Challenges to parenting in a new culture: Implications for child and family welfare

Abstract

Increasing numbers of families arriving through Australia's humanitarian settlement scheme are coming into contact with Australian child protection systems. A large number of these families come from African and Middle Eastern countries and have common experiences of trauma, dislocation, loss and many are victims of genocide, war, and torture. Pre-migration experiences together with the considerable challenges of settling into a new country can significantly affect family well-being and parenting practices. It is therefore important that child and family welfare service planners are well informed about how best to support refugee families using culturally competent family intervention and community development practices.

This paper draws on the findings of a research project designed to examine why recently arrived families from refugee backgrounds are presenting in the South Australian child protection system and to identify culturally appropriate strategies for intervention. The paper presents findings from the project that relate to (1) refugee parents’, community members’ and child protection practitioners’ perspectives on the challenges to being a refugee parent in Australia and (2) strategies and resources relevant to prevention and early intervention in refugee families before statutory child protection intervention becomes necessary.

Introduction

Parents who are refugees face significant additional challenges to those of mainstream Australian parents. Many of the factors associated with parenting difficulties in mainstream Australian families are also experienced by refugee parents (e.g., parental mental health problems, poverty, physical health problems, social isolation, children's behavioral problems) (Centre for Community Child Health, 2004). However, refugee parents face additional stresses associated with the experience of torture and trauma, changes to family roles, separation or death of family members, language difficulties and different cultural expectations about behavior (Gonsalves, 1992, Lamberg, 1996). Pre- and post-settlement experiences can exert considerable pressures on refugee parents and children that would be expected to lower parental levels of adaptability (e.g., parental flexibility, and parent's perceptiveness of and responsiveness to their children's needs) and to increase children's needs for such adaptability (Ambert, 1994, Azar and Cote, 2002, Centre for Community Child Health, 2004, Kotchik and Forehand, 2002, Rousseau et al., 2004, Sims and Omaji, 1999).

Increasingly, notifications of suspected abuse and neglect are being received by Australian child protection authorities for families from refugee backgrounds, particularly new arrivals from African and Middle Eastern countries. A recent study, undertaken by the current authors, found that the most common types of incidents resulting in notifications of refugee families to the South Australian child protection system were: (1) incidences of physical abuse, a number of which related to the practice of physical discipline by parents, (2) incidences of neglect, primarily arising from children being left alone without adult supervision and occurring primarily in large, single mother headed, households, and (3) exposure of children to domestic violence incidents. Eight percent of these notifications were substantiated and related to families experiencing multiple stressors.

A critical aspect of successful refugee resettlement is the availability of services including health, mental health, housing, employment and parenting support. While most refugee families have access to these services they are inevitably tailored to meet the needs of mainstream individuals and families. In particular the deeply significant role of family, community and culture in the lives of many refugees, often strengthened by shared experiences of upheaval and trauma is foreign to mainstream western culture and programs and policies tend not to take these factors into account (Garbarino et al., 1991, Levine, 2001, Walsh, 2002, Walsh, 2007). It is important therefore that service planning aimed at assisting refugee families to settle successfully into their new host country is underpinned by a good understanding of the unique experiences and needs of these families.

The aims of this paper are to (1) explore the challenges to being a refugee parent in Australia from the perspective of refugee parents and community members, and child protection practitioners; and (2) identify strategies and resources that may assist in prevention and early intervention in refugee families before statutory child protection becomes necessary. First, however, an overview of Australia's statutory child protection system and Refugee and Humanitarian Program is provided.