Participants and Procedures

Data were collected from 298 adult Iraqi refugees who were randomly selected for participation from the population of Iraqi refugees who arrived in southeast Michigan between October 2011 and August 2012. Most (89 %) of the refugees were Iraqi Chaldean Christians (n = 266), 9 % were Arab (n = 26), 1 % were Kurdish (n = 3), and 1 % were Armenian (n = 3). A total of 26 refugees from the pool of 298 (8.7 %) reported being kidnapped or taken hostage.

Participants were recruited with the collaboration of three resettlement agencies in metropolitan Detroit. An Arabic-speaking member of the research team attended all orientation meetings for newly-arrived refugees during the study recruitment period and presented information about the research study orally. Those refugees potentially interested in participating provided written consent allowing researchers to contact them. A computer generated random sample of 50–70 % of those who were interested was selected each week, depending on the number of arrivals. In total, out of 501 interested and eligible refugees, 306 cases (61 %) were randomly selected. These individuals were contacted by a member of the research team and given both oral and written information about the study; 98 % of them (n = 298) chose to participate.

A bilingual Arabic-English psychiatrist conducted structured interviews face-to face with participants, with interviews taking place in participants’ homes, workplaces, community organizations, or other locations in the local community. Refugees were interviewed on two occasions. The first interview, at baseline, occurred, on average, about 1 month after arrival to the U.S. (M _{months in U.S.} = 1.17, SD = 1.15, range <1–4.27 months). The second interview, at follow-up, occurred, on average, nearly 1 year after arrival to the U.S. (M _{months in U.S.} = 12.72, SD = 1.22, range 10.80–16.23 months). Attrition over the year was very low; only seven participants were lost from baseline to follow-up (n = 291; 97.65 % retention rate).

Pre-displacement trauma, including the occurrence of kidnapping, was assessed at baseline. All other variables were assessed at follow-up. Use of the follow-up for mental health measures allowed the psychiatrist to build rapport with the participants and allowed for a more stable assessment of post-displacement mental health; that is, the mental health assessments were not affected by the rapidly changing context of having just arrived to the U.S. days or weeks before.

The Human Investigation Committee at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, approved the study. Participants provided informed consent prior to the baseline interview and received $35 compensation following each interview.