Resilience in adolescent refugees living in Malaysia: The association with religiosity and religious coping

BACKGROUND: Until now, there is scarcity of information regarding resilience, religiosity and religious coping among adolescent refugees. Currently, most researches emphasize on the physical, psychological and social distresses experienced by refugees while overlooking these crucial aspects, that is, resilience and coping.

AIM: The study aimed to examine resilience and its association with religiosity and religious coping among adolescent refugees living in Malaysia.

METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in five community-based learning centres in Malaysia from July 2019 till December 2019. A total of 152 refugees, aged 13 to 19-years-old, were recruited. The study gauged resilience using the 14-Item Resilience Scale (RS-14), the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) for religiosity and the Brief Religious Coping Scale (Brief RCOPE) for religious coping.

RESULTS: The majority of adolescent refugees portrayed moderate levels of resilience (43.5%). The study highlighted the interconnectedness between resilience and intrinsic religiosity (IR) (p