Abstract
Immigration is a growing social dynamic in many countries, eliciting a variety of different responses. Proponents of immigration note how the influx of new people into the United States (US) has enhanced the workforce and brought cultural enrichment; others have attributed to immigrants, particularly undocumented, a rise in crime and strains on social services. Consequently, immigrants often contend with discrimination and other unique stressors that increase the likelihood that immigration will be a traumatizing experience. Because scholarly focus on the impact of immigration upon psychological wellbeing typically highlights individual experiences, there is limited attention on the impact on immigrant families, particularly mixed-status families comprised of immigrant parents and children who are US citizens by birth. There is also limited attention on immigrant dynamics in the Southern US. This qualitative, thematic analysis explores the experiences of 71 pairs of Latinx immigrant mothers and their US citizen children, living in the Southern US, utilizing the lens of intergenerational transmission of trauma. Using narrative data taken from trauma assessment instruments, the authors identified the most prevalent themes shared by the mothers and their children as crime victimization, deportation, threats to family health, sexual abuse, and marital conflict.
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Phipps, R., Stivers, R., Dawson, V. et al. Thematic Analysis of Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma in Latinx Immigrant Families in the Southern US. Int J Adv Counselling 44, 298–317 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-022-09467-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-022-09467-z