This study investigated the challenges and parent-adolescent relationship factors that contribute to resilience and the successful adjustment of Bangladeshi families following immigration to Canada. The systems framework of family resilience (Walsh, 2006) was used to interpret how Bangladeshi immigrant adolescents and parents experienced and navigated immigration challenges. Using a qualitative approach, four adolescent girls and four parents of adolescents were interviewed to inquire into their experience of challenges related to adolescent development, the immigrant experiences, and parentadolescent relationships influencing their post-immigration adjustment. Immigrant adolescents faced language and cultural barriers, bullying and discrimination in their school environment while rituals, customs and values from their culture of origin diminished. They felt pressured by their parent’s career expectations and felt they suffered gender discrimination in the family. Parents faced economic and career challenges and a difficult parenting experience. Optimism about the future, parental encouragement, mutual empathy of each other’s struggles, sharing feelings, open and clear communication, flexibility in parenting style and anchoring in cultural values and religious beliefs helped parents and adolescents become more resilient in maintaining a positive outlook with a positive view of their immigration. In some cases, the challenges of immigration pulled the families closer together in mutual support. It is hoped that findings from this study will assist in developing effective social programmes to ease adolescents’ and parents’ transitions among immigrants and to promote resiliency in immigrant families. / ix, 133 leaves ; 29 cm

The purpose of this study was to investigate the developmental outcomes of Chinese American children's social competence in their transition to elementary school. In this study, I used a mixed-methods research design. The first part of the study was a secondary analysis of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort. I examined cultural differences in the effects of parental warmth, parental SES, parent-child communication, and children's participation in peer-oriented structured extracurricular activities on the social development of European American and Chinese American children. For the second part of the study, I developed questions based on the findings of the quantitative analysis and conducted interviews to further explore how Chinese immigrant mothers' parenting beliefs and practices contributed to their children's development of social competence. The results showed that in Chinese immigrant families, parental SES influenced parent-child communication, which in turn promoted children's social competence. Parental SES, but not parental warmth, predicted their children's participation in peer-oriented structured extracurricular activities. Years of stay in the U.S. positively predicted children's participation in peer-oriented structured extracurricular activities, while it negatively predicted parent-child communication in Chinese immigrant families. The qualitative data suggested that Chinese immigrant mothers facilitated their children's social development by giving them verbal guidance for peer problems, encouraging conversations at home, and serving as role models for their children. Children's activity participation was restricted by the affordability of activities and parents' ability to provide transportation for their children. The Chinese immigrant mothers perceived taking on daily responsibilities and spending quality time together with their children as ways to express love toward them. These mothers' childrearing practices were influenced by the generational gap and acculturation. This study broadens our understanding of Chinese American children's development of social competence in their transition to formal schooling. It contributes new knowledge about 1) cultural differences in the effects of parental warmth and SES on parent-child communication; 2) the influences of parental SES on parent-child communication and Chinese American children's participation in peer-oriented structured extracurricular activities; and 3) the effect of years of stay in the U.S. on parent-child communication in Chinese immigrant families. / text

Thesis advisor: Eric Dearing / Family educational involvement has been identified as a particularly beneficial practice for the achievement and behavioral outcomes of all students, including ethnic-minority students from families who have low levels of income, education, and English language proficiency. However, despite the associated benefits and education policymakers' emphasis on increasing family-school partnerships, not all families are involved and the explanation for differing involvement patterns has not been fully explored. In general, immigrant families engage in fewer educational involvement activities in comparison to their native-born counterparts. Although they want their children to excel in school, many face socio-cultural barriers to educational involvement. Moreover, most schools are not equipped to meet their non-academic needs. On the other hand, immigrant families tend to have close family and community ties, which have been linked to family and child well-being. As a result, social capital may be an asset of immigrant families that can be leveraged to promote their educational involvement. With a selective focus on immigrant children and families from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 189), this dissertation relied on path analyses to garner empirical support for a theoretically-based model linking social capital with family perceptions and attributions, home- and school-based family educational involvement, and student outcomes (i.e., achievement, behavior problems, positive behavior). Results demonstrated that social support was positively associated with immigrant families' self-efficacy and perceptions of opportunities for involvement. In turn, families with higher levels of self-efficacy engaged in more home-based involvement activities. Children in immigrant families with a role construction around education in alignment with the dominant culture of the U.S. demonstrated better child achievement but worse behavior outcomes than children from immigrant families with a role construction unaligned with dominant U.S. culture. Lastly, in contrast to extant literature, immigrant families' school-based educational involvement was not associated with any family perceptions or attributes or child outcomes. Implications of both significant and null findings are discussed for developmental science, practice, and policy. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.

