408-01: Resettlement and Economic Adjustment of Karen Refugee Families: A Family Stress Perspective

The Karen people are the largest group of refugees resettled to the U.S. in the last decade, however, little is known about their resettlement and adjustment experiences. This study centers on an intensive case analysis designed to understand five Karen families’ experiences as they adjusted to complex sociocultural environments and systems in the U.S. within one year of resettling, with a specific focus on their navigation of financial and economic systems. Using a stress and resilience framework, findings demonstrate that accumulated stressors, family and community resources, and preconceived expectations of the U.S. shape the financial realities and economic adjustment of Karen refugee families. Strategies to better support family finance and economic wellbeing of Karen families, and other refugee families as culturally appropriate, will be discussed.

Objectives

- Identify various stressors and resources that accumulate to shape Karen refugee families’ experiences adjusting to the U.S., especially to financial and economic systems 
- Understand the meanings Karen refugee families attribute to the challenges and opportunities they encounter before and after resettlement, and how their perceptions impact adjustment 
- Assess various strategies to better support refugee families’ adjustment to financial and economic systems in the U.S.

Keywords: refugees, family resource management, stress

408-02: The Impact of Racial Discrimination on Parenting Processes in U.S. Mexican Mothers

The family stress model suggests that racial discrimination stress may hinder childrearing effectiveness and parent-child relationship quality through poor psychological functioning of parents. The current study examined whether maternal perceptions of ethnic discrimination negatively affected the mother-adolescent relationship context (i.e., maternal acceptance and mother-adolescent conflict), via maternal depressive symptoms. Data, from a longitudinal study of 749 U.S. Mexican families with adolescents, were examined using path analyses in MPLUS (V8). Findings showed that mother’s ethnic discrimination experiences aggravated mother-reported parent-child conflicts through higher maternal depressive symptoms. With better understanding of how ethnic discrimination impacts U.S. Mexican families, future studies can examine how to help families and society to combat and overcome discrimination, which has significant implications on family wellbeing.

Objectives

- To evaluate the effectiveness of Family Stress Model in U.S. Mexican families.
- To examine the role of ethnic discrimination as an important environmental stressor in U.S. Mexican families.
- To demonstrate the pathway of ethnic discrimination leading to less effective maternal parenting practices among U.S. Mexican mothers. 

Keywords: parents / parenting, Hispanic/Latino/a/Latinx, discrimination

408-03: Parental Investment, Family Obligation, and Positive Functioning of Adolescents From African and European Backgrounds

Grounded in family functioning and social exchange theories, this study investigated the implications of senses of family obligation in adolescence for positive functioning as well as parental influence on adolescent family obligation. With a racially diverse sample of 317 high school students, results from structural equation modeling suggested that (1) adolescents’ sense of family obligation was associated with more positive functioning; (2) general parental involvement and warmth, as well as material investments were linked to adolescents’ stronger sense of obligation. In contrast, behavioral indulgence and overparenting were negatively associated with a sense of obligation; and (3) adolescents from African and other minitory backgrounds reported significantly stronger senses of family obligation and higher levels of parental investment than European-American adolescents.

Objectives

- To examine the relationships among parenting practices, adolescents’ sense of family obligation, and adolescent functioning outcomes.
- To test competing theories of family functioning and Bowen family systems theory, as well as to apply social exchange theory. 
- To demonstrate racial diversity.  

Keywords: adolescence, family functioning, parents / parenting

408-04: I Am Me Because of We: An Intergenerational Look at Black Family Sustainability

This autoethnography documents how my Black family constructed, transmitted, and sustained egalitarian values over four generations amid societal conflict. In the context of this study, egalitarian refers to shared humanity, ability, and responsibility across gender lines, within marriage or between co-parents. Life course theory (Elder, 1998) guides this study into how Black families’ adapted their lives to accommodate changes in historical context. The inclusion of African philosophical concepts and focus on ancestral knowledge help to make life course theory more culturally appropriate. Research methods included oral history interviews, critical reflection, audio journaling, and the review of photographs and artifacts. This study found that my Black family’s interconnections, interpersonal adaptability, and sense of ubuntu were sustained over generations despite multiple social-historical movements and individual circumstances.

Objectives

- To demonstrate the use of oral history research methods, journaling, and critical reflection with autoethnography. 
- To share an example of how life course theory could be made more pluralistic
- To provide a strengths-based narrative of Black families

Keywords: qualitative methodology, intergenerational, African Americans

408-05: Broken Ties: The Familial Experiences of the Wrongfully Convicted (PAPER IS CANCELLED)

This exploratory study examined perceptions of wrongfully convicted/exonerated individuals regarding the impact of their conviction on the family system. Ten interviews from a long-form interview podcast focusing on wrongful conviction were transcribed, analyzed, and coded. Preliminary results indicated that family members experience an extreme amount of pressure and stress specifically related to finances and interpersonal relationships. A second theme underscored the role family members play in advocating for the release of their loved ones and remediation for the wrongful conviction. Family practitioners are in a unique position to provide services to and advocacy for this unique population.

Objectives

- Describe the impact wrongful conviction has on the family.
- Relate how family practitioners can provide support to wrongfully convicted persons and their families.
- Articulate the unique needs of families impacted by wrongful conviction.

Keywords: economics, incarceration, qualitative methodology

408-06: Parenting Stress and Associated Pathways to Health Outcomes in Latino Parents: An Investigation of Longitudinal Latent Change

Using data from a RCT parenting intervention for Latino parents of adolescents, we investigated how changes in parent-child conflict and parenting stress were associated with changes in the parents’ psychological functioning across four months (4M) and ten months (10M) by imposing latent change models. Across 4M, change in parent-child conflict was positively associated with changes in parenting stress and parent’s psychological distress. Across 10M, change in parent-child conflict was only associated with change in psychological distress. Also, the parenting intervention had protective indirect effects on changes in parenting stress (4M), and psychological distress (10M). Change in parent-child conflict may affect change in parenting stress in shorter term but affect parent’s well-being in longer term, and parenting interventions may increase parent’s psychological functioning.

Objectives

- To investigate how changes in parent-adolescent relational variables are associated with changes in parents' individual psychological functioning.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a parenting intervention for Latino parents of early adolescents.
- To demonstrate the effective use of latent change modeling methods in the study of the family system.

Keywords: parent-child relationships, Hispanic/Latino/a/Latinx, evaluation