Mediators on the relationship between contact with Turks and psychological well-being among Syrian immigrants

Abstract

With increasing number of immigrants throughout the world and Turkey, it has become critical to examine the role of intergroup contact between majority and minority groups to improve the psychological well-being of immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees who face major difficulties during this adaptational process. The aim of this study is to show whether Syrian asylum seekers’ contact with Turks is related to their psychological well-being via the mediating roles of intergroup anxiety, ingroup identification, and social acceptance. A total of 163 Syrian participants (88 females, 75 males) responded to measures of intergroup contact, intergroup anxiety, multi-group ethnic identity, public self-esteem, and flourishing scales. Findings demonstrated that positive contact was negatively associated with intergroup anxiety and positively associated with both social acceptance and ingroup identification. While the direct relationship between intergroup contact and psychological well-being was not significant, the indirect effects of contact on well-being were significant across all three mediators. Findings are discussed in terms of the effective role of intergroup contact on predicting Syrians’ psychological well-being.