Content area
Mexico-U.S. migration creates situations that may cause psychological distress. The purpose of this research project was to study the impact of father's physical absence due to international migration (PPAIM) on adolescent offspring of rural immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico. Stressors and compensators were studied from the adolescent's perspective and were analyzed using a stress-mediator-consequences theoretical framework. Qualitative (n = 24) and quantitative (n = 310) methodologies were used with a nonrandom sample of adolescents. Results show that the FPAIM is an ambivalent experience for adolescents that has positive and negative elements. Though migrants' children seem to be more vulnerable to psychosocial stress than are the offspring of nonmigrants, gender, not father's absence, appears to be the most important risk factor for psychological distress. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Full text
ABSTRACT
Mexico-U.S. migration creates situations that may cause psychological distress. The purpose of this research project was to study the impact of father's physical absence due to international migration (PPAIM) on adolescent offspring of rural immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico. Stressors and compensators were studied from the adolescent's perspective and were analyzed using a stress-mediator-consequences theoretical framework. Qualitative (n = 24) and quantitative (n = 310) methodologies were used with a nonrandom sample of adolescents. Results show that the FPAIM is an ambivalent experience for adolescents that has positive and negative elements. Though migrants' children seem to be more vulnerable to psychosocial stress than are the offspring of nonmigrants, gender, not father's absence, appears to be the most important risk factor for psychological distress.
Studies have reported that labor migration from Mexico to the United States is a dynamic process that has an economic and social basis in the structures of both the communities of origin and those of migrants' destination. This process is perpetuated through networks of social relations that facilitate movement from one country to another as a survival strategy at various stages of the family cycle (Massey, Alarcon, Durand, & Gonzalez, 1991). The spread of globalization has shown that migratory flows reflect economic oscillations in specific sectors of the receiving economy and the needs of its labor market more than any other factors. From the perspective of the sending country, "migration is a cruel manifestation of misery: the need to survive requires the uprooting and modification of personal, family, community, cultural, linguistic, and religious links" (Maza, 1997).
Male labor migration to the U.S. has changed traditional family dynamics in the communities of origin in Mexico. One of these changes involves the emergence of a semi-present father who is able to participate in his children's upbringing only for short periods of time (De Keijzer, 1998). In fact, many children and adolescents in rural and urban areas of some Mexican states grow up without the everyday physical presence of their biological fathers.
Studies have also reported that the U.S. is regarded by the inhabitants of the communities of origin as a "necessary evil" due to the fact that local economies depend largely on money sent by migrants (Moctezuma, 1999; Padilla, 1998). Paradoxically, in communities with a high incidence of sending, male migration as a strategy for supporting the family's goal of financial independence often leads to a weakening of the paternal sense of obligation (D'Aubeterre, 2000) while the father's absence may become a risk factor for the healthy psychological development of his offspring (Sanchez-Sosa & Hernandez-Guzman, 1992).
In a more recent theoretical approach to migration, Golring (quoted by D'Aubeterre, 2000), regards migrants as "creative social actors" since they not only manage to transcend the limitations of their economic and social positions but participate in the transformation of the social and political practices around them. The literature on migration and families emphasizes the reconfiguration of the limits of migrant communities and the reorganization of social and family life in more than one geographical space, giving rise to transnational social spaces and families with more than one place of residence (Salgado de Snyder, Diaz-Perez, Acevedo, & Natera, 1996; Salgado de Snyder & Diaz-Guerrero, 2002; Moctezuma, 1999).
These historical, cultural and social processes, however, produce Stressors that may expose migrants to the risk of illness. Stressors emerge from contextual limitations and demands, due either to class, gender or ethnic group and are the result of the simultaneous confluence of demands from the environment and insufficient or inadequate resources for adaptation. Within this process, the socially molded significance of the demands of a person's surroundings, and the resources and supports available for dealing with them is crucial. These factors must be analyzed together since demands and resources exert a mutual influence on each other (Dressier, 1996).
