Asylum seekers are exposed to a range of social and financial difficulties suggested to adversely impact mental health. Uprooted social networks and living conditions during the asylum seeking process potentially predispose this population to low access to social support. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between social and financial hardship and mental health problems, and assess the potential mediating role of social support among asylum seekers. Cross sectional survey data from a cohort of asylum seekers in Sweden (N = 455) were subjected to structural equation modelling for examining hypothesized pathways between social and financial hardship, common mental health problems (CMHPs) and social support. Fit indices showed adequate to excellent fit of the examined models with CMHPs as the outcome (all CFI ≥ 0.951, RMSEA < 0.05, SRMR < 0.056). CMHPs were positively regressed on social and financial hardship (B = 0.786, S = 0.102, p < 0.001) and negatively regressed on social support (B = −0.103, SE = 0.032, p = 0.001). Social support mediated the association between social and financial hardship and CMHPs (effect estimate = 0.075, 95% CI = 0.032–0.136). The results point to the importance of social and living conditions of asylum seekers and indicate that social support is both socially patterned and may act as a mitigating resource to inform interventions and policies.

中文翻译：

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使用结构方程模型探索寻求庇护者的社会和经济困难，心理健康问题以及社会支持的作用

寻求庇护者面临各种社会和经济困难，这些困难被认为会对精神健康产生不利影响。在寻求庇护过程中，连根拔起的社交网络和生活条件有可能使该人群难以获得社会支持。这项研究的目的是研究社会和经济困难与心理健康问题之间的关系，并评估寻求庇护者中社会支持的潜在中介作用。来自瑞典一群寻求庇护者（N = 455）的横断面调查数据经过结构方程模型分析，以检验社会和经济困难，常见精神健康问题（CMHP）与社会支持之间的假设途径。拟合指数表明，以CMHP作为结果的被检验模型具有足够的优良拟合（所有CFI≥0.951，RMSEA <0。05，SRMR ＜0.056）。CMHP在社会和财务困难方面呈正相关（B = 0.786，S = 0.102，p <0.001），并在社会支持方面呈负回归（B = −0.103，SE = 0.032，p = 0.001）。社会支持介导了社会和财务困难与CMHP之间的关联（效果估计= 0.075，95％CI = 0.032–0.136）。结果表明寻求庇护者的社会和生活条件的重要性，并表明社会支持既是社会形式的，又可以作为缓解资源，为干预措施和政策提供信息。