Religiosity and Psychosocial Adjustment Among 100 Homng Refugees

PURPOSE OF THE PAPER. The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between religiosity and psychosocial adjustment in a group of Asian refugees from Laos. SUMMARY OF METHODS UTILIZED. Subjects consisted of 100 adult Hmong refugees from Laos who had relocated one decade earlier to Minnesota. At the time of the interview, about 80% remained in Minnesota; the remainder were interviewed in their respective communities. Five measures of religiosity were operationalized: Religious Belief (animism versus monotheism); recent Religious Practice (present/absent in previous monthrpar;; Religious Conversion lpar;present/absent in the U.S.rpar;; having a Home Altar (present/absent today); and having a shamanistic Trance Ritual (present/absent in the last five years). These five indices of religiosity were then compared against four general areas of psychosocial adaptation as follows: demographic characteristics lpar;5 itemsrpar;; sociocultural indices of adaptation lpar;5 items, including 2 scales) health care seeking over the previous five years (6 items); and psychiatric signs and symptoms (4 psychiatric scales). SUMMARY OF METHODS UTILIZED. Methods of data collection were as follows: (1) questionnaire-based interviewing by Hmong research assistants to provide data on religion affiliation, belief and practice; demographic information; psychosocial function; cultural affiliations and behaviors; and health care seeking; (2rpar; a psychiatric interview by the senior author followed by completion of two psychosocial scales (Axis 4 Psychosocial Stressors and Axis 5 Psychosocial Function using DSM-III criteriarpar; and several psychiatric rating scales lpar;Hamilton Anxiety Scale, Hamilton Depression Scale, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, and Global Assessment Scalerpar;. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS. Religious Pracitice in the last month was highly associated with several measures of psychosocial adaptation. Conversely, any Trance Ritual in the last five years was associated with increased anxiety and health care seeking. Religious Belief (animism versus monotheism) and having a Home Altar were associated with the other cultural factors, but not with psychosocial, heatlh and mental health measures. CONCLUSIONS. Aspects of religiosity among Hmong refugees were related to psychosocial adaptation in diverse ways, with some factors associated with better adaptation, some factors associated with maladaptation, and some factors related to other cultural dimensions but not psychosocial adaptation. KEY WORDS. Hmong; psychosocial adjustment.