This article explains the need to improve research methods in studies of how Third World refugees cope with resettlement in the First World. Research on refugee adjustment (e.g., psychological and family dynamics) and adaptation (e.g., sociocultural-economic measures) indicates that these dependent variables are not unidimensional or homogeneous. Rather, adjustment and adaptation may have several components which each require unique sets of causal variables and contributory factors to be identified. Subjective aspects of adjustment and adaptation are important and can sometimes have opposite effects on objective measures of adjustment and adaptation. Conflicting findings in the literature suggest interaction effects among predictor variables, which are thus not “independent” variables.
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