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Parent Refugee Status, Immigration Stressors, and Southeast Asian Youth Violence

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Abstract

Purpose: To assess the effects of parents’ experience of traumatic events on violence among Southeast Asian and Chinese youth. The study examines independent effects of parents’ refugee camp experiences and immigration stress on serious or family/partner violence among youth. Findings contribute evidence on the intergenerational effects of community-level trauma that can help policy makers better integrate family and community strategies to reduce youth violence. Methods: Obtained cross-sectional, face-to-face interview data including peer delinquency, parental engagement, parental discipline, serious violence, and family/partner violence from a sample of 329 Chinese and Southeast Asian adolescents. Measures of socioeconomic status, refugee status, and immigration stressors were collected from their respective parents. Data were analyzed using LISREL 8.54 for structural equation modeling. Results: Findings show that parents’ refugee status facilitated serious violence, and was fully mediated by peer delinquency and parental engagement, but for Vietnamese only. Parents’ refugee status was also significantly related to family/partner violence, and mediated by peer delinquency. This relationship was not observed among the other Asian ethnic groups. The immigration stress variable had no significant effects on either serious violence or family/partner violence. Conclusions: Refugee communities may not transform easily into stereotypical immigrant Asian communities characterized by little youth violence. Results suggest that the refugee process, as experienced second-hand through the children of refugees, has a strong effect on externally oriented violence (serious violence) and on family/partner violence for particular subgroups. Therefore, community-oriented policy makers should join social workers in developing programs to address youth violence in Southeast Asian families and communities. Findings have implications for other forms of community trauma such as natural disasters.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Isami Arifuku for editorial assistance, Judy Wallen for statistical support, and the researchers and administrators of the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center (APIYVPC). In addition, we thank Drs. Earl Hishinuma and David Mayeda at the University of Hawai’i for providing invaluable editorial and intellectual support. Anonymous reviewers provided invaluable suggestions for improving our methodology that refined and strengthened our conclusions. Any omissions or mistakes, however, are our own. This publication was supported by Grant R49/CCR918619-01 from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Urban and Regional Planning and Political Science, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Manoa, Hawaii, USA

    James H. Spencer

  2. Human Development and Family Studies, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

    Thao N. Le

  3. National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Oakland, California, USA

    Thao N. Le

  4. Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Political Science, 2424 Maile Way, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822, USA

    James H. Spencer

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  1. James H. Spencer
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Correspondence to James H. Spencer.

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Spencer, J.H., Le, T.N. Parent Refugee Status, Immigration Stressors, and Southeast Asian Youth Violence. J Immigrant Health 8, 359–368 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-006-9006-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-006-9006-x

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