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Abstract
Many refugees experience significant stress and trauma before relocating to their host country (Leo, 2021) and often encounter new challenges when adapting to their unfamiliar environment. Refugee college students, who are often the first in their families to attend college, face additional pressure to excel academically to give back to their families and host country (Turjanmaa & Jasinskaja-Lahti, 2020). Despite prior research on refugee individuals, little work has focused on refugee college students. This study aimed to address this gap by examining the relationships between survivors’ guilt, gratitude, indebtedness, and belongingness in 16 refugee university students. Specifically, the study investigated the following research questions: 1) How does survivors’ guilt relate to the feeling of belongingness in refugee college students? 2) How does gratitude relate to the feeling of belongingness in refugee college students? 3) How does indebtedness relate to the feeling of belongingness in refugee college students? 4) Is the feeling of gratitude or indebtedness stronger in refugee college students? Results revealed no significant correlation between survivor guilt or gratitude and belongingness but showed a significant correlation between indebtedness and belongingness. Implications and limitations are discussed.
Publication Date
2023
Subject Major(s)
Psychology
Keywords
refugee, indebtedness, gratitude, belongingness, survivor guilt, immigrant, migrant, student, college student, university student
Disciplines
Psychology
Current Academic Year
Senior
Faculty Advisor/Mentor
Dr. Myriam Kadeba
Sponsorship
Virginia Commonwealth University. Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
Is Part Of
VCU Undergraduate Research Posters
Rights
© The Author(s)