Friday, 14 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Immigrants

Strengthening Intergenerational/Intercultural Ties in Immigrant Families (SITIF): A Culturally-Competent Intervention with Immigrant Parents

At the dawn of the 21st century, 11.5% of Americans are immigrants who originate primarily from Latin America and Asia. Furthermore, the majority of Latino and Asian American children are growing up in immigrant households. Research has documented their underutilization of services due to cultural barriers. In contrast, services that utilize a non-traditional format (such as education) and target community groups rather than specific individuals are significantly more likely to be embraced by them. The current presentation focuses on such a culturally-competent intervention that aims to ameliorate intergenerational/intercultural conflict in immigrant families. Intergenerational/intercultural conflict is a normative stressor in immigrant families and occurs because of differential rates of acculturation between immigrant parents and their children (Sluzki, 1979). Due to significant variation between Latin American and Asian values held by immigrant parents and majority American values that children immigrants increasingly embrace through immersion in American contexts, this intergenerational gap is likely to be particularly prominent. Research has shown that it is associated with negative mental health consequences in both parents and children. Strengthening Intergenerational/Intercultural Ties in Immigrant Families (SITIF) is a culturally-competent, community-based educational intervention that aims to enhance intergenerational intimacy in immigrant families regardless of country of origin. It presents intergenerational conflict to result from intercultural difference rather than parent or child’s individual psychopathology. Grounded in cognitive-behavioral and client-centered treatment approaches, SITIF promotes parents’ emotional awareness and empathy for their child’s experiences in majority American contexts, cognitive knowledge and understanding of differences between their native and majority American cultures, and behavioral parenting skills that engender intergenerational communication and intimacy.

Using a pre-post design, SITIF translated into Chinese and pilot-tested with immigrant Chinese parents. A total of 16 middle class and 14 working class parents who migrated at the age of 28 (SD=15) participated in the intervention and objective and subjective pre- and post assessments (also conducted in Chinese). Parents were strongly engaged with the intervention, attending, on averaged, 7 out of the 8 classes. They demonstrated mastery over the curriculum by answering correctly the majority of the objective items on the SITIF post-intervention test. Furthermore, subjectively, parents rated SITIF as highly effective (mean=4.73, SD=.34 on a 7-item 5-point Likert type scale). In addition, over 90% reported positive change in parenting method and relationship, as well as general personal change. Implications of the findings and directions for future research involving SITIF will be discussed.

Sluzki, C. (1979). Migration and family conflict. Family Process, 18, 379-355.

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