Poster #149 - Being a immigrant Latino mother in Chile

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

In the last years, Chile has been experiencing a growing process of international migration. Compared 2017 the percentage of immigrants increased from 4,4% to 7,5% by 2020.
Migrant families must adapt to a new environment, and sometimes to new customs and even a new language. The way in which this process takes place (acculturation) determines to a large extent the success of future trajectories in the new country. The acculturation process is especially challenging for migrant parents, as they have a double task. On the one hand, they themselves must understand and learn to navigate in a new culture, and on the other hand, they must socialize their children in a context that is not entirely familiar to them (Berry et al. 2006). The support and help they receive from their environment (e.g., health and social services) can play a critical role. However, in Chile most studies focus on their demographic aspects (e.g., educational level, income, age) and the barriers and difficulties they have to face (psychosocial stress, multidimensional poverty, etc) (Cabieses et al., 2017) but less on how migrant parents perceive the process of raising a child in Chile. Learning about possible sources of support and barriers may help to support immigrant parenting process in a better and more sensitive manner.
Informed by Weisner’s (2002) ecocultural model we examined parents socialization practices, values, and beliefs in a sample of Latino immigrant parents in Chile. We were interested in investigating whether their recognize “Chilean vs country of origin” parenting values and practices, their sources of support and contextual and personal challenges while raising their young children in Chile, and whether (and how) living in Chile has influenced their parenting practices.

We interviewed 17 immigrant mothers living in Santiago, Chile, aged between 22 and 46 years, all of them with the experience of having given birth to a child in Chile. Participants came from Venezuela (n=5), Peru (n=5), Colombia (n=6) and Dominican Republic (n=1), with a length of stay in Chile varying between 2 and 15 years. Most of them had university or technical studies (53%), while the rest had completed secondary school. Data were analyzed following the principles of grounded theory. The four themes and categories that emerged from the data are displayed in figure 1.

Findings from this study suggest that Latino immigrant mothers in Chile see important differences in their parenting practices and values compared to the Chilean society, but they recognize their children as Chilean and are willing to help them to develop a “Chilean identity”. The importance of maintaining a positive attitude in live, promote some fundamental values in parenting (especially respeto) and being a good example for their children are in line with previous studies with Latino immigrant parents in the U.S. (Aldoney & Cabrera, 2016).
This study provides a basis for generating hypotheses to be tested with larger datasets and informs the development of theory and culturally sensitive interventions support immigrant parents in Chile.

Authors

• Daniela Aldoney, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD)

• Maria Jose Mera, Universidad Santo Tomas
  Presenting Author