Migratory grief and coping strategies among latin americans living abroad
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Abstract
Migratory grief encompasses experiences of loss and longing associated with separation from one's country of origin. Although coping strategies are an integral part of the adaptation process to migration, little is still known about their relationship with migratory grief in Latin America. This study aimed to explore the relationship between migratory grief and coping strategies among Latin American individuals living abroad. The study included 188 adults recruited through non-probability sampling. Participants completed the Migratory Grief and Loss Questionnaire (MGLQ) and the Brief COPE. Sex-based comparisons, Spearman correlation analyses, and hierarchical linear regression were conducted, controlling for age, sex, and length of residence abroad. Women reported higher levels of migratory grief than men. The inclusion of coping strategies increased the explained variance in migratory grief by 32.1 percentage points compared with the model including only sociodemographic variables. Among the significant coping strategies, denial, religion, self-distraction, and self-blame were positively associated with migratory grief. In contrast, emotional support showed a negative association, which emerged only when all coping strategies and sociodemographic variables were considered simultaneously. These findings indicate that coping strategies exhibit different associations with migratory grief, particularly when examined concurrently. The inverse relationship between emotional support and migratory grief, which was absent in the bivariate analysis, highlights the importance of considering statistical suppression effects among different forms of coping.
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