Social support and family life |
Social support, including peer support, was important before, during, and after forced migration, as women exchanged emotional, informational, and instrumental social support [37, 39, 41, 42, 46, 49, 52, 54, 59] |
The family was a source for enduring difficult experiences, providing relief and reducing psychological distress [37, 43, 46, 49, 52, 54, 56, 59] |
Motherhood in itself was a source for resilience and agency [39, 41, 46, 47, 49, 51, 53, 54, 59, 60] |
Social support was essential during stressful circumstances such as pregnancy and childbirth [39] |
Utilizing internal sources and strategies |
Women tried to uphold daily life and their safety, living day by day [37, 39, 48, 49, 54] |
Women were hopeful of a better future, for example through religion and faith [39, 41–43, 46–49, 52–54, 56, 57, 59] |
Women stopped visiting relatives in jail [57] |
Women became violent towards their children and developed self-harming behaviors [42] |
Women succumbed to passivity and resignation as a coping mechanism [48, 59] |
Women kept their feelings concealed, were vigilant, and acted like they didn’t understand [51, 52, 60] |
Women were resourceful in: (i) getting men to be less violent and to protect themselves and others [38, 42, 51, 59]; (ii) retaining mental stability and restarted their lives when necessary [41, 54] |
Women took control of the situation by finding ways to make a living and find safe places [39, 41, 46, 48, 51, 52, 55, 59] |
Engaging in political activism was empowering [48, 54] |