Rcy. Chung et F. Bemak, THE EFFECTS OF WELFARE STATUS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG SOUTHEAST-ASIAN REFUGEES, The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 184(6), 1996, pp. 346-353
It has been established in the general population that there is a rela
tionship between welfare status and psychological well-being. There ar
e few studies, however, which investigate the effects of welfare depen
dency on Southeast Asian refugees, a population that; is highly depend
ent on welfare. This study examined the relationship between welfare s
tatus and psychological well-being among Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotia
n, and Hmong refugees. The study compared three welfare groups: those
who have never been on welfare, those who were once dependent on welfa
re and are no longer on welfare, and those who are still welfare-depen
dent. The results supported three hypotheses: a) a high percentage of
all four refugee groups were still dependent on welfare even after bei
ng in the United States for an average of 5 to 6 years, b) a significa
nt relationship was found between welfare dependency and psychological
distress, and c) dependence on welfare had long-term effects for all
four groups. An interesting finding that emerged for the Vietnamese, C
ambodians, and Laotians was that individuals who were once on welfare
but who are no longer receiving welfare benefits are at similar risk a
s their counterparts who are currently on welfare of developing psycho
logical distress. The findings therefore showed that for this populati
on, if individuals had been touched by welfare at any period in their
Lives, they were at risk of developing psychological distress. There w
as an unexpected different finding for the Hmong; individuals who were
no longer on welfare were more at risk than those who continued to re
ceive or never had received welfare. Reasons for the intergroup differ
ences and why refugees tended to stay on welfare longer than the gener
al population were explored, along with a discussion about the implica
tions of the findings for refugee policy.