Making Meaning in the Context of Ethnopolitical Warfare: Secondary Control as a Resource

Abstract

The present chapter focuses on the possibilities for adaptive functioning among refugees in the context of ethnopolitical warfare, with a particular focus on secondary control as a meaning-making tool for alleviating symptoms of distress and promoting resilience and well-being. We focus on this population due to the unique challenges faced by survivors of ethnopolitical warfare, including displacement, malnutrition, poverty, and the loss of social and material support. These stressors are the result not only of past direct war exposure but also the daily struggles of surviving in refugee camps or warzones. Thus, interventions that can increase adaptive functioning are desperately needed in a world in which conflict and displacement remain persistent problems. Because displaced individuals have limited direct control over the circumstances that have led to and maintain their displacement, we will consider the value of secondary control—the ability to adjust one’s emotional reactions and cognitive appraisals to suit a reality that is presently unchangeable—as a protective factor while struggling to rebuild life as a refugee. This chapter is based on the premise that refugees are active agents in extraordinary circumstances who can learn to harness their own internal resources in an effort to cope and function with the challenges they face. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)