Navigating Trauma and Post-Migration Difficulties: Examining the Gender Dimension of Individual and Collective Trauma Among Afghan Refugees

Background
Refugee populations bear the burden of profound historical trauma from their collective experiences of forced displacement, separation from family members, and loss of culture and citizenship. Trauma experiences, deeply entrenched within social and cultural contexts, shape identities and relationships, amplifying mental health risks, particularly for those fleeing conflict zones like Afghanistan. Yet, although the literature on the effects of individual trauma in the post-migration context has been well-established, research on the impact of the lingering effect of collective trauma is still fragmented. Moreover, the intersection of gender within these complex dynamics of individual and collective trauma across refugee populations remains understudied. Our study sought to explore how gender influences the relationship between individual trauma, collective trauma, and post-migration challenges among resettled Afghan refugees to inform the development of culturally responsive and gender-sensitive interventions tailored to the unique needs of the Afghan refugee community.

Method
Our study, a part of a larger transformative multi-level mixed methods research project, is grounded in a community-based participatory research approach. We collected cross-sectional survey data from 173 Afghan refugees residing in a midwestern U.S. city. Our recruitment method, snowball sampling, and the use of community data collectors who administered the surveys in Dari, Pashto, and English added to the authenticity of our data. The independent variables in our study were individual trauma and collective trauma, with post-migration difficulties as the dependent variable. We considered gender as the moderator, while age, arrival wave, English language proficiency, and employment status were the covariates. Using the PROCESS macro version 4.3, we investigated the moderating influence of gender (W) on the associations between collective trauma (X) and post-migration difficulties (Y), as well as between individual trauma (X) and post-migration difficulties (Y).

Results
The analysis of bivariate results indicated a notable disparity in collective trauma levels between Afghan refugee women and men, with women reporting significantly higher levels (t=-2.04, p<.05; M=28.76 vs. M=23.65). Furthermore, moderation analysis unveiled a significant moderating effect of gender on the association between collective trauma and post-migration difficulties (B=.62, p<.01). The decomposition of the interaction effect showed that collective trauma was positively associated with post-migration difficulties among Afghan women (B=3.05, p<.01), while the association was not significant among Afghan men (B=-1.31, p>.05). Gender however, did not moderate the relationship between individual trauma and post-migration difficulties.

Conclusion
Results from our study underscore the need for tailored mental health interventions and gender-sensitive mental health programs and policies to address gendered patterns of mental health experiences among the Afghan community. Implementing culturally responsive support groups and services that explicitly address the unique adversities women encounter warrants attention. The findings of our study open avenues for further research into the intersection of gender, trauma, and post-migration experiences among refugee populations. Future studies could explore additional factors that may influence the relationship between trauma and post-migration difficulties, such as social support networks, cultural factors, and resettlement policies. This deeper understanding can inform the development of more nuanced and effective interventions to support the diverse needs of refugee communities.