"Vine a Superarme": Exploring Central American Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth's Perspectives on Coping and Resilience

Background and Purpose:

Unaccompanied immigrant minors (UMs) are likely to experience trauma and adverse migration-related events, placing them at a heightened risk of mental health challenges after resettling in the United States. There is a significant gap in qualitative studies that capture youth coping experiences with the adjustment that comes from migration from their perspective, which has important implications for social work practice with this population. Amid increased immigration enforcement, it is critical to develop and provide services that promote the resilience and adjustment of this vulnerable immigrant population. This qualitative study employed arts-based research to explore UM’s coping experiences after resettlement in an urban California city.

Methods:

This qualitative phenomenological study engaged six UMs from one urban school in California using body-mapping and testimonio interviews. Body mapping involves engaging participants in using art materials to respond to interview questions on a life-sized body map, eliciting visual and symbolic data that reflects subjective experiences (Gastaldo et al., 2012). Three one-hour, in-person, individual sessions of body mapping were completed. A semi-structured interview protocol guided each session’s body mapping activity, eliciting information about migration, mental health, and future aspirations.

Participants were recruited via purposive snowball sampling and were 18 or 19 years old, three identified as female, and three identified as male. All participants had migrated from Central America within the last three years at the time of the interview, and spoke Spanish. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Photographs were taken of the completed body maps to be analyzed alongside transcriptions. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

Results:

Data analysis revealed a core experience among participants, “Vine a superarme” (I came to improve myself), which reflects how UMs actively coped with changes in their lives after resettling by remaining committed to their aspirations rooted in personal and familial needs and demonstrating personal growth throughout this period of adjustment. Three themes were identified: holding onto dreams, overcoming trauma, and symbolizing a hopeful future. Participants created visual representations reflecting hope and inner strength.

Implications:

This study suggests that despite adversity, UMs express hope in the possibilities of their future and visualize their inner strength and growth as signs of coping post-migration. Findings reveal important insights for social workers serving UM’s, emphasizing the role of art and a strengths-based approach in allowing youth to visualize and symbolize their inner strengths, stories, and future aspirations to incorporate into practice and treatment planning. Recognizing resilience and coping resources supports trauma recovery, strengthens collaborative relationships between service providers and the youth they serve, and informs more responsive, strengths-based interventions.