“I don’t feel heard,” “I don’t think they understand me,” “they gave me advice on trying something, but that doesn’t fit with my values”—these are common frustrations expressed by migrants who have sought mental health support.
As someone who migrated to this country as a child, hearing these experiences from friends, family, and others in my community fills me with frustration and anger. Even now, through my work as a psychologist, I continue to hear similar feedback from people of diverse backgrounds. It has become very evident that as mental health practitioners, we lack sufficient research and training to effectively support these communities—leaving us with far too little to learn from or rely on.
While mental health has gained increasing attention in recent years, research continues to overlook migrant and other diverse communities. This gap in the literature—coupled with my experiences as a psychologist—made me realise how critical it is to amplify migrant voices in mental health research. It was this realisation that ultimately led me to pursue a PhD, focusing on the intersection of migration, parenting, and mental health.
As part of this research and to address some of the gaps in mental health research and services, I am hoping to hear and understand migrant parents’ views, understanding and experiences of parenting and mental health. You can help me by completing this survey.
More information about my research is included at the end of the article, but first why is this important to address?
We have an improved understanding on the relationship between mental health and our ability to cope with the day-to-day stresses of life, build on our strengths, make decisions, develop relationships and contribute to shaping the world we live in. The state of our mental health at any age or stage is dependent on multiple factors from the day we are born.
Many factors shape our mental health—from our genes and family relationships to major life events, support networks, cultural background, access to resources, and how safe we feel in our surroundings. While our mental state can shift over time, childhood experiences can significantly shape how we experience mental health and wellbeing on an ongoing basis.
Generally, parenting behaviours and practices have been found to be one of the most important factors influencing a child’s development as they can buffer children’s emotional and behavioural responses to stressful situations, protect them from ongoing harm and negative outcomes.
Parenting practices can also have important impacts on the development of a child’s language skills, brain functioning, academic achievement and future behaviours that all have important influences on mental and physical health.
Inorder to support parents in this very important role they play in child development, researchers and practitioners have developed parenting programs. These programs aim to increase parent knowledge, skills and confidence, while reducing the occurrence of mental health challenges, and emotional and behavioural problems in children.
These programs have been widely researched and adopted as one of the most effective forms of support for parenting and child mental health development, however, the theories underlying the programs have been developed in the West and the specific research on the parenting programs have also been focused on Western populations.
This is not to say that they are not very important forms of treatment that could be helpful for diverse populations, but it may mean that such a program may not fully appreciate the factors that can arise from diverse experiences, which may lead to people feeling unheard and misunderstood.
While there are many issues with migrant communities not feeling heard or understood, when it comes to mental health, this can have dangerous consequences. People may not receive the treatment they need, additional barriers to accessing support can be created, and communities’ beliefs that they are too different or do not belong can be reinforced, further reducing their capacity to manage mental ill-health. Additionally, stigma towards mental health conditions may worsen.
From a parenting perspective, feeling unheard or misunderstood can lead to worse outcomes for both parents and children, as they may face challenges related to a lack of stability, safety, belonging, and comfort.
To address some of these gaps, I am completing a PhD focused on understanding the impact of migration from South Asia on parenting, and on parent and child mental health, with the aim of improving access to culturally informed and safe support services. Upon completing my PhD, I hope to provide existing practitioners and parenting programs with guidelines and information that will help parents from diverse communities feel better supported by the services that they access.
I need the help of our community for this:
- I am currently seeking parents of children aged 0–8 to complete a 30-minute survey exploring their migration experiences and their understanding of the key parenting theories that inform parenting programs.
- To be eligible, parents must have at least one child aged 0–8 and must have been born in India or a neighbouring country (including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, or Uzbekistan).
The survey can be accessed online via this link or through the QR code below. As a token of my appreciation for your time, you will go into a draw to win 1 of 5 $200 gift cards.
I will also be sharing the results of this research in the form of research articles and will be able to share this with you! I truly appreciate your support in helping me further the diversity of our mental health research.
(The author is a psychologist and PhD student. Views expressed are her own.)
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