Strengthening Parental Self-efficacy and Resilience

I am presenting here an edited version of an article that I think is important to anyone dealing with immigrant clients. Eltanamly, Leijten, van Roekel, Mouton, Pluess & Overbeek (2002) published “Strengthening Parental Self-efficacy and Resilience: A within-subject experimental study with refugee parents of adolescents” in Child Development. It is longer than usual but may be helpful:

Post-migration stress and parenting adolescents can reduce parental self-efficacy. Findings suggest that parental self-efficacy is malleable and strengthening it fosters refugee parents' resilience. Among refugee parents, stressors such as language difficulties, adapting to a new culture, and discrimination can be such external factors that thwart parental self-efficacy. Also, children's transition to adolescence, and its associated renegotiation of power dynamics within a family, can reduce parental self-efficacy. Refugee parents of adolescents are, therefore, at an increased risk of reductions in their self-efficacy, which are linked to suboptimal parenting practices, delinquent behavior, and substance use in adolescents. It is therefore important to find ways to strengthen parental self-efficacy in refugee families. In the present study, we aimed (1) to test whether we can strengthen parental self-efficacy in refugee parents using a brief, focused intervention, and (2) whether this intervention makes parental self-efficacy less impacted by post-migration stressors. We conducted this study primarily with Syrian refugee parents of adolescents who have recently resettled in the Netherlands.

Parental feelings of self-efficacy are essential for parents in every stage of children's development, including adolescence. Higher self-efficacy would therefore relate to greater cognitive flexibility, weighing of multiple options, and more perseverance in implementing the chosen path of action, even in the face of challenges. In fact, parental self-efficacy relates to parents being more likely to plan and exercise control over their behavior when encountering parenting challenges. Parents with higher self-efficacy tend to be warmer, more involved, and engage more in monitoring their child and adolescent's behavior. Furthermore, increases in parental self-efficacy predict increases in supportive parenting and decreases in inept discipline over time, which are factors associated with favorable child and adolescent adjustment. Adolescence is a turning point for the onset of problematic functioning. Therefore, uncovering simple techniques that could be used to strengthen parents' perseverance in the face of parenting challenges is very crucial, particularly, in populations at risk of reductions in their parental self-efficacy, such as refugee parents of adolescents.

Becoming a refugee can be a disempowering experience. On top of exposure to life-threatening conditions, war refugees often go through multiple displacements before they resettle in countries that allow them to apply for asylum, eventually becoming refugees. Many people lose their social structures, cultural values, and above all, their self-identity. Such losses are related to feeling incapable of managing the new circumstances among different refugee populations. In fact, evidence is building that refugee populations experience reductions in their self-efficacy.

Specifically, post-migration stress is known to reduce parental self-efficacy in refugee parents. Part of post-migration stress is having to constantly deal with novel and changing situations, which necessitate seeking the help of others, sometimes even one's own children. A parent's role, as someone who can guide their children through different situations, is then jeopardized and refugee parents sometimes feel that they have “failed their children.” One's experience of failing could be particularly harmful if it happens before a sense of efficacy is firmly established, such as in the case of families going through multiple transitions. Many parents also experience lower agency in their parenting as misconceptions about child protection services in resettlement countries can contribute to their fear of having their children removed from their custody, if they adopt some of the parenting practices they used in their homeland. In other words, a disruption in their perceptions of their ability to fulfill their parental roles coupled with a minimized agency in parenting may put their parental self-efficacy at risk. In fact, a sense of loss, problems dealing with new situations, language difficulties, not feeling at home, and discrimination were found to compromise parental self-efficacy in Syrian refugee populations. 

inherent part of adolescent development is the increased demand for autonomy. Adolescents' autonomy striving redefines the relational dynamics with parents. Research on migrant populations (e.g., Asians) reveals that adolescents are granted more autonomy than their parents would like to give them, due to immigration. Refugee parents could feel reduced agency in their parenting and fewer mastery experiences, which are key sources of self-efficacy. Thus, the re-organization of parent–child interaction patterns that typically occurs as children transition to adolescence can be an added source of stress for refugee parents who are already dealing with post-migration challenges.

To reach our study goals, we employed a randomized multiple baseline design using the experience sampling method (ESM). We were, therefore, able to capture the dynamics between parental self-efficacy and post-migration stress on a momentary basis, allowing us to test whether the intervention buffers against the negative impact of minor, yet recurring stressors, on parental self-efficacy. We expected the intervention to (1) improve mean within-person levels of parental self-efficacy, and (2) weaken the negative link between post-migration stress(t−1) on parental self-efficacy(t).

