Parent refugee status, immigration stressors, and Southeast Asian youth violence.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the effects of parents' experience of traumatic events on violence among Southeast Asian and Chinese youth. The study examines independent effects of parents' refugee camp experiences and immigration stress on serious or family/partner violence among youth. Findings contribute evidence on the intergenerational effects of community-level trauma that can help policy makers better integrate family and community strategies to reduce youth violence.


METHODS
Obtained cross-sectional, face-to-face interview data including peer delinquency, parental engagement, parental discipline, serious violence, and family/partner violence from a sample of 329 Chinese and Southeast Asian adolescents. Measures of socioeconomic status, refugee status, and immigration stressors were collected from their respective parents. Data were analyzed using LISREL 8.54 for structural equation modeling.


RESULTS
Findings show that parents' refugee status facilitated serious violence, and was fully mediated by peer delinquency and parental engagement, but for Vietnamese only. Parents' refugee status was also significantly related to family/partner violence, and mediated by peer delinquency. This relationship was not observed among the other Asian ethnic groups. The immigration stress variable had no significant effects on either serious violence or family/partner violence.


CONCLUSIONS
Refugee communities may not transform easily into stereotypical immigrant Asian communities characterized by little youth violence. Results suggest that the refugee process, as experienced second-hand through the children of refugees, has a strong effect on externally oriented violence (serious violence) and on family/partner violence for particular subgroups. Therefore, community-oriented policy makers should join social workers in developing programs to address youth violence in Southeast Asian families and communities. Findings have implications for other forms of community trauma such as natural disasters.
Spencer
James H
JH
Department of Urban, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Manoa, Hawaii, USA. jhs@hawaii.edu
Le
Thao N
TN
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002160:Cambodia / Q000208:ethnology; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000208:ethnology*; D007812:Laos / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting; D012036:Refugees / Q000523:psychology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D014744:Vietnam / Q000208:ethnology; D014754:Violence / Q000208:ethnology*