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Minnesota program helps immigrants cope with parenting stressMany parents are familiar with the stress of managing carpool schedules, childcare, naps, bedtime or temper tantrums. However, that doesn’t make it any less overwhelming. Parents, like any other group of caregivers, deserve support and resources to manage their health. It’s an issue that’s even compelled the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, himself a father, to issue an advisory highlighting that parents’ mental health is at risk.
In this story, Sahan Journal focuses on a specific subgroup of parents — immigrants — who, according to University of Minnesota researcher Jaime Ballard, face these familiar parenting challenges "plus more." A new support program in the state is addressing the unique concerns of immigrant parents with children between the ages of 3 and 8. After a successful pilot program last year, which showed a 20% decrease in child behavioral problems after eight weeks, the program received additional funding from the National Institutes of Health to expand, Sahan Journal reports.
“We found it led to an increase in parents’ confidence, and they report decreased stress,” said a University of Minnesota researcher who studies highly stressed families.
Veronica Rivera Arteaga is a therapist for the support program and an immigrant mother from Mexico who arrived in the U.S. in 2007. Arteaga shares that immigrant parents often navigate a high level of stress, which affects their ability to make good decisions and relax.
“Immigrant parents are out of their window of tolerance most of the time... You add that barrier, that challenge of arriving in a new state and a new country, where maybe you can’t read the signs, don’t know how to take a bus or rent an apartment.”
Arteaga and other therapists in the program pointed out common stressors shared by immigrant parents, including:
Coming from a culture that doesn’t openly discuss stress and depression
Acculturation gaps between parents and children
Discrimination and racism in the U.S.
Stigma surrounding mental health conditions in home countries
PTSD from the migration experience
Living in poverty
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NYC’s caregiving crisisChildcare affordability has become one of the most pressing issues for families in New York City, to the point where it's driving families out. In this episode of Your Voice Matters, an eight-part digital series from PBS THIRTEEN and Epicenter NYC, the hosts focus on what local and national candidates are saying about the issue. They found that families with young children are twice as likely to leave the city due to these high costs.
Their investigation takes them to Forest Hills, Queens, where Edgar Alfonseca and his wife pay $1,700 a month for childcare — the cheapest rate they could find. Although both parents have steady jobs, one had to take a part-time teaching position at a local college just to make ends meet.
"A lot of parents like me feel like there's just no financial support when you decide to become a parent," says Alfonseca.
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Maria Angelica Keller Flores is a therapist who works with the Empowered Generations program in Minnesota to help immigrants develop skills to cope with parenting challenges. In her work, Flores focuses on building a relationship with parents first. “Parents are amazed to talk about the strengths of their child, because they usually talk about [their] misbehavior. And then we talk about their strengths as a parent, and they feel validated.” → Credit: Dymanh Chhoun for Sahan Journal