1. Attachment and loss in the context of US immigration: caregiver separation and characteristics of internal working models of attachment in high school students.
- Author
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Venta, Amanda, Galicia, Betsy, Bailey, Cassandra, Abate, Anna, Marshall, Kaisa, and Long, Tessa
- Subjects
UNITED States emigration & immigration ,ATTACHMENT behavior ,CAREGIVERS ,PSYCHOLOGY of high school students ,INTERVIEWING ,MATHEMATICAL models ,RESEARCH methodology ,PSYCHOLOGY ,STUDENT attitudes ,FAMILY relations ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics ,PARENT-child separation - Abstract
Attachment affects a child's well-being across their lifespan. This study aimed to describe internal working models of attachment in immigrant adolescents – an often overlooked population that frequently experiences caregiver separation. Data were collected from a high school for recently immigrated youth. Attachment was assessed using the Child Attachment Interview (CAI; n = 35) and personal experiences of separation from caregivers were assessed using a semi-structured interview (n = 31). Findings indicated 62.1% of respondents experienced the migration of one of their caregivers. Separation from mothers was linked to lower maternal attachment security. Descriptive data supported this result. Despite a small sample size, the current study utilized interview-based methods to provide in-depth characterizations of parental separation and adolescent attachment in an understudied population. Finally, the current study has implications for public policy debates regarding immigrant families, which have recently surged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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