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: Objective: To understand the impact of family separation on refugees living in Australia. Method: Thirteen participants with a refugee background and experiencing separation from family participated in a semi‐structured qualitative interview. Interviews were coded and a thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo software. Results: Identified themes were organised under four domains. Domain 1 focused on the personal impact of family separation. Themes were the effects on mental health and functioning, driven by incessant worrying about the safety of family and the absence of key attachment figures, the specific effects of having missing family, alterations to self‐identity and family dynamics. Domain 2 focused on themes relating to actions taken to find missing family, connect or reunite with separated family. Domain 3 highlighted the coping strategies, support mechanisms and protective factors used by participants. Domain 4 identified core beliefs about the importance of family unity, focusing on security, settlement and a happy future. Conclusions: Family separation has an enduring effect on the wellbeing of refugees, with key pathways being ongoing fear and insecurity, disrupted social attachments and identity shifts in relation to the future self. Implications for public health: Refugees separated from or missing family struggle with ongoing stress and adjustment issues., Family separation (i.e. living in different countries and unable to physically reunite) is commonplace amongst people forcibly displaced from their homes due to conflict, war or persecution.[sup.1-4] Long‐term separation may [...]

Despite reporting elevated rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), refugees are less likely than other groups to seek psychological treatment. Relatively little attention has been paid to the role of negative help-seeking beliefs in influencing treatment uptake. The current study sought to develop and psychometrically validate a novel measure indexing negative help-seeking beliefs for refugees (Help-Seeking Beliefs Scale [HSBS]). In this study, 262 Arabic-speaking refugee participants completed an online survey consisting of the HSBS along with measures indexing similar constructs (self-stigma of PTSD and help-seeking, perceived stigma, negative help-seeking attitudes, and help-seeking intentions). Factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure aligning with key themes identified in the literature: (a) Fear of Negative Consequences, (b) Inappropriateness, and (c) Perceived Necessity. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency, convergent validity, and predicted reduced help-seeking intentions. Results support the utility of a novel measure capturing a prominent help-seeking barrier in a population with high psychopathology and low treatment uptake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychopathology has been associated with a deficit in emotion regulation (ER) flexibility – the ability to flexibly utilize ER strategies that are appropriate to situational demands. Yet, whether anxious individuals can be taught ER flexibility, or whether ER flexibility is effective in managing negative affect, remains unknown. We investigated the impact of instructed ER flexibility on emotional responding among individuals with differing levels of anxiety. Participants (N = 109) were taught two ER strategies (reappraisal, distraction) and randomized to be instructed in either flexible or inflexible ER while viewing images that differed in negative emotional intensity. When averaged over anxiety, or for participants with low anxiety, negative affect did not differ between conditions. However, among anxious participants, those in the flexible regulatory conditions – those who were instructed to flexibly switch between strategies – reported lower negative affect than those in the inflexible Reappraisal only condition, but not the Distraction only condition. The effectiveness of the two flexible conditions did not significantly differ. Anxious individuals benefitted from being instructed in either ER flexibility or distraction. This finding supports literature on the adaptiveness of distraction and provides preliminary evidence linking instructed ER flexibility and improved emotional responding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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