Migratory grief experience and depression: gender and age factors in immigrants in Australia

Psychological distress and grief are inherently related to migration. However, the relationship between migratory grief and depressive symptoms has attracted limited research interest. To redress this gap, this study investigates this relationship in adult migrants and aims to explore the impact of gender and age in depressive symptoms, grief and loss distress. It was expected that migrants with high scores of migratory loss distress would report increased depressive symptoms, that the intensity of migratory grief would increase with age, and that females would report higher levels of loss distress and depressive symptoms than males. The 210 participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, the Migratory Grief and Loss Questionnaire, and the Multidimensional Loss Scale. Elevated levels of depressive symptoms were associated with loss distress and the intensity of grief was not influenced by age. No significant gender differences were found in levels of loss distress and depressive symptoms. Practical implications include assessing depressive symptoms within the context of migration-related losses and providing grief counselling that is informed by recent literature on migratory grief. Practitioners should be sensitive to student and younger migrants’ loss distress and migratory grief as these groups present with the highest levels of migratory grief.