With regard to the role played by men as fathers in Mexican families, migrants' families constitute a microcosm in which members live outside the norms of the conjugal nuclear family (De Keijzer, 1998). However, as in any family, the intimate sphere of these families is the scene of consensus and support as well as conflict and struggle (Salles & Tuiran, 1998). The specific importance of fathers' physical absence due to international migration translates into more familial, social, and labor responsibilities for migrants' wives and children (Salgado de Snyder, 1992; Salgado de Snyder et al., 1996; D'Aubeterre, 1995; Marroni, 2000). Consequently, from the perspective of the families that stay behind in the communities of origin, international migration as a strategy for family survival tends to occur at the expense of women, since its costs and benefits are not evenly distributed (Marroni, 2000).
Conversely, data from research on female-headed households show that in this type of household, members have greater well-being precisely because of the father's physical absence (Chant, 1988). Although this absence translates into fewer incidents of intra-familial violence and child abuse, it also leads to greater poverty (Gonzalez, 1988).
As a sector of the population, teenagers are part of these historic processes and experience the same difficult social and familial relations as do adults in the communities that contribute high numbers of migrants. In a culture of migration, adolescents are faced with the social mandate of becoming labor migrants as part of their transition from adolescence to adulthood (Moctezuma, 1999).
Thus, paternal absence is a conflictive, stressful situation that is difficult for children to evaluate, since it involves both negative and positive aspects. These have not yet been totally identified or assessed in previous research.
This study forms part of a broader investigation (Ausenda Paterna y Migratión International: Estresores y Compensadores Relacionados con la Salud Mental de Adolescentes Tempranos) whose general objective was to identify the Stressors and compensators associated with paternal physical absence, ascertain their cognitive assessment and determine their relationship to the psychological well-being of early teenagers who are the offspring of labor migrants in the United States. This article reports only on aspects related to the identification and systematization of these Stressors and compensators in order to understand them from teenagers' point of view and experiences.
METHOD
In order to achieve the objectives of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methodology were applied.
Qualitative Phase
Design. In keeping with the methodology suggested by Kanner, Feldman, Weinberger, and Ford (1987), the Stressors and compensators associated with FPAIM were investigated from the point of view of teenagers in rural communities.The areas explored included: relationship with absent father, peers, family, and their communities, and essential facts about the teenagers. These areas were researched through semi-structured in-depth interviews (Hudelson, 1994) with early teenage children (M = 12 years) of migrants whose fathers had been periodically absent for at least six years. In order to determine the specific context of these Stressors and compensators and how they are socially molded, twelve key informants from the community were also interviewed, including a doctor, teachers, a journalist, mothers, wives, mothers and grandmothers of migrants, and municipal authorities.
Situations. The situations of the study were the Stressors and compensators associated with physical paternal absence due to international migration, conceptualized as "the disadvantages reported by participants as annoying, irritating, and frustrating" whereas the compensators associated with the FPAIM were defined as the "advantages reported by participants as pleasant, beneficial, and encouraging."
Procedure. All the qualitative interviews were conducted and recorded in participants' homes in rural and semi-urban communities in the municipality of Jalpa, characterized by its high rate of expulsion of migrants (Moctezuma, 1999). Informed consent and mothers' authorization in the case of adolescents was given. The commissioners in each community were also duly informed and their authorization obtained. Each interview lasted approximately an hour and a half.
Quantitative Phase
The questionnaire was developed during the quantitative phase, using analysis of the content of the twenty-four semi-structured interviews mentioned earlier. Forty experiences classified as Stressors and fifteen experiences classified as compensators related to FPAIM were drawn from these interviews and then subjected to cognitive assessment in the form of interviews of 310 adolescents.
The questionnaire was administered to pupils in the sixth year of primary school in the 1999-2000 school year in rural schools in the municipalities of Apozol, Huanusco, Jalpa, and Juchipila, in the state of Zacatecas.
The first sheet of the questionnaire asked the teenagers to indicate which of the Stressors on the list they had personally experienced during the previous year, and to indicate on a five-point scale the degree of annoyance this had caused them. The answers ranged from 0 ("This didn't happen to me") to 5 ("This happened to me and it bothered me a lot"). Evaluation of the compensators was preceded by similar instructions with the same range of answers, from 0 ("This didn't happen to me") to 5 ("This happened to me and I liked it a lot").
The set of Stressors was called the Scale of Stress Associated with Father's Physical Paternal Absence due to International Migration (SSA-FPAIM) while the set of compensators was called the Scale of Compensators in Children of Migrants Associated with Father's Physical Absence due to International Migration (SCA-FPAIM). This scale was used only for migrants' children (n = 106).
