Paternal Absence and International Migration: Stressors and Compensators Associated with the Mental Health of Mexican Teenagers of Rural Origin

Mexico-U.S. migration creates situations that may cause psychological distress. The purpose of this research project was to study the impact of father's physical absence due to international migration (FPAIM) on adolescent offspring of rural immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico. Stressors and comp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Adolescence 2004-12, Vol.39 (156), p.711-723
Main Authors: Aguilera-Guzman, Rosa Maria, de Snyder, V. Nelly Salgado, Romero, Martha, Medina-Mora, Maria Elena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absent fathers
Adolescent
Adolescents
Analysis
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child Abuse
Child development
Community Relations
Couple and family
Developmental psychology
Emigration and Immigration
Ethnic Groups
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Family (Sociological Unit)
Family - ethnology
Family - psychology
Father Absence
Father-Child Relations - ethnology
Fathers
Female
Foreign Countries
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Immigrants
Immigration
Interviews as Topic
Labor
Labor Migration
Latin American Cultural Groups
Life Change Events
Male
Mental health
Mexico
Mexico - ethnology
Migrant workers
Migrants
Migration
Parent Child Relations
Parents & parenting
Paternal Deprivation - ethnology
Place of Residence
Predictors
Psychological Distress
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Risk
Rural areas
Rural urban migration
Sex Differences
Sex Factors
Social psychology
Stress
Stress, Psychological - ethnology
Surveys and Questionnaires
Teaching Methods
Teenagers
Transients and Migrants - psychology
United States
Urban Areas
Young people
Youth
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Summary:Mexico-U.S. migration creates situations that may cause psychological distress. The purpose of this research project was to study the impact of father's physical absence due to international migration (FPAIM) on adolescent offspring of rural immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico. Stressors and compensators were studied from the adolescent's perspective and were analyzed using a stress-mediator-consequences theoretical framework. Qualitative (n = 24) and quantitative (n = 310) methodologies were used with a nonrandom sample of adolescents. Results show that the FPAIM is an ambivalent experience for adolescents that has positive and negative elements. Though migrants' children seem to be more vulnerable to psychosocial stress than are the offspring of nonmigrants, gender, not father's absence, appears to be the most important risk factor for psychological distress.
ISSN:0001-8449