This article reports on a pre- and post-test experimental study with 4504 refugees in 38 camps across nine destination countries. The aim was to examine the role of spirituality and a specially designed spiritual education programme in promoting mental health of refugees. A pre- and post-test experimental design has been used with three scales to examine the outcome measures: (1) the trauma screening questionnaire (2) life orientation test-revised and (3) mental health inventory-38. Results showed that compared with pre-test scores, the average post-test scores of the refugees on the trauma questionnaire were lower, and higher on optimism measure, and mental health inventory. Voluntary participation, full attendance and self-practice willingness were favourable predictors of refugee mental health. Hierarchical regression model showed that self-practice willingness was the most important predictor of positive mental health of refugees. Findings make a case for interventions for refugees grounded in cultural competency and spirituality. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Mental health Refugees Well-being Spirituality

refugee Europe mental health human epidemiology Refugees middle aged Middle East alternative medicine Cultural Competency ethnology Spiritual Therapies procedures cultural competence Humans psychology male female Socioeconomic Factors Africa socioeconomics adult Psychological Trauma psychotrauma Africa, Eastern