Parenting and Emotional Symptoms : Reported by Turkish Immigrant Mothers and Children

Abstract

Background: Research has shown an important link between parenting and child mental health. Very little research on parenting and the outcomes of parenting is conducted with immigrant families. There is a need for research that examines the associations between parenting and children’s mental health in a contextually sensitive manner. Objectives: The first aim was to examine the associations between maternal-child report of parenting and maternal-child report of emotional symptoms. The second aim was to study the predictor effects of maternal-child report of parenting on maternal-child report of emotional symptoms. The third aim was to explore associations between discrepancy scores of parenting and discrepancy scores of emotional symptoms. The fourth aim was to investigate the predictor effects of discrepancy scores of parenting on maternal-child report of emotional symptoms. Method: The data material is obtained from the study Social Integration of Immigrant Children: Uncovering Family and School Factors Promoting Resilience (SIMCUR) conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Mother-child dyads (N = 104) from Turkish immigrant families in Norway completed two sets of questionnaires: (i) the My Memories of Upbringing (EMBU), measuring parenting, and (ii) the subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) emotion, measuring emotional symptoms. Bivariate correlation analysis and multiple hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to examine associations in report. Results and Conclusion: It was found that (i) control as a parenting strategy might be perceived differently by mothers and children due to different contextual influences, and (ii) children’s perceived parenting is important for children’s self-reported emotional symptoms. Taken together, this alludes to the importance of including the child perspective in child research, especially in an immigration context.