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 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.
Aguilera-Guzmán
Rosa María
RM
Psychosocial Research on the NIPRF, Col SanLorenzo Huipulco, Tlalpan, Mexico 14370, DF. aguilera@imp.edu.mx
de Snyder
V Nelly Salgado
VN
Romero
Martha
M
Medina-Mora
María Elena
ME
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005190:Family / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D005219:Father-Child Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D010333:Paternal Deprivation / Q000208:ethnology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States