Post-traumatic growth in refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide: systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Globally, millions of people are forced to flee their home nation due to war, conflict, political instability, natural disasters or persecution every year. The detrimental psychological issues that refugees experience are well established, whilst research on positive psychological well-being, such as Post-Traumatic Growth, is limited. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to synthesise the peer-reviewed literature which quantitatively measured PTG in refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and present factors associated with PTG in this population.Methods: The following electronic databases were searched in September 2024: PsycInfo, Embase, OVIDmedline, Global Health, PubMed and Web of Science Core Collection. Studies were retained if they used quantitative measures of PTG and were published after 2000. The database search produced 914 studies.Results: 45 studies were included in the review and 21 were included in the meta-analysis. Studies generally reported a moderate to high degree of PTG in this population, but considerable heterogeneity in PTG was observed. Demographic (e.g. age, gender, employment, education and displacement type), mental health (e.g. depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), hope, optimism) and coping styles (e.g. adaptive, maladaptive, problem-focussed, emotion-focussed, cognitive, social support and religiosity) were investigated as factors associated with PTG. Strength of evidence for factors associated with PTG was generally very low based on study limitations, inconsistency of evidence, imprecision and reporting bias; the strongest endorsement was present for younger age, a non-linear association between PTSD and PTG, social support and religiosity.Discussion: PTG may be a possible outcome for refugees and IDP, but current survey-based methods to measure PTG do not account for cultural differences in perceptions of growth. Good quality longitudinal research accounting for these differences is required for a better understanding of PTG, and how to elicit PTG in these populations.