Factors related to attitudes towards drug use and alcohol drinking: Comparing immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Israeli‐born adolescents

Toward a Positive Psychology of Immigrants

The vast majority of immigration-focused research in psychology is rooted in deficit models that center on negative health outcomes (e.g., depression, acculturative stress, anxiety, substance use), resulting in a widely held assumption that immigrants are at greater risk for pathology and poor well-being compared with native-born individuals. Moreover, current political discourse often portrays immigrants as more prone to crime compared with native-born individuals. From a positive-psychology perspective, we argue that, despite numerous migration-related challenges, many immigrant populations report positive patterns of psychological health. We also provide evidence that immigrants are, in fact, less prone to crime than their native-born counterparts. We conclude by discussing several contributing factors that account for positive immigrant well-being across the range of destination countries. Ultimately, the field should address questions regarding (a) immigrants’ strategies for coping with the challenges involved in adapting to new homelands and (b) asset-based factors that help immigrants to thrive during difficult life challenges.

A systematic review of adolescents' sense of coherence and health

The aim of this systematic review was to describe the association between adolescent sense of coherence (SOC) and health and identify the future direction for research in this area. Systematic searches were conducted (2007-2014) in the PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Cochrane electronic databases and carried out manual searches in three scientific journals. A total of 827 original papers were found and 23 were selected. Based on the results, adolescents' sense of coherence (SOC) was related to health in terms of the adolescents' quality of life, health behaviour, mental health and family relationships by using 31 different health-related instruments. In conclusion, the use of the SOC approach for adolescents can provide a useful view of their health during this transition phase to adulthood. Due to the large variation in the additional instruments used, combining and comparing the results proved challenging. More comparative and longitudinal research is needed to increase understanding of adolescents' health in relation to SOC and develop services that support both elements.