Challenges for immigrant families
Professionals today more frequently encounter clients who come from immigrant families. Today, I present two studies that offer different perspectives on the challenges such clients may face. First, Eltanamly, Leijten, Roekel & Overbeek (2023) published, “Postmigration Stress Compromises Refugee Parents’ Self-Efficacy and Autonomy-Supportive Parenting: An experience sampling study” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:
Refugee parents raise their adolescent children in a world that is different from the world they themselves grew up in, often experiencing postmigration stress. This may hamper parents’ confidence in their parenting skills and make it difficult for them to grant adolescent children the autonomy they desire and need. In this preregistered study, we aimed to advance our understanding of this process by examining, in daily life, whether postmigration stress contributes to less autonomy-supportive parenting through compromised feelings of parental self-efficacy. Fifty-five refugee parents of adolescent children resettled in the Netherlands (72% Syrian; M age children= 12.81) reported on their postmigration stress, parental self-efficacy, and parental autonomy support up to 10 times a day for 6–8 days. We fit a dynamic structural equation model to test whether postmigration stress predicted reductions in parental autonomy support, and whether parental self-efficacy explained this link. Results showed that when parents experienced more postmigration stress, they granted their children less autonomy at a later timepoint, in part, through parents feeling less efficacious after having experiencing postmigration stress. Findings held after controlling for parents’ posttraumatic stress symptoms, and when controlling for all possible temporal and lagged associations. Our results highlight that postmigration stress shapes parenting practices, above and beyond symptoms of war-trauma, in the daily lives of refugee families.
The sample is small and focuses primarily on Syrian immigrants in the Netherlands. However, it is important in suggesting that postmigration stress increases the likelihood that stressed parents become overprotective of their teens. The next study looks at a different population. Ahmad, McLaughlin, Tawfik, Messinger & Weisman de Mamani (2024) published “Exploration of an Immigrant Paradox in Muslims Living in the United States (MLUS)” in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. The edited abstract and impact statement follow:
The immigrant paradox refers to findings that first-generation and less acculturated immigrants generally have better adaptation and health compared with second/third-generation and more acculturated immigrants. Some work supports an immigrant paradox among European Muslims. Further, Pew’s telephone interviews of Muslims living in the United States (MLUS)—about half of whom are foreign-born—consistently reveal that United States-born and English-speaking MLUS perceive and experience more discrimination than foreign-born Muslims. We explored the immigrant paradox in a representative sample of 350 MLUS (33% immigrants) as a function of (a) immigrant status, (b) acculturation levels, and (c) age of arrival in the United States (among immigrants). We conducted analyses of covariance and hierarchical regressions after administering standardized measures of discrimination, perceived Islamophobia in America, religiousness, acculturation, depression, anxiety, and stress (and controlling for covariates). United States-born participants reported greater experiences of discrimination and perceptions of Islamophobia. Both United States-born and more acculturated participants reported greater psychological distress, maladaptive religious coping, and religious struggles. Our findings support the presence of an immigrant paradox among MLUS, highlighting a need to extend accessible services to United States-born and more acculturated Muslims. Potential explanations for the paradox are discussed and have implications for future research in this area.
Immigrant Muslims living in the United States (MLUS) reported lower discrimination, psychological distress, maladaptive religious coping, and religious struggle, whereas more acculturated MLUS also reported greater psychological distress and religious struggle. This study provides initial support for the immigrant paradox among MLUS, signaling that United States-born and acculturated MLUS may need greater attention in research and clinical care.
This is a larger sample and contrasts recent immigrants with native and more acculturated Muslim-Americans. What I find interesting about the immigrant paradox, if it generalizes to other groups, is that it seems so counterintuitive. It would be easy to assume that postmigration stress is always detrimental. Here, however, it appears that the immigrant Muslims fare better than those here already. Of course, the studies are different in that the first one looks at parenting of teens while the latter looks at the experiences of adults themselves. Taken together, the two studies suggest the need for much more research and greater attention to stress in immigrants both initially and over time.