Resilience among Syrian university students in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to deeply examine the resilience in war victim immigrants based on risk and protective factors. The sample of the research, which is structured as a phenomenological study, a type of qualitative research, constitute of 5 women, 5 men and 10 university students. A semi-structured Immigrant University Students Resilience Interview Form, created by the researchers, was used as a data collection tool. According to the results, while the risk factors of the participants were mainly societal, the protective factors were mainly individual. Additionally, the risk factors are distrust in others, anger management, pessimism, financial difficulty, media effect, witnessing to death, interruption of education, social prejudice and unsupportive, new settlement, language problem, change of living space, death of family member, living apart to family. The protective factors are; social contribution, career goals, patience, self-confidence, desire for learning, grit, spirituality, financial situation, host society support, immigrant support, family members support. Furthermore, it was found that the percentage of the participants who consider themselves as happy and standing individuals which is a sign of resilience was high.