THE EFFECTS OF WELFARE STATUS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG SOUTHEAST-ASIAN REFUGEES

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.