Investigates adaptive strategies employed by refugees to mitigate the risk of depression, with a focus on their perspective on time. Study subjects were 1,348 Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese refugees who had resettled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and another much smaller comparison sample of Vancouver residents. The refugees were interviewed about pre- and post-migration stress, personal and social resources, and perceived mental health; both groups also performed a task designed to measure orientation to past, present, and future. A key finding was that the Southeast Asian refugees, significantly more so than the Vancouver residents, split time so that past, present, and future were not linked. This perspective was associated with a lower risk of depression than other perspectives on time, such as one that weaves, or binds, together all the experiences of an individual’s life. In the short run, refugees may be avoiding establishing connection between events in their lives so as to offset depression; however, in the long run, they may need assistance in forging those links so that their past can reemerge as knowledge to help direct their lives, not a threat to mental health.
