Assimilation, Psychological Distress, and Family Functioning among Iranian Immigrant Families in Manchester, England

• Main Author: Alemi, Mandana
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/19555/1/FPP_2010_17_F.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/19555/

Emigration from one country to another with different cultural conditions involves a great risk for an immigration crisis that can lead to great strain and stress, which in turn affects family life negatively.Immigration places immigrant families in a new situation in which values, norms, experiences, and roles are questioned and in which family members come into conflict with one another. In order to survive in the new situation, families may strive toward a harmonious existence within the host society.As social system and values differ across countries, the process of assimilation is always needed. Based on the problems mentioned, this study attempted to elicit the process of assimilation, to investigate the psychological distress, and to explore the patterns of family functioning among Iranian immigrant families in Manchester,Britain. The design of this study was mixed-methods with qualitative and descriptive methods that comprised the clinical with snowball method. The sample consisted of 30 Iranian immigrant families with an adolescent residing in Manchester, Britain who volunteered to participate. Three Assimilation Indices (Cochrane, 1993) measured the level of assimilation and General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hiller, 1979) assessed the psychological distress. Standardized Clinical Family Interview (Kinston & Loader, 1984) was utilized to elicit the patterns of family functioning and to compare the patterns of family functioning between healthy and distressed families. A model for assimilation and patterns of family functioning among families, as well as in each assimilation strategy was finally developed. Descriptive analyses showed that daughters were the ones who assimilated more and mothers less among family members. There was a higher assimilation level in healthy family members than in distressed ones, and higher psychosomatic disorders in females than in males. Healthy families in comparison with distressed families showed fewer conflicts, more cohesion and adaptability, open communication, more satisfaction with marital and parent-adolescent relationships, more flexibility in family roles, more power sharing and consistency in child rearing between parents, and more congruency with the environment. Regarding the interaction of family functioning and assimilation, low-assimilated families showed more cohesion,parental consistency in child rearing, religious attitudes, relationship with the relatives and problems related to immigration, compared to high-assimilated families. On the other hand, high-assimilated families showed more flexibility in family roles,relationship with the host society, and congruency in values with those of the environment.interview and survey. The sampling design was purposive