Journal of Psychiatry 107, 561–568.Google Scholar
Kuo, Wen (1976). Theories of migration and mental health: an empirical testing on Chinese-Americans. Social Science and Medicine 10, 297–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westermeyer, J., Neider, J. & Vang, T. F. (1984). Acculturation and mental health: a study of Hmong refugees at 1·5 and 3·5 years post-migration. Social Science and Medicine 18, 87–93.Google Scholar