Culture, migration, and identity formation in adolescent refugees: a family perspective

ABSTRACT Looking through a cultural lens at the family system level, expressions of distress in adolescent refugees are explored using the constructs of postmigration cultural identity formation and cultural idioms of distress. Asylum-seeking minors have heightened risk of developing mental health problems. Family is an important protective factor, and a sustained lack of parental figures further increases these young peoples’ vulnerability to mental health problems. The family plays a significant role as an anchor to cultural identity. Case studies from a cultural consultation service in a clinical psychiatry department were used to illustrate two potential trajectories regarding identity formation and the impact on expressions of distress and family functioning. Case analysis also emphasized the clinical relevance of exploring meaning making and cultural idioms of distress in the face of trauma and loss at the individual and the family level. Clinical implications focus on a family and a cultural lens to emphasize the importance of contextualizing expressions of distress in adolescents who had to flee from war-affected areas.