This dissertation investigated the impacts of regulatory policies on well-being of immigrant families and low-income families, which offers evidence for policymakers to evaluate the necessity of employing harsh measures. In the first paper, I used the nationally representative National Health Interview Survey (2000-2012) to study the health and mental health impacts of local immigration enforcement policies, under Section 287(g) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and the Secure Communities Program. I found some evidence of local immigration enforcement policies negatively impacting the mental health and self-rated health of Latino immigrants. In the second paper, I explored relationships between participation in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and parental investments in children, and how stringencies in state TANF policy requirements impacted the relationships. I used the 2004 and 2008 panels of Survey on Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and found that TANF participation was associated with increased family meal times and decreased incidences of family outings and reading time. TANF participation was not associated with other areas of parenting (e.g., extracurricular activity participation, family rules on watching TV, positive parenting, parenting stress, and parental expectation). Also, stringent state TANF policy characteristics were not associated with negative parenting behaviors. In the last paper, I investigated how the stringencies of state TANF policy were associated with single mothers’ long-term trajectories of welfare use, labor supply, and earned income. I used the 1996, 2001, and 2004 panels of SIPP data (1996-2007), covering the decade following TANF implementation. Findings indicated that stringent state TANF policies were strongly related to single mothers’ lower likelihood to participate in TANF; however, single mothers used other welfare programs (e.g., SNAP and SSI) to the same extent as single mothers living in states with less stringent TANF policies. Also, stringent policies did not lead to higher levels of labor supply or earned income.

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This dissertation is a study on Mexican-American families focusing on undocumented parents with U.S. born children. I argue that these families represent the most contemporary wave of migrants to enter the United States without documentation since the late 1990s and early 2000s. Research on social inequality situates transmission processes between parents and children, I show how undocumented status can be transmitted and experienced through the creation of a particular social context that encapsulates entire families, including U.S. born children. States, which adopt a legal and institutional framework, aimed at restricting immigrant rights present social and cultural challenges for these parent’s, and their children’s integration experiences. I examine how a process of racialization tied to immigration status translates to what it means to be Mexican American. I observe the ways that social support and intra-group relations across Mexican-American communities are weakened because of the increasing stigmatizing element that is undocumented status. By qualitatively capturing families’ experiences across North Carolina and New York, I highlight the meaning and consequences of legal status and detail how it is hindering this group’s progression overall. How families experience undocumented status varies across the individual, community and state levels. Families are learning to adapt to enforcement measures that merely serve to sustain a durable form of inequality that I argue is creating a new Mexican-American experience.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 257-269).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Open access. Includes bibliographical references (p. 214-223). Print copy also available.

M.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Teacher educator preparation programs play a central role in preparing teachers and practitioners who work with children with exceptionalities, immigrants, and English language learners (ELL), among others. Research indicates that immigrants, ELL, and children with exceptionalities benefit from effective family-professional partnerships in several ways. Family-professional relationships are also key in producing positive educational outcomes for vulnerable and children who are at-risk. The following layers of partnerships and relationships are discussed: university-based educator preparation programs (EPPs) and K-12 schools; immigrant families and K-12 schools; and teachers/caregivers in K-12 schools and immigrant children/ELL, including children with exceptionalities. The benefits of positive partnerships and relationships are discussed. These include positive educational outcomes for children and their families, positive outcomes for children's school readiness, enhanced quality of life for families and their children, family engagement in children's programs, strengthening of home-school program connection, and trust-building for all stakeholders.