Poster #136 - A Qualitative Investigation of the Effects of War, Flee, Displacement and Resettlement on Parenting

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Background:

The process of becoming and being a refugee places immense stress on individuals which can compromise parents’ ability to provide adequate psychological and emotional care for their children (Timshel, Montgomery, & Dalgraad, 2017). Children from refugee families who have resettled in high income countries are at an increased risk for child maltreatment, in comparison to immigrant children (Euser, van IJzendoorn, Prinzie, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2010; 2011). Yet we know little about pathways that lead to such outcomes. In the present study, we examined (1) what war-induced stressors parents experienced along the multiple phases of the refugee process; namely prewar, war, flight, displacement and resettlement; and (2) how and why those stressors shaped parenting practices for recently arrived Syrian refugee families in the Netherlands. This study informs science by increasing our understanding of the stressors that cause parenting practices to change, and through which mechanisms these stressors change parenting practices. It feeds practice by identifying areas of strengths and difficulties these families face, which could guide clinicians and intervention workers working with families along the refugee process.

Methods: We interviewed parents twice using semi-structured interviews, spaced a week apart. First interviews focused on parenting in pre-war times; and second interviews focused on parenting in post-war times. Sample: Sixteen families (16 mothers and 11 fathers; age: M = 38.1, SD = 7.2) with a child under the age of 12 (M = 7.6, SD = 3.4), who were exposed to the Syrian war with their children, and who were recently resettled in the Netherlands.

We used a grounded theory approach (Glaser & Straus, 1967); (1) coding different incidents in the data into as many categories as possible (e.g., statements about parenting were coded under both; a parenting category, and a phase category signaling which practice it is and when it was evident), (2) we compared incidents in the data with different categories; and finally (3) we reduced the number of different terms to arrive at a parsimonious formulation that’s applicable to a wide range of situations. Coding was conducted while data-collection was ongoing to allow for tailoring of questioning, to facilitate code saturation (Glaser & Holton, 2004; Holton, 2007).

Results: First, parents experienced financial and material losses which impacted families through increasing role strain and changing housing arrangements, reducing parental involvement and limit setting. Second, parents suffered from family separations, which led to reduced involvement, warmth, and increased punitive measures. And finally, post-migration stressors impacted families through a marked loss of status, acculturative stress, and an acculturation gap between parents and children. More resourceful parents (e.g., highly educated) increased involvement with children, reasoned more, and used less punitive measures than in prewar times.

Discussion
While financial stressors, had somehow similar effects on families (e.g., reducing warmth and increasing harshness); post-migration stressors impacted families differently. Furthermore, families, in general, showed a certain degree of resilience despite the adverse experiences they went through.

Authors

• Hend M Eltanamly, University of Amsterdam
  Presenting Author

• Patty Leijten, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Floor van Rooij, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Geertjan Overbeek, University of Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author