Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Support and Stress Among Religious Migrants

博士论文研究：宗教移民的社会支持与压力

• 批准号: 2147796
• 负责人: Carolyn Smith-Morris
• 金额: $ 0.76万
• 依托单位: Southern Methodist University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-02-15 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2147796&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Social; Support

Migration is a stressful process, with unique stressors emerging before, during, and after migration. For religious migrants, people in their congregations are important sources of support. However, providing the support necessary to cope with the stressors of migration may be complicated if what constitutes support differs between the giver and the receiver. The purpose of this dissertation research is to compare religious migrant and non-migrant understandings of social support and whether their adherence to local expectations of social support is associated with stress (perceived stress as well as hormonal measures). By approaching migration from both a biological and a cultural perspective, this project provides clarity with respect to the impact of chronic stressors among migrants. It also broadens the participation of women in STEM, as it provides training for a woman graduate student in lab and field work. The findings of this research will be disseminated broadly to participant communities and academic and non-academic audiences.The researcher applies a biocultural approach to understandings of migrant religion and post-national theory to answer the questions: 1. Do migrants and non-migrants of the same religion understand social support the same way? 2. In what ways are migrant understandings of social support similar to or different from those currently described in scientific scholarship? 3. How does secular and non-secular education influence how migrants and non-migrants understand social support? 4. Is the degree to which a migrant or non-migrant gives and receives culturally appropriate social support associated with stress (perceived stress as well as hormonal measures of stress)? To answer these questions, the researcher employs methods that measure the presence of shared cultural norms (cultural consensus) as well as individual adherence to these norms (cultural consonance). Cortisol, a hormone associated with stress and accessible in hair, is used to measure biological stress. The combination of these theoretical approaches and methods provides a novel approach to understanding the migrant experience.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

移民是一个充满压力的过程，在移民之前、期间和之后都会出现独特的压力源。对于宗教移民来说，教会成员是重要的支持来源。然而，如果提供者和接受者之间的支持内容不同，提供应对移民压力所需的支持可能会很复杂。本论文研究的目的是比较宗教移民和非移民对社会支持的理解，以及他们对当地社会支持期望的遵守是否与压力（感知压力以及荷尔蒙测量）相关。通过从生物学和文化角度探讨移民问题，该项目明确了移民中长期压力源的影响。它还扩大了女性对 STEM 的参与，因为它为女性研究生提供了实验室和现场工作的培训。这项研究的结果将广泛传播给参与社区以及学术和非学术受众。研究人员运用生物文化方法来理解移民宗教和后民族理论，以回答以下问题： 1. 移民和非移民是否同一宗教以同样的方式理解社会支持吗？ 2. 移民对社会支持的理解与目前科学界描述的理解有何相似或不同？ 3. 世俗和非世俗教育如何影响移民和非移民对社会支持的理解？ 4. 移民或非移民给予和接受文化上适当的社会支持的程度是否与压力（感知压力以及压力荷尔蒙测量）相关？为了回答这些问题，研究人员采用了衡量共同文化规范（文化共识）以及个人对这些规范的遵守情况（文化一致性）的方法。皮质醇是一种与压力相关的激素，可在头发中获取，用于测量生物压力。这些理论途径和方法的结合为理解移民经历提供了一种新颖的方法。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。