Immigrant Families and Stress
Presenter Biography
I am an MD/MPH student at OHSU-PSU, pursuing a career in internal medicine, with an interest in refugee and immigrant health.
Program/Major
MD/MPH (HMP track)
Student Level
Masters
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
4-10-2025 11:50 AM
End Date
4-10-2025 12:05 PM
Creative Commons License or Rights Statement
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43482
Subjects
Immigrant health, Stress, Social support
Abstract
Background: An improved understanding of the stressors and supports that immigrant parents experience can inform our ability to provide support and interventions and potentially improve children’s health. The goal of this study was to use a mixed methods approach to describe how Latino immigrant parents experienced stressors and their psychologic and biologic responses to those stressors.
Methods: Parents of children 3-6 years of age were recruited from a community partner serving a large immigrant population. Parents were eligible to participate if they were born outside of the United States. We conducted a semi-structured interview on immigration stress and sources of resilience along with surveys examining stressors and biologic measures of stress among children and parents.
Results: We enrolled 13 families in this study with 13 mothers, 11 fathers and 13 children participating in data collection. Parents reported moderate levels of perceived stress, immigration and discrimination stress, with no substantial differences between mothers and fathers. In the qualitative analysis, themes were defined around traumatic immigration experiences, social supports and coping mechanisms. Biologic stress measured by hair cortisol was overall within normal with only a notable outlying parental high value.
Discussion: This study found parents had experienced substantial stressors via the immigration process, but had strong social support and coping strategies. The interaction between parental stress and parenting strategies and child behavior warrants further analysis to better inform support systems.
Immigrant Families and Stress
Background: An improved understanding of the stressors and supports that immigrant parents experience can inform our ability to provide support and interventions and potentially improve children’s health. The goal of this study was to use a mixed methods approach to describe how Latino immigrant parents experienced stressors and their psychologic and biologic responses to those stressors.
Methods: Parents of children 3-6 years of age were recruited from a community partner serving a large immigrant population. Parents were eligible to participate if they were born outside of the United States. We conducted a semi-structured interview on immigration stress and sources of resilience along with surveys examining stressors and biologic measures of stress among children and parents.
Results: We enrolled 13 families in this study with 13 mothers, 11 fathers and 13 children participating in data collection. Parents reported moderate levels of perceived stress, immigration and discrimination stress, with no substantial differences between mothers and fathers. In the qualitative analysis, themes were defined around traumatic immigration experiences, social supports and coping mechanisms. Biologic stress measured by hair cortisol was overall within normal with only a notable outlying parental high value.
Discussion: This study found parents had experienced substantial stressors via the immigration process, but had strong social support and coping strategies. The interaction between parental stress and parenting strategies and child behavior warrants further analysis to better inform support systems.
