Parenting in the Context of Deportation: A Study of Undocumented Families in Texas

Background. An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. and roughly 6 million have children. For undocumented immigrant parents, life in the U.S. is met with considerable challenges (e.g., the threat of deportation and family separation). However, little research has examined the experiences of undocumented individuals and their family life. The goal of the current study was to: (a) identify the unique stressors related to parenting in the context of deportation risk, and (b) describe how stress relates to depression in a sample of undocumented Latino parents.

Methods. Using a sequential, exploratory, mixed-methods design, 40 semi-structured interviews and surveys were collected from participants in two Texas cities. Participants were included if they were over age 18, reported being undocumented, and had at least one child under 18 years old. Qualitative interviews comprised four sections: migration experience, life as an undocumented immigrant, parenting children in the context of deportation risk, and the emotional impact of legal status on the parent and child’s mental health. Two measures from the survey instrument, the Hispanic Stress Inventory (HSI) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), were used in the analysis. The HSI has 72 items (α= 0.91), which comprise 5 subscales: parenting, immigration, economic, cultural, and marital stress. The PHQ-9 is a screening tool for depression and has been validated with Latino populations. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data, while quantitative data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlations.

Results. Participants were mostly female (n=34, 85%) and from Mexico (n=39, 97.5%). The average household size was 5 and the average number of children was 3. 78% of the participants lived continuously in the U.S. since their initial migration. Qualitative interviews revealed stress related to transnational parenting, intergeneration dynamics, structural and communication barriers, and involvement in children’s education. “Life undocumented is like being in prison, a bird in a cage.” Parenting stress was exacerbated by fear of arrest and/or fear that children might increase attention to the family, which may lead to subsequent deportation; “I am not the only one affected, my whole family is worried about me being arrested. I don’t go out late and when I do, they are calling to check on me.” Parents reported trauma associated with their border crossing and separation from family in their home countries. Quantitative results confirmed the impact of these stressors on mental health. Among parents, 8% experienced mild, 12.5% moderate, and 5% severe depressive symptomology. Depression was associated with the total HSI stress score (r = 0.39, p = 0.01). Specifically, there was a significant and positive relation between depression and parenting (r = 0.36, p = 0.02), economic (r =0.31, p = 0.05), and immigration (0.38, p = 0.02) stress subscales.

Implications. Parenting in the context of deportation risk is associated with unique stressors that are related to greater depressive symptomology in this population. While immigrant families with children represent a significant proportion of the U.S. population, legal status has marginalized these families, making it difficult to fully understand their mental health needs.