Considering Your Child's Mental Health as an Immigrant

Immigration can be complex. It may have different repercussions for families and individuals, especially children.

Some immigrant families have the money to consult third-party advisers for their move to another country.

But most immigrant families have experienced hardships, such as financial difficulties, social inequality, cultural barriers. These factors affect different generations of their family(1).

The individuals most susceptible to mental issues are the children. Even though these children did not experience the traumas of migration like their parents, they are affected by their parent’s emotional and psychological well-being(2).

Here are some issues children of immigrants experience and the risk factors they face.

Children of Immigrants and Their Most Common Issues

Some immigrant families flee from their home country because of war, persecution, or organized violence. They seek refuge by crossing their national borders to escape to other countries.

Most of these families have vulnerable children who are at risk of being abused and exploited. Some of the issues concerning these immigrant children are the following(3):

• Lack of access to health care and dental care
• Food scarcity
• Disease exposure
• Violence
• Human trafficking
• Injuries

In addition to these problems, these immigrants arrive in their host countries with acculturation stress(4). This stress comes from the emotional and mental challenges of adapting to a new culture.

Acculturation stress contributes to the psychological distress caused by migration to children(5).

These children enroll in schools and learn the new country’s language faster and conform with the new culture faster than their parents. So family tension may arise within the immigrant family.

This tension may result in separation, disharmony, or assault associated with the effects of a child’s poor mental health(6).

Immigrant families tend to depend on the children to act as a broker to their family’s survival at work and home(7).

Parents of these immigrant children often set high expectations for their children because of the parents’ enormous sacrifices during the migration process.

This mindset puts heavy pressure on the children to work for a better life for their family using limited resources and support.

This pressure also heightens the stress, depression, and anxiety of children(8). According to a study, the prevalence of psychological distress among children immigrants has nearly doubled compared to first-generation immigrant parents(9).

The psychological distress defined in the study is the feeling of restlessness, nervousness, depression, worthlessness, and hopelessness.

Non-profit organizations and religious groups offer aid and support to the immigrants’ families instead of the state. Thus, the insufficient resources leave the children of these immigrant families to assume the supporting role to their family(10).

Children of immigrant families need to look out for their parents’ well-being. They are also expected to support their parents emotionally, financially, and socially(11). These caregiving duties may lead to the development of mental health conditions in these children(12).

Interventions to Help With Immigrant Children’s Mental Health

One of the psychosocial interventions meant to help juveniles who experienced traumatic circumstances is the Teaching Recovery Technique(13).

This method is used to reduce these children's discomfort and post-traumatic symptoms and improve their social relations. It focuses on emotional management, conflict resolutions, and survival competency(14).

However, these interventions are still limited and lacking. These children do not seek healthcare due to the cost and trust issues they may have(15).

Immigrant families should highly consider these practices to help protect their children’s mental well-being(16):

• It may be protective for immigrant foster children to be assigned to foster parents of the exact ethnic origin.
• Another factor that may be considered is letting them be part of two-parent families so they can experience high family cohesion and stronger interpersonal communication and support.
• Being part of a supportive community of immigrants from the same origin country may help improve their mental health.
• Community acceptance and safety in the neighborhood may also offer mental health protection for these immigrant children.

Risk Factors in Mental Health Assessment

The top three common risk factors for children immigrants’ mental health issues are behavioral, emotional, and relational problems.

These reminders and factors should be considered when assessing the mental health risk of these children(17):

1. Children part of single-parent families or immigrant families whose family compositions have been disrupted due to death have a high risk of parental mental illness.
2. High education levels do not shield these children from post-traumatic disorders.
3. Some immigrant children lived in the ethnic enclaves far and isolated from mainstream society. This factor may spark intergenerational conflict within the family.
4. Food insecurity and inadequate housing are cumulative risk factors in any immigrant family with limited resources and support services.
5. Some children who are linguistically challenged and living with depressed family members are at a high risk of behavioral and emotional problems.
6. There may be pre-existing emotional or cognitive disabilities among these children that may cause maladaptation.
7. Perceptions of cultural differences and prejudice may be linked to poor acculturation and contribute to the symptoms of stress in children.

References

1. Think Global Health, (n.d.), Children of Immigrants and Their Mental Health Needs, retrieved from https://www.thinkglobalhealth....-mental-health-needs
2. Ibid.
3. Khan, F., Eskander, N., Limbana, T., Salman, Z., Siddiqui, P. A., & Hussaini, S. (2020). Refugee and Migrant Children's Mental Healthcare: Serving the Voiceless, Invisible, and the Vulnerable Global Citizens. Cureus, 12(8), e9944. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.9944
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Think Global Health, Op. Cit.
8. Ibid.
9. Mancenido, A., Williams, E.C. & Hajat, A. Examining Psychological Distress Across Intersections of Immigrant Generational Status, Race, Poverty, and Gender. Community Ment Health J 56, 1269–1274 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00584-w
10. Think Global Health, Op. Cit.
11. Ibid.
12. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, (n.d.), Culture's Influence on Stressors, Parental Socialization, and Developmental Processes in the Mental Health of Children of Immigrants., retrieved from https://www.annualreviews.org/...?journalCode=clinpsy
13. Khan, F., Eskander, N., Limbana, T., Salman, Z., Siddiqui, P. A., & Hussaini, S. (2020). Refugee and Migrant Children's Mental Healthcare: Serving the Voiceless, Invisible, and the Vulnerable Global Citizens. Cureus, 12(8), e9944. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.9944
14. Ibid.
15. Think Global Health, Op. Cit.
16. American Academy of Pediatrics, (n.d.), Immigrant Child Health Toolkit, retrieved from https://www.aap.org/en-us/advo...motional-Health.aspx
17. Ibid.