Mediating Role of Psychological Capital in the Relationship between Social Support and Wellbeing of Refugees
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12415 |
| Date | 01 April 2018 |
| Published date | 01 April 2018 |
Mediating Role of Psychological Capital in
the Relationship between Social Support and
Wellbeing of Refugees
Alexander Newman*, Ingrid Nielsen*, Russell Smyth** and Giles Hirst***
ABSTRACT
This study examines the relationship between social support from work and non-work domains
and the wellbeing of refugee employees. In addition, it examines the mediating influence of
psychological capital on these relationships. Using data from 190 refugee employees living in
Australia, we find that while perceived organizational support and perceived family support
are positively related to the wellbeing of refugee employees, the relationship between per-
ceived supervisor support and wellbeing is not significant. Additionally, while we find that
PsyCap fully mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and
wellbeing, it only partially mediates the relationship between perceived family support and
wellbeing.
INTRODUCTION
The war in Iraq and Syria has precipitated a refugee crisis. In 2015 the United Nations High Com-
missioner for Refugees (UNHCR) suggested: “We are witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked
slide into an era in which the scale of global forced displacement, as well as the response required,
is now clearly dwarfing anything seen before”(UNHCR, 2015, p.3). The figures are staggering.
The UNHCR estimates that the number of people forcibly displaced worldwide at the end of 2015
was 65.3 million people, up from 59.5 million people 12 months earlier (UNHCR, 2016a). In
2015, on average, 24 people were forced to flee each minute, four times higher than one decade
earlier (UNHCR, 2016b). Of those forcibly displaced worldwide, just under one-third (21.3 million
people) were refugees (UNHCR, 2016a), defined by the Refugee Convention as those displaced
outside their home country due to ‘a well-founded fear of persecution’(United Nations, 1951).
While such massive people movement, at least in the short-term, has placed a huge strain on
receiving countries, it also affords an opportunity for more culturally enriched societies. One factor
that is central to the successful integration of refugees, in terms of the health and wellbeing of refu-
gees themselves, as well as for their host societies, is finding employment that is satisfying and
rewarding (e.g. Colic-Peisker, 2005; Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, 2007; Fozdar, 2009; Willott and
Stevenson, 2013). The OECD (2016) has suggested that successful integration of refugees into host
countries depends first on assisting refugees to find reliable and stable employment and, second, on
providing social and workplace support once in gainful employment, to assist refugees to settle into
* Deakin University, Burwood, Australia
** Monash University Clayton, Australia
*** Australian National University Canberra, Australia
doi: 10.1111/imig.12415
©2017 The Authors
International Migration ©2017 IOM
International Migration Vol. 56 (2) 2018
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
and thrive in their new jobs. Studies have identified that refugees tend to have lower levels of psy-
chological wellbeing, perhaps due to the stresses associated with displacement and resettlement,
compared with the rest of the population (Beiser and Hou, 2001). Social support is one potential
solution that has been found to build and foster psychological wellbeing in both refugee popula-
tions (Colic-Peisker, 2009; Fozdar and Torezani, 2008; Young, 2001) and among migrants more
broadly (Jasinskaja-Lahti et al., 2006).
Although there has been growing research examining the factors that influence the psychological
wellbeing of voluntary migrants (Jasinskaja-Lahti et al., 2006), the factors that influence the psy-
chological wellbeing of non-voluntary migrants, such as refugees, have received limited attention
in the literature (Fozdar and Torezani, 2008). In particular, very little is known about the relative
importance of different sources of social support to psychological wellbeing, and critically, the pro-
cesses through which social support enhances psychological wellbeing. More specifically, among
the different sources of social support, the importance of workplace support to the psychological
wellbeing of refugees in employment has received scant attention from scholars. Such knowledge
is particularly valuable to understanding how to build supportive organizations that contribute to
refugees’success at work.
In the present study, we address these issues by examining whether, and how, social support
from work and non-work domains influences the psychological wellbeing of refugees in employ-
ment. Drawing on Hobfoll’s (1989, 2002) conservation of resources (COR) theory, we examine
whether refugee employees’perceptions of organizational support, supervisor support and family
support influence their psychological wellbeing through fostering higher levels of psychological
capital. Psychological capital, in short PsyCap, refers to an individuals’positive psychological state
of development and comprises hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy (Luthans and Youssef,
2004). In so doing, we draw on recent work which suggests that contextual resources may foster
positive outcomes among employees by assisting them to obtain personal psychological resources
(Ten Brummelhuis and Bakker, 2012).
The present study makes three key contributions. First, drawing on COR theory, we theorize and
identify psychological processes through which different sources of social support influence the
psychological wellbeing of refugee employees. In doing so we address prior calls to examine how
the interaction of contextual (social) resources and psychological resources enhance refugees’psy-
chological wellbeing (Ryan et al., 2008). Second, the present study makes a key empirical contri-
bution by determining the relative importance of different sources of social support in both work
and non-work domains in influencing refugee well-being. We test and identify whether work-based
support from the supervisor and organization is more, or less, potent than non-work-based support
from family members in enhancing refugees’psychological wellbeing. Third, we highlight the key
sources of support that refugees draw upon to build wellbeing. Such knowledge is useful to both
support agencies tasked with supporting refugees’mental health, and organizations looking to
employ individuals from a refugee background.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Social Support and Psychological Wellbeing
In the present study, psychological wellbeing is defined as an individual’s cognitive assessment of
satisfaction with his/her life circumstances (Diener et al., 1985). There is growing recognition that
although psychological wellbeing is relatively stable over time, it can be influenced by contextual
factors such as the provision of social support from others in one’s social networks (e.g. Daniels
and Guppy, 1994; Gallagher and Vella-Brodrick, 2008; Siedlecki et al., 2014).
118 Newman, Nielsen, Smyth and Hirst
©2017 The Authors. International Migration ©2017 IOM
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