The purpose of this study was to explore how unaccompanied refugee youths from Sudan, who grew up amid violence and loss, coped with trauma and hardship in their lives. The author used a case-centered, comparative, narrative approach to analyze the narratives of 14 male unaccompanied refugee youths from Sudan recently resettled in the United States. She analyzed narratives for both content and form and identified four themes that reflect coping strategies used by the participants: (a) collectivity and the communal self, (b) suppression and distraction, (c) making meaning, and (d) emerging from hopelessness to hope. The findings underscore the importance of understanding the cultural variations in responses to trauma and are discussed in relation to the concept of resilience. © 2004 Sage Publications.

Sudan culture Resilience narrative method unaccompanied refugees Refugees Coping trauma

refugee psychological aspect human Refugees injury war violence coping behavior priority journal comparative study Adaptation, Psychological ethnology qualitative research interview United States Humans Adolescent male adaptive behavior verbal communication cultural factor Narration Article posttraumatic stress disorder Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic Interviews hopelessness Sudan