We used a within-subject experimental design which uses each participant as their own control condition, and therefore inferences about within-person effects can be made. Seventy-three refugee parents based in the Netherlands enrolled in the study (Mage = 39.70, SDage = 5.59), primarily mothers (70%). Parents had at least one adolescent child (Mage = 12.60, SDage = 1.72), were refugees of war, spoke Arabic, and were primarily Syrian (73%). Participants had, on average, 13.86 years of education, slightly higher than the expected 9 years of education in Syria, but comparable to the average education level of Syrians in the Netherlands. Parents lived in the Netherlands for over three years (Mmonths = 41; SD = 13.79) at the time of enrollment in the study. All participants were offered aid in seeking therapeutic support for any bad memories triggered, and for any mental health problems more generally. None of the parents felt that this was necessary. 

Our final sample for this study consisted of 53 participants. Two participants dropped out: one because of personal problems and one because the study triggered bad memories. Two participants were removed from the analyses: one participant expressed that she randomly chose one of her children to report on for each assessment instead of consistently reporting on her parenting of the same child. The other participant had to be referred to professional help because of signs of dysfunctional family dynamics (i.e., parentification).

The intervention aimed to strengthen parental self-efficacy in a single session. Specifically, we intended to help parents draw the connection between their positive parenting behavior and the positive impact it had on their children. We did this using personalized feedback within a standardized structure. Specifically, we targeted different components of self-efficacy: a mastery experience based on a true story, verbal persuasion, and positive social comparison.

Personal feedback was based on parents' answers to the positive parenting subscale of the APQ which they gave in a semi-structured interview format during the first data collection point. The first and fourth authors (a clinical psychologist) coded the interviews independently. In cases (n = 1) where dysfunctional family dynamics were suspected, it was deemed unethical to conduct the research. We, therefore, referred families for further help and did not deliver the intervention.

Based on translated transcripts of the audio recordings, we selected parents' statements about positive parenting behavior scoring highest on (1) mastery (i.e., the parent perceived it as a result of their action); (2) impact (i.e., the parent mentioned a positive impact on the child); (3) detail: (i.e., whether there was enough detail to build a story); and (4) clarity. If more than one statement had the same score, one of those statements was randomly selected. Statements were selected with a high interrater agreement (89.2%).

The participant was told that their data were analyzed at the lab of the University of Amsterdam and offered to view preliminary results. This way, the feedback was perceived as being based on sound scientific research, hence increasing the impact of verbal persuasion. In addition to the feedback on their positive parenting skills, participants were socially compared to other participants in the study using a graph on which the participant ranked highly on positive parenting. This way, all participants received personalized messages, which were provided using a standard structure. For example, below is a transcript of a chosen statement from one of the interviews which was woven into the standardized structure to show the parent how their positive parenting related to positive child outcomes:

  Parent

  “Once we had visitors over, parents of her brother's school friends. She did everything and helped me with translation. I forgot to serve something, and she brought it while the guests were still there. After they left, I told her that I had really appreciated that.

  Interviewer

  “And how did your daughter react?”

  Parent

  “You can see that she feels powerful and strong. Self-confident. That she is no longer the shy girl that she used to be.”

  Personalized component

  “During the first interview you told [interviewer] of that day when you had visitors over and [child's name] helped out with serving food for the guests, and how she helped you out with translation. That day you told her that you appreciated what she had done. You saw the positive impact it had on her. She feels powerful and strong. She is self-confident and she is no longer the shy girl that she used to be.”

This way, we helped parents recognize how their positive parenting behavior had a positive impact on their child. Therefore, in a single session, we aimed to strengthen parental self-efficacy relying on personalized mastery experiences, the strongest source of parental self-efficacy.

We found that a personalized brief intervention strengthened momentary parental self-efficacy in refugee families and that this fueled resilience by buffering against the negative impact of post-migration stress on parental self-efficacy. In our study, we found evidence for the proposition that interventions for refugee parents can buffer against the momentary negative effects of non-modifiable stressors facing caregivers. Our findings show that giving parents personalized feedback on their positive parenting and helping them draw the connection between their behavior and the positive impact it had on their children can improve their momentary self-efficacy and how much agency they think they can exercise in the parenting realm. 

Our findings also show that higher self-efficacy and having a stronger will to exercise agency with one's children seem to buffer against the negative impact of post-migration stress on momentary parental cognitions. It might be that higher self-efficacy made parents feel better about themselves and therefore appraised their contexts as less challenging. In other words, as parents' self-efficacy was enhanced, they might have associated more positive meanings to their momentary stressors, fostering their resiliency. In addition, changes in momentary parental self-efficacy might have changed parents' perceived post-migration stress. For example, if the intervention reassures parents that they are doing a good job raising their children, situations in which parents need to rely on their children (e.g., for their language skills) may become less stressful. It could be, for example, that increased feelings of self-efficacy change parents' perception from feeling inadequate (e.g., struggling with a new language) to attributing their children's abilities to their own efforts as parents. We expand previous work by showing how protective factors in at-risk families can be strengthened, an approach that allows vulnerable families to capitalize on their strengths to build resilience.

I recognize that most practitioners won’t be able to use their methodology, but I think it’s important to understand the parenting stress immigrants undergo, its potential impact on immigrant children, and ways to enhance self-efficacy.