Latino Immigrant Parents’ Experiences With Discrimination: Implications for Parenting in a Hostile Immigration Policy Context

Abstract

A growing anti-immigrant context has increased the discrimination Latino immigrant families confront in the United States. This study examines the relationship between discrimination and Latinos’ parenting practices. Using cross-sectional data on parenting practices, discrimination, immigration-related factors, and protective factors among Latino immigrant families, we conduct a latent profile analysis to (a) identify profiles of perceived discrimination, (b) assess the role of protective mechanisms in predicting discrimination profiles, and (c) examine the relationship between discrimination profiles and parenting outcomes. The findings revealed a four-class solution, Low Discrimination, Institutional and Language Discrimination, Moderate Discrimination, and High Discrimination. Parents in the High Discrimination profile experienced lower levels of monitoring, consistent discipline, and higher levels of harsh disciplining compared with the other profiles. Overall, this article has implications for effective family functioning given that parental discrimination may influence parenting practices, which has direct consequences on parent–child relationships.

Latinx youth's ethnic‐racial identity in context: Examining ethnic‐racial socialization in a new destination area

“…Parents’ discrimination experiences can also influence their parenting and ERS strategies (Ayón & García, 2019; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019) because minoritization often requires that parents respond in ways to shield their youth while also instilling pride. Most of this work has been conducted with non‐Latinx samples, but it is important to explore how Latinx parents’ cultural stressors impact their parenting given the prevalence of discrimination for families of color as well as the negative impact unfair treatment has for adjustment (Kulish et al., 2019).…”

Applying a Community Violence Framework to Understand the Impact of Immigration Enforcement Threat on Latino Children

“…Parents with higher levels of legal vulnerability—that is, parents who lack legal documentation, have experienced the detainment or deportation of a family member, or have been detained or deported themselves—report greater negative impact on the family environment (i.e., lower perceptions of parent's emotional well‐being, less perceived ability to provide financially for the family, and strained parent–child relationship), which in turn has been linked to the well‐being of children (Brabeck & Xu, ). Latino immigrant parents in Arizona who experienced multiple forms of discrimination and high rates of discrimination reported more challenges in their parenting practices, such as engaging in less monitoring and using less consistent discipline strategies (Ayón & Garcia, ).…”

Mother–Child Relationships in U.S. Latinx Families in Middle Childhood: Opportunities and Challenges in the 21st Century

“…In addition to considering the strengths that Latinx mothers bring to their parenting, we also considered two particular challenges that are disproportionately experienced by Latinx families: economic hardship (Shrider et al 2021) and discrimination (Ayón and Garcia 2019). Our expectations regarding the associations among stressors, parent-youth relationship quality, and children's educational adjustment were informed by the family stress model (Conger et al 1994) and its extension to culturally based stressors (Conger et al 2012;Lorenzo-Blanco et al 2012).…”

“…Latinx children are disproportionately likely to attend economically disadvantaged schools (Hussar et al 2020) and to live in poverty (Shrider et al 2021). Among parents who have immigrated to the U.S., additional stressors come from the cultural adaptation process, language barriers, and limited experience with the U.S. educational system (Suarez-Orozco et al 2010); challenges also emerge from being the target of racism and discrimination (Ayón and Garcia 2019;García Coll and Szalacha 2004). A particularly notable challenge of the 21st century has been anti-immigrant sentiments and policies targeting Latinx populations (Leidy et al 2010;Roche et al 2018;Torres et al 2018).…”