The participants' main sociodemographic characteristics are shown in Table 1, while their fathers' migratory history is summarized in Table 2.
RESULTS
All Stressors and compensators were subjected to an item discrimination analysis. It was found that they all discriminated significantly (p < .001) between the groups with the lowest and highest scores, regardless of which subsample the participants belonged, i.e., whether they were the children of migrants or nonmigrants (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994). The range of SSA-FPAIM was from O to 160 while the overall mean of the sample was 74.4 (SD = 31). Of the set of 40 stressors, 29 were found to be within the range of the expected mean. This scale had a strong internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .91).
A factor analysis was subsequently carried out using the principal components and varimax rotation of the SSA-FPAIM to analyze its structure. The factor analysis included only items with a total-item correlation of greater than .30; 37 of the 40 items met this criterion. The analysis yielded five factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. Only the items with a factor loading greater than .40 as an absolute value and that were not loaded in more than one factor were retained. The five factors accounted for 41.9% of the variance. Table 3 shows the composition of these factors and the name under which they were conceptualized.
As can be seen in Table 3, the items comprising the first factor, Atmosphere of Family Hostility, are related to the expression of verbal and psychological violence on the part of the paternal figure. Concern over mothers was another key element: 7 of the 12 Stressors comprising this factor refer to them. Finally, it is interesting to note that alcohol use is regarded as a stressor by these teenagers.
The second factor, Atmosphere of Family Vulnerability, contains six items that refer to more specific situations in families with migrant fathers within SSA-FPAIM. They included deprivation (Have you felt that you are more at risk because your father doesn't live with you?) and the lack of the basic things that a father provides. (Do you miss your father's affection and advice?) which contribute to the family's feeling of vulnerability. This factor also reflects the social disadvantage situation of migrants' wives (Your mother has had to cope with the responsibility of being both a mother and a father at the same time).
The third factor, Atmosphere of Sociocultural and Family Pressures, comprised five situations concerning a family's expectations of teenagers (Your family asked you to be responsible from an early age) as something that was both common and constituted a considerable emotional burden for these young people.
The fourth factor, Atmosphere of Physical Discomfort, combined five items concerning illnesses of various family members. Surprisingly, illness is associated with the item "Have you had to carry out tasks usually performed by women (such as heating up food for meals or washing clothes)?"
The fifth factor, Atmosphere of Social Inequity, combined four structural situations of the Mexican countryside (unemployment, lack of training, dropping out of school, and child labor) which they experience from early childhood and which virtually guarantee the reproduction of the migratory phenomenon. These items are also associated with the pressures experienced by men in their role as providers.
On the Scale of Compensators in Migrants' Children and associated with the FPAIM (SCA-FPAIM), which was administered to 106 teenagers, all of whom are migrants' children, the possible range of response was from 0 to 60. The overall mean was 41.9 (SD = 10.2) while 13 of the 15 items obtained a mean within the expected range. The Cronbach's alpha for the scale of compensators was .76.
In the factor analysis of compensators, only items with a total-item correlation of greater than .30 were included (12 out of 15). This analysis yielded 4 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. Only the items with factorial loading greater than 1 were maintained. The four factors accounted for 60.8% of the variance. Table 4 gives a breakdown of these factors.
The first factor, Family Calmness, includes situations that reflect less violence and child abuse as a result of paternal physical absence. The second factor, Relationship with the North, refers to the culture of migration that prevails in these communities, which means that young people migrate, thereby lending continuity to the process analyzed. The third factor, Financial Benefits, concerns the importance of remittances, reflected in improved living conditions for certain families. The Fourth Factor, Social Prestige, includes situations that are also part of the culture of migration and which provide a kind of compensation that is different from financial reward but is no less important.
DISCUSSION
This initial exploration of the point of view of young teenagers from rural communities with a high rate of migration to the United States permitted the compilation of information on two aspects that the participants call advantages (compensators) and disadvantages (stressors); this information coincides with what Saavedra (1988) has reported in the rural communities of Zacatecas about the contradictoriness of migration. One difference between the present study and previous research on the subject is that teenagers and key informants no longer report on the dualism between the "healthy customs here" (i.e., in the communities of origin) and the "sick customs over there" (the U.S.).
