Accompanied and unaccompanied adolescent Vietnamese refugees in Palawan: their problems, self concept and security level

• Main Author: Giong, Marie Thecla Tran Thi
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1991
• Subjects: Refugees; Vietnamese > Psychology; Refugees > Psychology; Counseling; Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1305
• Institution: De La Salle University

This research is a descriptive comparative study of the problems, self-concept and security level of the adolescent Vietnamese refugees in the Palawan Camp. The problem checklist, the Pasao self-concept scale and the security-insecurity inventory of Evangelista were administered. The respondents consisted of 72 adolescent refugees 36 females and 36 males, half of each group were unaccompanied, and the other half were those living with their families. The problems were ranked according to percentage of respondents. For the self-concept and security level, mean scores were computed and the two-way ANOVA was employed to see if there were differences between males and females with and without families. The results of the problem checklist showed that:1. In each group, most of the problems refer to the needs and life problems as refugees 2. there is no significant difference in self-concept and security level in terms of family and sex and 3. the mean scores of these groups are very low compared with Filipino students in Manila. The majority of the problems encountered by the adolescent Vietnamese refugees are similar. Being a refugee means a loss of identity, feeling of helplessness and dependency, and a sense of insecurity. The researcher recommends that the parents, the organizations and the people who are directly in charge of these adolescent Vietnamese refugees provide them the physical, psychological, emotional and material support to minimize and help them overcome the problems they face as refugees.