Saraí Blanco Martinez, Jasmin Aramburu, Joel Lucio, E. Grimes, F. Cross
{"title":"Sharing the Burden: Latinx Immigrant Parents and Teens’ Sociopolitical Discussions and Their Impact on Youth Mental Health","authors":"Saraí Blanco Martinez, Jasmin Aramburu, Joel Lucio, E. Grimes, F. Cross","doi":"10.1155/2023/6619066","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background. There is limited research on parent-child discussions about sociopolitical issues in the US and how they take place. There is less known about the role of sociopolitical conversations as a protective factor benefitting immigrant youth and families. We draw on the ecological expansion of the adverse childhood experience framework to better understand how immigrant-origin youth are making sense of restrictive immigration policies coupled with cultural and sociopolitical messaging received from parents. Methods. Participants engaged in one-hour virtual interviews between 2020 and 2021. We conducted ten interviews with undocumented Latinx parents and 10 interviews with their adolescents aged 13-17. Results. Three main themes emerged from parent interviews: (1) sociopolitical socialization and youth agency, (2) documentation status socialization, and (3) emotional and mental health well-being. Findings show that parents use storytelling to share messages about race, culture, and immigration and provide counternarratives to the toxic sociopolitical environment. Four themes emerged from youth interviews: (1) sociopolitical awareness and action; (2) youth taking on a protective role; (3) learning about risks, injustices, and privileges; and (4) mental health. Youth shared a desire for sociopolitical education and reported a range of coping mechanisms against anti-immigrant rhetoric. Conclusion and Implication. Our findings provide a greater understanding of communication practices within Latinx mixed-status immigrant families, by drawing on both parent and youth reports. These findings can inform practitioners and researchers alike of the amplified systemic barriers felt by immigrant families during the pandemic and the urgency of supporting them as they fight for their rights and dignity.","PeriodicalId":47745,"journal":{"name":"New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/6619066","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background. There is limited research on parent-child discussions about sociopolitical issues in the US and how they take place. There is less known about the role of sociopolitical conversations as a protective factor benefitting immigrant youth and families. We draw on the ecological expansion of the adverse childhood experience framework to better understand how immigrant-origin youth are making sense of restrictive immigration policies coupled with cultural and sociopolitical messaging received from parents. Methods. Participants engaged in one-hour virtual interviews between 2020 and 2021. We conducted ten interviews with undocumented Latinx parents and 10 interviews with their adolescents aged 13-17. Results. Three main themes emerged from parent interviews: (1) sociopolitical socialization and youth agency, (2) documentation status socialization, and (3) emotional and mental health well-being. Findings show that parents use storytelling to share messages about race, culture, and immigration and provide counternarratives to the toxic sociopolitical environment. Four themes emerged from youth interviews: (1) sociopolitical awareness and action; (2) youth taking on a protective role; (3) learning about risks, injustices, and privileges; and (4) mental health. Youth shared a desire for sociopolitical education and reported a range of coping mechanisms against anti-immigrant rhetoric. Conclusion and Implication. Our findings provide a greater understanding of communication practices within Latinx mixed-status immigrant families, by drawing on both parent and youth reports. These findings can inform practitioners and researchers alike of the amplified systemic barriers felt by immigrant families during the pandemic and the urgency of supporting them as they fight for their rights and dignity.
期刊介绍:
The mission of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in the field of child and adolescent development. Each issue focuses on a specific new direction or research topic, and is peer reviewed by experts on that topic. Any topic in the domain of child and adolescent development can be the focus of an issue. Topics can include social, cognitive, educational, emotional, biological, neuroscience, health, demographic, economical, and socio-cultural issues that bear on children and youth, as well as issues in research methodology and other domains. Topics that bridge across areas are encouraged, as well as those that are international in focus or deal with under-represented groups. The readership for the journal is primarily students, researchers, scholars, and social servants from fields such as psychology, sociology, education, social work, anthropology, neuroscience, and health. We welcome scholars with diverse methodological and epistemological orientations.