Bosnian Muslim refugee adjustment to life in the United States: The moderating role of spirituality and social support

Between the years 1992--2002, approximately 150,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees were resettled in the United States following the civil war in Bosnia that lasted from 1992--1996. Three million people were displaced and there were nearly 250,000 deaths.;This study used quantitative methodology to examine the degree to which spirituality and social support resource utilization had a moderating effect on the adjustment of Bosnian Muslim refugees resettled in the United States. Acculturation theory guided the research and explains the different processes that newcomers experience in an attempt to achieve a fit between their indigenous culture and new cultural environment. The study adopted the social support theories of Tolsdorf (1976), whose research on social support network orientation involves an individual's perceptions of social support resources and the perceived utility of these resources in helping to cope with a serious life issue, such as war trauma, displacement and resettlement. Theoretical concepts of spirituality were drawn from the work of Kenneth Pargament (1997) whose construct supports the relationship between spirituality and adjustment following negative life events.;The study sample included 131 Bosnian Muslim refugees resettled in Chicago between the years 1992--2002. A multiple regression analysis and ANOVA test were utilized to explore the relationship between the independent variables (social support resource utilization and spirituality) and the dependent variable (adjustment).;The study hypothesized that controlling for age, gender, education, marital status, number of children, annual income, number of persons in the household, and length of time in the United States, a significant positive relationship would be found between the adjustment of Bosnian Muslim refugees and their levels of social support resource utilization and spirituality.;The findings of the study partially supported the hypothesis. There was no statistically significant relationship between social support resource utilization and the dependent variable, adjustment. There were significant positive associations between adjustment and spirituality, marital status, education, income, length of time in the United States, and number of children. One negative association between age and adjustment revealed that older refugees in this group were experiencing greater levels of difficulty in adjusting to life in the United States than their younger counterparts.;The study data support earlier findings illustrating how religious and spiritual beliefs act as resiliency factors in the refugee journey and offer insight into the ways in which refugees turn to their religious and spiritual beliefs in order to make sense of the displacement experience. The study contributes to social work knowledge by providing evidence of how Bosnian Muslim refugees have reconstructed their unique cultural identity in the United States and how spiritual forms of coping served an adaptive function during the crisis of resettlement.;Recommendations are made for refugee advocates to take action on behalf of the 14 million refugees that continue to languish in refugee camps and calls upon government officials to restore the U.S. Resettlement Program to it's pre-September 11th admission ceilings.