Religion and Resilience: Perceptions of, and Responses to Conflict by Boston’s Haitian Adolescents and Young Adults

-Melicia Charles

Boston has one of the larger populations of Haitian immigrants in the United States. The Haitian community continues to be one of Boston’s fastest growing ethnic groups¹. The community remains close-knit and maintains many of its cultural ties to Haiti, specifically in the case of religion. Religion has played an important role in Haitian social and psychological frameworks. Within the culture, religion has been used as a support system to rely upon during difficult times.

Haitian immigrants have to endure adjusting to a new country and culture, where they often are socially and economically marginalized. Haiti, itself, is seriously affected by poverty, HIV/AIDS continues to decimate the population, and thousands of people have died as a result of political turmoil in the country².

Many Haitians have migrated to the U.S. in search of a better life. However, issues of conflict, both social and political, may remain a strong presence in the lives of those of Haitian descent, even as they adjust to the new American culture. In addition, adolescents and young adults of Haitian descent-even more than older generations-straddle both Haitian and American cultures. They are raised in the Haitian community, but have contact with mainstream culture through school, the media and the surrounding physical environment. Both cultures have a significant influence on their development.

Youth of Haitian descent make up about one-fourth of the population of Boston public schools³. These individuals sometimes observe conflict in schools and in the community. Tensions with other ethnic groups may sometimes involve conflict.

We are interested in learning about Haitian adolescents’ and young adults’ perceptions of such events, and the strategies to which they turn to help them deal with the experience. We hypothesize that different spiritual/religious traditions may function as one important resource. Our study will therefore also focus on how Haitian adolescents and young adults define and avail themselves of the different resources available to them, including spiritual/religious resources.

This project hopes to study how these multi-cultural and religious resources play a role in how adolescents and young adults of Haitian descent view, define and process issues of conflict. The goal of the project gain an understanding of their views on these topics, and on how they address witnessing conflict, in order to contribute to clinician training in providing culturally competent healthcare to this population.

1. Jean-Louis, Eustache, et al. “Drug and Alcohol Use Among Boston’s Haitian Community:
A Hidden Problem Unveiled by CCHER’s Enhanced Innovative Case
Management Program”, Center for Community Health, Education and Research Website:
http://www.ccher.org/Drugandsocietyjournal.PDF. (Accessed: March 14, 2002).
2. Isidor, Yves A. “A People in Search of Freedom”, We Haitians United We Stand
For Democracy Website.
http://www.wehaitians.com/haitians%20a%20people%20in%20search
%20of%20freedom.html.
Accessed: April 7, 2002.
3. “A Hearing for Haitians”, The Boston Globe. September 1, 2001. From One Nation Website:
http://www.onenation.org/0109/090101a.htm. Accessed: April 7, 2002.