Our data would appear to confirm the fact that FPAIM is an ambivalent experience for teenagers with both negative and positive components. On the basis of the information yielded by the factor analysis, we suggest a classification with three components of the factors obtained from the scale of Stressors (SSA-FPAIM). The first is a universal component that includes items from Factor 4, Atmosphere of Physical Discomfort. These are Stressors the literature conceptualizes as universal in that they have an impact on anyone in any cultural setting. The second is a normative component that includes items from Factor 1, Atmosphere of Family Hostility and Factor 3, Atmosphere of Sociocultural and Family Pressures. These are situations that were reported by the children of both migrants and nonmigrants, which may indicate that they are expected in terms of gender roles in the Mexican rural environment. The third is a descriptive component of migrant families, with items from Factors 2, Atmosphere of Family Vulnerability and 5, Atmosphere of Social Inequity, since, according to the results of this study, they are the ones that discriminate between the subsamples of children of migrants and nonmigrants. This does not mean that the children of nonmigrants do not experience an atmosphere of family vulnerability or an atmosphere of social inequality, but that among migrants' children, these social situations are exacerbated and cause greater stress.
As for differences between men and women, the study found that the situations grouped under Atmosphere of Social Inequity created more stress among men, since they were life experiences associated with the role of provider. Conversely, the situations grouped under Atmosphere of Physical Discomfort created more stress in women. As mentioned earlier, it is striking that the item "Have you had to perform tasks generally carried out by women (such as reheating food or washing clothes)?" is associated with illness. It would seem that teenagers feel that over time, undertaking routine tasks, with no social recognition, might cause some kind of physical discomfort.
CONCLUSIONS
During this time of increasing globalization, migration continues to serve as an escape valve and survival strategy for thousands of Mexicans who are unable to find work in their own country. As a result, teenagers are subjected to Stressors and compensators that are socially molded by the culture of migration which turns the U.S. into a viable option for young people. This culture occurs within an atmosphere of social inequity and unequal gender relations.
Thus, although migrants' children appear to be more vulnerable to psychosocial problems than the children of nonmigrants, FPAIM is not the definitive factor in placing teenagers at risk of experiencing psychological discomfort, but gender is; being a man or a woman in a subculture that encourages male migration with gender-based demands and constraints places teenagers at greater risk of experiencing the psychosocial problems associated with FPAIM, such as dropping out of school, drug abuse, child abuse, and familial and social vulnerability and uncertainty.
Goldring states that migrants are "creative social actors." Thus, it is worth asking new research questions (Aguilera-Guzmán, 2001) about the role today's teenagers will play in transforming the settings that restrict their development and gender roles. Any prevention and intervention programs undertaken with this population must take into account the effect that the ambivalence created by contact with the social practices of the "receiving" society, which are different from those of the community of origin, and the possibility of experiencing nontraditional gender roles, can have on their mental health.
REFERENCES
Aguilera-Guzmán, R. M. (2001). Paternal absence and international migration: Stressors and compensators related to the mental health of early adolescents. Unpublished master's thesis. Master's and Doctoral Program in Health Sciences, Medicine Faculty, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico.
Chant, S. (1988). Myths and realities concerning the formation of women-headed families: The case of Queretaro, Mexico. In L. Gabayet, P. Garcia, M. Gonzalez, S. Lailson, & A. Escobar (Eds.), "Women and society: Salaries, household and social action in Western Mexico (pp. 181-203). Mexico: El Colegio de Jalisco & CIESAS de Occidente.
D'Aubeterre, M. E. (1995). Waiting times: Male emigration, domestic cycle and women's status in San Miguel Acuexcomac, Puebla. In S. Gonzalez-Montes & V. Salles (Eds.), Gender relations and agrarian transformation (pp. 255-297). Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico.
D'Aubeterre, M. E. (2000). Women and transnational social space: Maneuvers for renogiating the marital bond. In D. Barrera & C. Oehmichen (Eds.), Migration and gender relations in Mexico (pp. 63-85). Mexico: Interdisciplinary Group on Women, Work and Poverty and the National University of Mexico Institute for Anthropological Research.
