The mechanisms behind the formation of a strong Sense of Coherence (SOC): The role of migration and integration

An Ethnographic Perspective of Well-Being, Salutogenesis and Meaning Making among Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the Gambia and the United Kingdom

Research on refugees and asylum seekers largely focuses on the negative impacts that forced migration has on well-being. Though most individuals do not experience poor long-term mental health because of forced migration, less attention has been given to what factors promote positive well-being. Using an ethnographic approach, I elucidate how the concept of salutogenesis can be applied to African refugees and asylum seekers living in the greater Serrekunda area of the Gambia and in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom. Specifically, I explore what resources impact on the sense of coherence construct and its three components—comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness—and how these are embedded in everyday discussions and understandings. In total, I spent twenty months conducting ethnographic fieldwork between the two sites and conducted forty individual interviews. Amongst my interlocutors, the three most common resources that people spoke positively about, particularly as it relates to meaning making, are work, education and religion. Further research in this area is crucial in order to identify, promote and strengthen those factors facilitating positive well-being amongst those who have been forcibly displaced.

Oral Health Status, Oral Health Behaviours and Oral Health Care Utilisation Among Migrants Residing in Europe: A Systematic Review

As the reported data on oral health status among the migrants in Europe is fragmented, we systematically reviewed the published literature on the oral health status, behaviours and care utilisation among migrants residing in Europe. For this, we retrieved publications from PubMed and EMBASE, supplemented by manual citation screening and grey literature search on Google scholars. Two independent reviewers screened the studies, extracted data and critically appraised the publications. A total of 69 studies included showed higher dental caries among migrant children. But some studies on adolescents and adults reported similar or even better oral health among migrants compared to the host population, while other reported the opposite. Poor oral health behaviours were generally reported among the migrants and they frequently made use of emergency service utilisation compared to the host population. We shed light on the gaps in dental literature and make some recommendations for the future.

A salutogenic perspective on sport-for-development research

RATIONALE

Research on positive youth development through sport is confronted with a number of limitations: it lacks a clear theoretical basis of mechanisms underlying life skill development through sport, it has a narrow focus on the sports setting thereby neglecting the interplay between life domains in reaching positive youth development, and the mechanisms underlying the transfer process of newly acquired skills and competences from the sports setting to other life domains are unclear.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to advance research in in this field by applying theoretical insights from the salutogenic model of health to address the aforementioned limitations.

INNOVATION

The salutogenic model of health describes how health and well-being develops in challenging or stressful situations and offers an interesting perspective on the mechanisms underlying youth developmental processes while simultaneously aligning well with the tenets of the positive youth development approach. The application of the salutogenic model of health offered a number of interesting theoretical insights to further understand 1) the mechanisms underlying positive youth development through sport (i.e., enhancing comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness), 2) that youth development arises in the interaction between an individual's stressors, resources and sense of coherence across different life domains, and 3) the central role of both generalized and resistance resources and sense of coherence in the transfer of life skills between life domains. Given that sense of coherence plays a vital role in the healthy development of individuals and the transfer of life skills across life domains, it would make sense to strengthen the sense of coherence of youths in sports programs.

CONCLUSION

Based on this theoretical analysis, several recommendations and considerations for further research on positive youth development through sport are provided.

Temperament and Sense of Coherence: Emotional Intelligence as a Mediator

Sense of coherence (SOC) reflects an individual’s capacity and available resources to deal with stressful situations. For some time now studies have revealed that people differ in their experience of SOC; yet, very little is known about how and through which mechanisms a high level of SOC is formed. In order to increase our understanding about the paths to a high SOC in the stage of adulthood, we focused on exploring the role both of temperament, as it has been confirmed as a potential component in the development of more complex traits that emerge later in life, and of emotional intelligence (EI) as it has been found to increase SOC. The sample consisted of 173 participants between 18 and 49. We used the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa and San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A), Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ), and Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (INTE). Results showed a negative correlation between the depressive, cyclothymic, irritable, and anxious dimensions of temperament and SOC, and EI. There was also a positive correlation between hyperthymic temperament and SOC, and EI. EI correlated positively with a general sense of coherence and its three dimensions. The PROCESS macro for SPSS showed that emotional intelligence mediates the relationship between depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic, irritable and anxious temperament, comprehensibility, manageability, meaningfulness, and global orientation to life. On the basis of the obtained outcomes, it can be stated that emotional intelligence mediates the relationship between dimensions of temperament and dimensions of SOC.

Distribution and evaluation of sense of coherence among older immigrants before and after a health promotion intervention - results from the RCT study promoting aging migrants' capability

Background

The migration process can be a threat to a person’s sense of coherence (SOC) and to their ability to experience life as comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful. Seen from a salutogenic perspective, this may have a negative impact on the experience of health.

Purpose

We describe the distribution of SOC and its components among older persons with an immigrant background now aging in Sweden. In addition, we evaluated whether a group-based health promotion program with a person-centered approach could support the SOC among older persons in this group.

Materials and methods

A randomized controlled trial with postintervention follow-ups at 6 and 12 months was conducted with 131 independently living persons aged ≥70 years from Finland and the Balkan Peninsula. Participants were randomly allocated to an intervention group (4 weeks of group intervention and one follow-up home visit) and a control group (no intervention but access to ordinary health care services). The outcome measure was the SOC measured by SOC-13. Chi-square and ORs were calculated.

Results

There was a significant improvement in total SOC scores for the intervention group at 6-month follow-up. Also, the ORs for the SOC components were higher in the person-centered intervention group. However, we found no significant between-group differences nor did the effect last until the 12-month follow-up.

Conclusion

Persons who have lived a long time in a host country after migration seem to have a SOC similar to native-born persons. Interventions with a person-centered approach could support the SOC by capturing individual life situations. Such interventions could support older persons by making everyday life more comprehensible and manageable and helping them to cope with challenges in daily life caused by aging.

Narratives of meaningful endurance - how migrant women escape the vicious cycle between health problems and unemployment

Migrant women in Europe have a higher incidence of health problems and have disproportionately high unemployment rates. We examine how Dutch and Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese first and second generation migrant women escape the vicious cycle between health problems and unemployment by using the theory of the Sense of Coherence (SOC). We study how SOC works and whether SOC is also applicable outside the domain of health. Our findings from life story interviews (N = 54) show that women can escape this vicious cycle through the meaningful reconstruction of adversity. Women can put a halt on the on-going negative chain reaction through focusing on the meaning and purpose of adversity. We name such life stories narratives of meaningful endurance, which are characterized by structure, authorship and meaningful reconstruction, in opposition to its counterpart, narratives of non-directional distress. The three respective components of SOC - comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness - enable the attainment of a narrative of meaningful endurance and individuals with a stronger SOC are more likely to tell narratives of meaningful endurance. Theoretical and policy implications of our findings are discussed.