Professor Belinda Liddell: Understanding brain, psychological, social and cultural mechanisms underlying refugee mental health

Abstract

Over 123 million people around the world have been forcibly displaced from their homes and communities due to conflict and persecution in 2025. High levels of exposure to human rights violations like torture, dangerous migration journeys and enduring uncertainty and insecurity even after resettlement means that refugees and asylum seekers are at increased risk of mental health conditions such as PTSD and depression. Yet there has been less attention paid to the underlying mechanisms that drive this elevated risk.

In this talk, I will present a series of neuroimaging, experimental, community longitudinal and qualitative studies conducted with former refugees living in Australia. These studies demonstrate the long-term effects of past refugee trauma and current uncertainty including visa status and family separation on brain functioning and connectivity, identify the drivers of mental health change over time, the importance of cultural influences and the role of psychological/social mechanisms such as emotion regulation, social engagement and attachment systems.

Findings highlight the critical importance of considering the interactive influence of past trauma and ongoing contextual adversities when responding to the mental health and protection needs of refugees. How outcomes are informing the development of interventions that target key mechanisms, are shaping evidence-based policy and practice development that support the recovery and adjustment of refugees will be discussed.

Bio

Professor Belinda Liddell is the Daphne Keats Chair in Cross-Cultural Psychology in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Newcastle, and the Deputy Director of the Refugee Trauma and Recovery Program at UNSW Sydney. Her research draws upon a neuroscience and psychological science framework to understand the biological, social and cultural mechanisms underlying the impact of forced displacement and migration, particularly trauma and stress.

Her research also considers cultural influences on trauma and PTSD. Belinda’s research is funded by the ARC and NHMRC. Belinda partners with leading refugee and humanitarian organisations in her research, and has a strong interest in the translation of research to evidence-based policy and practice development.