Examination of post-traumatic stress disorder, social support and depression levels of immigrant secondary school students

This research aimed to investigate perceived social support, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression levels of secondary school students continuing their education in Turkey who had to emigrate due to conflicts and civil war in their countries. To this end, it was attempted to reach 282 students studying in Bolu province, and 261 Iraqi and Syrian students were reached. 150 Turkish students were included in the research to compare conditions of immigrant and local students. The study was conducted with 109 Syrian, 136 Iraqi and 143 Turkish students following the missing data analysis and Z-scores analysis. Child Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Index (CPTS-RI), Child Depression Inventory (CDI), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were applied in the research. Computer software packages were used in the analyses of the research. For data analysis, independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation and regression analyses were performed. It was found in the analyses that the Syrian and Iraqi students had moderate social support scores, and 53.2% of the Syrian students and 41.17% of the Iraqi students had high depression scores. Regarding the PTSD scores, 37.5% of the Syrian students and 32.8% of the Iraqi students had high and very high scores. As for the analysis of difference by variables for the immigrant students, the Turkish students had higher scores of social support and significantly lower scores of PTSD and depression than the immigrant students according to the nationality variable. Only the data of immigrant students were analyzed for other variables which were gender, age, time spent in Turkey, use of language, whether having Turkish friends and reasons for immigration. No significant difference was found in the depression, social support and PTSD scores by gender. Older students were found to have higher scores of PTSD only. Concerning the time spent in Turkey, it was observed that the immigrant students who had been in Turkey for 4 years or longer were higher scores of depression and perceived social support and social support from a special person, which is a social support subscale than other groups. While no significant difference was observed between mean scores of those having and not having problem with language in all tests, those who have a Turkish friend had significantly higher scores of perceived social support and family social support than those who do not. As for the reasons for immigration, the group of immigration for education had higher depression scores and lower family social support scores than the group of immigration due to conflicts. A moderate, positive significant relationship was found between PTSD and depression scores in the correlation analyses. A moderate, negative significant relationship was found between social support and depression scores whereas a low, negative significant relationship was observed between PTSD and social support scores. The regression analysis concluded that PTSD, social support and family social support predicted depression.