A recent study published in the journal Child Development brought to light what it means to be resilient when one goes through trauma, specifically when one is a young Syrian refugee. “In the West, we tend to think of resilience as inner psychological strength,” says Catherine Panter-Brick, an anthropologist at Yale University. “In the Middle East, resilience is more of a collective and social strength.”
Researchers found that for young refugees, now living in Jordan, friendship has given them the strength to endure. For one 15-year-old Syrian girl living in Jerash, Jordan, resilience is “to mix with people, to not be introverted or alone.” Another refugee teenager said it meant she was able to adapt to her new home. A 16-year-old Syrian boy, who has sought asylum in the nearby city of Zarqua, says for him resilience means “that I have Jordanian friends.”
The researchers focused on asking the young refugees about their personal hopes for their future rather than focusing on traumatic experiences. “We’re often so focused on documenting the negative impacts of war,” says Ms. Panter-Brick. “But that is only half of the story. We found that these young people actually prefer that you focus on their strengths rather than their vulnerabilities, their dignity rather than their misery, their capability rather than their vulnerability, and their resources and their agency rather than their victimhood.”
