Exploring recent immigrant children’s perceptions of interactions with parents before and after immigration to Canada

ABSTRACT

Immigration is a major life experience that changes family dynamics and can increase stress and internalizing symptoms in some children. Very few studies have documented these changes using the perspectives of children themselves. This study relied on a convergent mixed-method design (quan + QUAL) and focused on the family representations after immigration of 33 children (6–13 years) who had recently immigrated to Canada. To explore the distinctions between children who experienced this transition more positively and less so, participants were divided into two groups according to whether they had low/normative (n = 23) or clinically significant (n = 10) levels of internalizing symptoms. Family dynamics in the immigration context were documented and compared between the two groups with the aim of identifying potential risk or resilience factors that are significant from children’s perspectives. In both groups, children reported increased time spent with their father following immigration. Children with low/normative internalizing symptoms reported greater diversity in interactions with their parents after immigration. A need for cohesion was frequently mentioned by children who had clinically significant internalizing symptoms. By drawing attention to factors considered important from the perspectives of immigrant children, this exploratory research will help future studies to identify potential resilience factors in that young population.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigration
• parent-children interactions
• resilience
• children-centered research
• children
• family

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the families and especially the children who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Other questions were asked of the children as part of the project L’enfant immigrant et sa famille : Écouter pour mieux comprendre, but only the questions used in this study have been presented here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC): [Grant Number 430-2016-00468].