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CoronavirusWhat has the Covid-19 pandemic been like for English speaking migrants in...

What has the Covid-19 pandemic been like for English speaking migrants in Israel?

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Last Updated on January 4, 2022

Health literacy, resilience and perceived stress of migrants in Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic

Prof. Cheryl ZlotnickProf. Laura Dryjanska and Suzanne Suckerman

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic Prof. Cheryl Zlotnick, The University of Haifa, Prof. Laura Dryjanska, Biola University California and the Anglo-List teamed up for a second time to conduct a study within Israel’s English speaking immigrant community which examined health literacy, resilience and perceived stress.  The study was recently published in the Psychology & Health Journal and these are some of the results:

CORONAVIRUS OLIM SURVEY 2021

Objective

To examine perceived stress in migrants guided by Bornstein’s Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science (BSPAS) theoretical framework. 

Design

Using a cross-sectional study, we recruited English-language migrants (n = 411) living in Israel to respond to an online questionnaire during the COVID-19 pandemic, from 3 April to 16 May 2020.

Main Outcome Measures

The dependent variable comprised the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores, which attained an internal consistency of 0.91 in this sample. 

Results

PSS scores were related to lower age (p < 0.0001), being single (p = 0.0095), not possessing high (p = 0.0069) or medium resilience (p = 0.0002), reporting below average SES (p = 0.0196), being “extremely” worried about getting COVID-19 (p < 0.0001), and having high health literacy (p = 0.0007). Additionally, the interaction between health literacy and resilience (p < 0.0001) showed that migrants with high resilience and high health literacy had the lowest perceived stress; and migrants with low resilience and high health literacy had the highest perceived stress. 

Conclusions

Interventions are needed to assist migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The optimal intervention will aim to address the psychological distress while increasing both health literacy and resilience. 

Cheryl Zlotnick, Laura Dryjanska & Suzanne Suckerman (2021) Health literacy, resilience and perceived stress of migrants in Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic, Psychology & Health, DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2021.1921177

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