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Article
Autobiographical meaning making protects the sense of self-continuity past forced migration
Frontiers in Psychology
  • Christin Camia, Zayed University
  • Rida Zafar, NYU Abu Dhabi
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract

Forced migration changes people’s lives and their sense of self-continuity fundamentally. One memory-based mechanism to protect the sense of self-continuity and psychological well-being is autobiographical meaning making, enabling individuals to explain change in personality and life by connecting personal experiences and other distant parts of life to the self and its development. Aiming to replicate and extend prior research, the current study investigated whether autobiographical meaning making has the potential to support the sense of self-continuity in refugees. We therefore collected life narratives from 31 refugees that were coded for autobiographical reasoning, selfevent connections, and global narrative coherence. In line with prior research, results suggest that autobiographical meaning making relates to a higher sense of selfcontinuity and less psychological distress. Yet, if refugees experienced many continuing postdisplacement stressors in addition to their forced displacement, autobiographical meaning making was associated with higher self-discontinuity and greater psychological distress, especially with trauma-related symptoms such as memory intrusion and hyperarousal. Altogether, results indicate that autobiographical meaning making helps to compensate the effects of extreme biographical disruptions on the sense of selfcontinuity, as long as the stress caused by the biographical change is not overwhelming or too protracted.

Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Keywords
  • Autobiographical reasoning,
  • Life narrative,
  • Meaning making,
  • Personal identity,
  • Well-being
Scopus ID

85102389793

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Indexed in Scopus
Yes
Open Access
Yes
Open Access Type
Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series
Citation Information
Christin Camia and Rida Zafar. "Autobiographical meaning making protects the sense of self-continuity past forced migration" Frontiers in Psychology Vol. 12 (2021)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/christin-camia/3/