Coping Strategies of Immigrant Parents: Directions for Family Therapy

Immigration often involves major changes in the physical, cultural, and social settings in which families function and develop. In the process of immigration, parents are often confronted with totally different child-rearing practices and ideologies held by the socializing agents of the host culture. This article proposes an ecological approach for dealing with these differences. Based on this approach, it is suggested that an “adaptive adult” image underlies child-rearing ideologies and practices in different cultures. The article presents a differential perspective based on three types of coping strategies typically adopted by immigrant families struggling with conflicting “adaptive adult” images. This perspective challenges the prevailing notion that differences result in long-term malfunctioning of the child and family. Finally, the article outlines motives for choosing a specific strategy and suggests directions for family therapy using the proposed conceptual framework.