Trauma and Depression among North Korean Refugees: The Mediating Effect of Negative Cognition
Open accessAbstract
North Korean refugees experience adaptation difficulties, along with a wide range of psychological problems. Accordingly, this study examined the associations between early traumatic experiences, negative automatic thoughts, and depression among young North Korean refugees living in South Korea. Specifically, we examined how different factors of negative automatic thoughts would mediate the relationship between early trauma and depressive symptoms. A total of 109 North Korean refugees aged 13–29 years were recruited from two alternative schools. Our path analysis indicated that early trauma was positively linked with thoughts of personal failure, physical threat, and hostility, but not with thoughts of social threat. The link with depressive symptoms was only significant for thoughts of personal failure. After removing all non-significant pathways, the model revealed that early traumatic experiences were positively associated with depressive symptoms (ß = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.48–0.73) via thoughts of personal failure (ß = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.08–0.28), as well as directly (ß = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.27–0.59). Interventions that target negative cognitions of personal failure may be helpful for North Korean refugees at risk of depression.
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Severe stress in the form of early-life trauma is associated with depressive symptoms.
“Severe stress that occurs in the form of early-life trauma has also been associated with depressive symptoms [362,380].”
From Biological, Psychological, and Social Determinants of Depression: A Review of Recent Literature (2021) · cites this paper as [380]
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- Authors
- Park, S., Lee, Y., & Jun, J.
- Affiliations
- National Center for Mental Health (KR)
- Corresponding author
- Jun, Jin
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2018-03-25
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 591
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5923633
- OpenAlex
- W2793044526
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 3.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016R1D1A1B03931297)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Keywords
- North Korean defectors, depression, early trauma, negative automatic thoughts, personal failure, mediation, depressive symptoms, refugee adaptation, alternative schools, refugee youth, hostility, social danger
- MeSH terms
- Achievement, Adolescent, Adult, Cognition, Depression, Female, Hostility, Humans, Male, Refugees, Young Adult, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea
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