The objective of this research was to determine whether early postmigration demographic and psychosocial factors associated with cultural marginality would predict hostility one decade after flight and relocation. In this longitudinal study, participants, who had spent 1 year in a refugee camp, were studied at 1.5, 3.5, and 9 years postrelocation in the United States (i.e., Times 1, 2, and 3). Earlier data were compared with hostility at 9 years. Participants were interviewed primarily in their homes, although a few were interviewed elsewhere at their request (i.e., community center, University of Minnesota clinical offices). The 102 Hmong participants in this study, originally from Laos, comprised the first group of Hmong refugees, aged 15 to 72 years old (M = 31.0, SD = 13.1), to be relocated from Thailand to Minnesota by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1976. Hmong research assistants collected these data using a questionnaire formal at 1.5, 3.5, and 9 years postrelocation. Hostility was measured using the Hostility subscale of the 90-item Symptom Checklist (SCL-90). Female gender, animistic belief, absence of a leadership role, and high scores on the SGL-Hostility predicted higher SCL-Hostility scores. Increased hostility was associated with greater financial, marital, and mental-emotional problems. This study suggests that demographic factors associated with marginality and loss of control predict hostility in a group of refugee immigrants. Losses and stressors from a decade earlier in Asia did not predict hostility.

Predictors Migration Leadership Gender Religion Acculturation Refugee

refugee Laos Follow-Up Studies minority group human Refugees middle aged controlled study Internal-External Control coping behavior Aged Minnesota psychosocial environment religion Humans Adolescent Asian Americans male Acculturation prediction Personality Inventory female leadership cultural factor Psychometrics Article social adaptation group psychology major clinical study adult gender migration Social Environment Adjustment Disorders hostility