De Keijzer, B. (1998). Paternity and gender transition. In B. Schmuckler (Ed.), Families and gender relations in transformation (pp. 301-325). Mexico: EDAMEX and The Population Council Inc.
Dressier, W. (1996). Culture, stress, and disease. In C. P. Sargent & J. Thomas (Eds.), Handbook of medical anthropology. Contemporary theory and method (pp. 252-271). London, England: Greenwood Press.
Gonzalez, M. (1988). On why women put up with battering and infidelity: An analysis of households without males in Guadalajara. In L. Gabayet, P. Garcia, M. Gonzalez, S. Lailson, & A. Escobar (Eds.), Women and society: Salary, household and social action in the west of Mexico (pp. 205-227). Mexico: El Colegio de Jalisco & Ciesas de Occidente.
Hudelson, P. (1994). Qualitative research for health programmes. Geneva, World Health Organization: Division of Mental Health.
Kanner, A., Feldman, S., Weinberger, A., & Ford, E. (1987). Uplifts, hassles and adaptational outcomes in early adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 7(4), 371-394.
Marroni, M. G. (2000). He's always left me the younger ones and taken the older ones with him. Family adjustments and confusion caused by migration. In D. Barrera & C. Oehmichen (Eds.), Migration and gender relations in Mexico (pp. 87-117). Mexico. Interdisciplinary Group on Women, Work and Poverty and the National University of Mexico Institute for Anthropological Research, 2000.
Massey, D., Alarcon, R., Durand, J., & Gonzalez, H. (1991). The absentees. The social process of international migration in the west of Mexico. Mexico: Alianza Editorial.
Maza, E. (1997, November 16). Mexican migration. Proceso Journal, 1098, 40-52.
Moctezuma, M. (1999). Social networks, branch communities, families and migrants' clubs. Migrant circuit Sain Alto, Zac., Oakland, Ca. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, México.
Nunnally, J., & Bernstein, I. (1994). Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Padilla, J. (1998). The population of Zacatecas. Economia, espacio y población series. Mexico. Economics Faculty, Autonomous University of Zacatecas. Ediciones Cuellar.
Saavedra R. A. (1988). Social representation of migration in a municipality of migrants: Villaneuva, Zacatecas. Psicologia Social en Mexico, 2, 464-468.
Salgado de Snyder, V. N. (1992). The impact of social support and self-esteem on stress and depressive symptomatology in wives of immigrants to the United States. Anales del Institute Mexicano de Psiquiatria, 9(2), 83-89.
Salgado de Snyder, V. N., & Diaz-Guerrero, R. (2002). Enduring separation: The psychosocial consequences of Mexican migration to the United States. In L. L. Adler & U. Gielen (Eds.), Migration: Immigration and emigration in international perspective (pp. 143-158). London: Praeger.
Salgado de Snyder, V. N., Diaz-Perez, M. J., Acevedo, A., & Natera, L. (1996). Dios y el Norte: The perceptions of wives of documented and undocumented Mexican immigrants to the U.S. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 3, 283-296.
Salles, V., & Tuiran, R. (1998). Demographic and sociocultural changes: Contemporary families in Mexico. In B. Schmuckler (Ed.), Families and gender relations in transformation (pp. 83-126). Mexico: EDAMEX and The Population Council Inc.
Sanchez-Sosa, J. J., & Hernandez-Guzman, L. (1992). The relationship with the father as a factor of psychological risk in Mexico. Revista Mexicana de Psicologia, 9(1), 27-34.
This study was supported by a grant from the National University of Mexico and the Division of Epidemiological and Psychosocial Research (DEFR) of the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente (NIPRF). The authors acknowledge the assistance of the academic and municipal authorities of Zacatecas. The authors also thank the teenagers and key informants who shared their experiences of, and feelings about the highly sensitive issue of paternal physical absence.
V. Nelly Salgado de Snyder, National Institute of Public Health.
Martha Romero, Titular Researcher of the NIPRF.
Rosa María Aguilera-Guzman, Division of Epidemiological and Psychosocial Research on the NIPRF, Carmino a Xochimilco 101, Col. San Lorenzo Huipulco, Tlalpan, Mexico 14370, D.F. E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright Libra Publishers Incorporated Winter 2004