1996/97 PCERII Funded Research Abstract

Research Title: Stress of Immigrant Families with Adolescent Children Living in Areas without Ethnocultural Communities

Research Team: Dr. Cynthia Baker (University of Moncton) - Principal Investigator

Research Domain(s): Social

A field-study will be conducted to examine the stress experienced by immigrant parents of adolescent children who have settled in an area where there are no ethnocultural communities. Increased stress is common among Canadian families in general when children reach adolescence. It is a stage of family life that can be particularly problematic for immigrants. Cultural differences between parents and children may compound generational ones and the normal identity crises of adolescent may be exacerbated by racial issues. Studies have identified this stage of family life as one of two critical periods for heightened stress in the resettlement process. The first critical period occurs in the year or two following immigration when adaptation demands are highest. The support of a community of one's culture has been found to play an important role in mitigating the stress of this early critical period. Furthermore, the absence of an ethnocultural community at this time had been identified as a risk factor for the development of mental health problems. However, the impact of ethnocultural communities on the second critical period is undetermined. Neither the role played by the absence nor their presence on immigrant stress has been examined. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to identify, describe, and compare the level of stress, the perceived adolescent-rearing related stressors and the coping strategies used by immigrant parents from two regions of origin, Vietnam and India, who have settled in urban areas of New Brunswick. This province receives immigrants from many parts of the world but few from any one area and thus, has no ethnocultural communities.

A qualitative field-study approach will be used to obtain rich data to illuminate the situation under investigation. In-depth interviews will be conducted with 25 parents of adolescent children who have immigrated from Vietnam and 25 from India. Thus, the principal data collection instrument will be a flexible interview guide. Socio-demographic data will also be collected using a questionnaire developed for this purpose. Finally, in contrast to some qualitative methodologies, the field-study approach does not preclude adding some quantitative data and informants' level of stress will be measured using the General Health Questionnaire developed by Goldberg. This self-report instrument measures psychological distress in community samples, has been used in studies of diverse populations, and has reported good internal consistency. A validated French version of this scale exists (Vietnamese informants may have adopted French as their preferred official Canadian language). All three instruments will be submitted to panels of immigrant judges for evaluation of cultural appropriateness and will be pre-tested. The data will be collected by a trained interviewer from the same country of origin as the informants being interviewed. Snowball sampling will be used to recruit informants. The qualitative data will be analyzed concomitantly with data collection using coding and memoing strategies to reduce and interpret data. This study is conceived of as the first step of a larger project designed to examine the role played by both the absence and the presence of ethnocultural communities in the stress experienced by immigrant families with adolescent children.