1. Special People? An Exploratory Study into Re-entering Missionaries' Identity and Resilience.
- Author
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Selby, Susan, Braunack-Mayer, Annette, Jones, Alison, Clark, Sheila, Moulding, Nicole, and Beilby, Justin
- Subjects
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ACCULTURATION , *ADAPTABILITY (Personality) , *ATTITUDE (Psychology) , *CHRISTIANITY , *DEPERSONALIZATION , *MENTAL depression , *GROUP identity , *INTERPERSONAL relations , *INTERVIEWING , *RESEARCH methodology , *MISSIONARIES , *PSYCHOLOGY , *QUESTIONNAIRES , *RESEARCH , *PSYCHOLOGICAL resilience , *SOCIAL adjustment , *SOUND recordings , *PSYCHOLOGICAL stress , *QUALITATIVE research , *THEORY , *JUDGMENT sampling - Abstract
Home country re-entry from cross-cultural missionary work abroad may be associated with psychological distress. Re-entrants experience multiple losses including loss of identity which may be associated with personal/relational identity gaps and depersonalization/dehumanization. However, research suggests that some re-entrants are resilient with good mental health, while others are fragile with poor mental health. The aims of this paper are to explore the nature and frequency of re-entering missionaries' identity gaps and their depersonalization/dehumanization in resilient and fragile re-entrants. Fifteen re-entering adult Australian cross-cultural missionary workers from four interdenominational Australian mission organizations completed semi-structured interviews. Results were analysed using modified Consensual Qualitative Research methods. Links were established between personal/relational identity gaps, depersonalization/dehumanization and resilience on re-entry. Implications for re-entrants' care are discussed with suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
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