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Mental health literacy (MHL) is the ability to understand health information originating from different sources. Little is known about ethnic differences in sources for health information, and the effect these differences has on elderly MHL. In this paper, we focus on the social networks (i.e. social connections) of elderly people from different ethnic groups, and investigate the effect these networks have on MHL. Specifically, we focus on the ethnic diversity of one's peers (ethnic diversity) as a network characteristic that can interplay with his\her MHL.

The data used in this study were gathered using a survey among elderly (over the age of 60) Native Israeli Jews (N = 147) and Immigrant Jews from the Former Soviet Union (FSU, N = 131). The survey was used to assess our participants MHL, online and offline sources of mental health information and mental health service utilization. Interviews were also conducted with each participant. The interview purpose was to map the participants' social network (using a sociogram), while indicating the attributes of the participant's peers (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.) and the nature of the interaction (online vs. offline, strength of the tie, etc.). A set of hierarchal regression analyses were then used to examine which social network attributes are correlated with MHL levels.

Our findings shows that ethnic diversity within the social networks of Immigrants from the FSU contributed to their MHL more so than for native-born Jews. Specifically, face to face maintained connections with individuals from diverse ethnic groups lead to increased knowledge about how to search for mental health information. Online maintained connections with individuals from diverse ethnic groups, lead to increase attitudes that promote recognition of mental health related issues and appropriate help-seeking.

Understanding the interplay between the ethnic diversity among one's peers and his/her MHL offers an important additional prism of examining MHL; moving beyond the individual's characteristics and examining his/her social connections as well. The relevancy of these findings for reducing MHL inequalities between native-born and elderly migrants, as well as for ethnic minorities is discussed.

Bibliometric analyses of psychological research on refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced people is scarce. This study aims to evaluate the productivity and impact of publications related to the psychology of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people.

Using the Scopus database, the authors searched for psychology-related publications under the subject area “Psychology” and included keywords for refugees, asylum-seeker and displaced people. Retrieved publications were analyzed and visualized using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer. Productivity and impact of related research publications were presented.

A total of 2,317 publications were identified, with an h-index of 86. An increase post-2014 was noted. The USA was the most productive country and the University of New South Wales leading institutional contributions. “Review of Child and Adolescent Refugee Mental Health” was top cited. Some keywords, like posttraumatic stress disorder, were frequently used. Research on migration and Syrians from refugee backgrounds is notably advancing.

This study analyzed many publications related to psychology concerning refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people over the past 23 years. Advanced analysis was facilitated using software tools, including Microsoft Excel and Biblioshiny for the Bibliometrix R package and VOSviewer software. These advanced bibliometric and scientometric tools enable us to depict in depth the evolving trends and international collaborations between authors and countries, and analysis tending topic. This study has some limitations. First, the authors restricted our analysis to the Scopus database; thus, some publications available in other databases like Web of Science or Google Scholar may have been overlooked. Second, the keywords used in this study were “refugee,” “asylum-seeker” and “displaced people”. As a result, some relevant publications might have been missed, and future research could use a more comprehensive set of keywords related to refugees, asylum and displacement. For future research, keywords such as humanitarian immigrants, queue jumpers, boaties and stateless, among other terms, should be considered across the field to label people from displaced backgrounds. Our study focused on titles to directly capture the most explicitly relevant articles. In future studies, it is important to include the abstracts and keywords to identify additional pertinent studies. In our study, the authors did not use the asterisk. Thus, the asterisk may allow for the inclusion of all possible endings of a root word.

The study indicates a significant increase in research publications over time. The findings are significant for establishing a research agenda and network in this area, assisting international health agencies and governments in understanding the psychological challenges among this vulnerable group.