Parenting in Context

Research with Immigrant and Minority Parents

Principle Investigator: Dr. Lisseth Rojas-Flores

These research projects aim to learn about some of the culturally and contextually unique challenges faced by immigrant families in raising their children in the United States. The purpose of the Child-rearing values and practices of Salvadoran parents living in the US and El Salvador study is to explore the impact of community violence exposure on parenting practices and values of Central American parents. Focus groups explore the role that spirituality and the church play in buffering some of the ill effects of community violence and trauma. The impact of immigration and acculturation is also explored with surveys and focus groups. Two other studies aim to advance the limited research on Asian immigrant families by identifying factors that contribute to the quality of parent-child relationships among Asian immigrant parents and their children. As parent-child relationships have been demonstrated to have an especially strong impact on children’s adjustment and outcomes, one qualitative study sought to explore immigrant Asian parents’ perspective on parenting in the US. Another quantitative study examines the associations between the parent-child acculturative gap, quality of communication, and quality of parent-child relationships in a sample of Asian American adolescents (N = 141). Our ultimate goal is to design  culturally sensitive parenting programs that can be helpful to immigrant and minority families.

Research Team (in alphabetical order): Jennifer Clark, Marisol De Jesus-Perez, Tyson Grubb, Emily Hong, Rebecca Kulzer, Elizabeth Lin, Sarah Moon, and Jenel Ramos.