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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Status: Published
Description
Family engagement in child and family service systems can be influenced by the quality of the relationship between service system, provider, and family. Knowledge surrounding how relationships are mechanisms through which family engagement can be enhanced to promote equity in service accessibility remains scant, as such family engagement continues to be studied as a family-centric behavior and attitudinal construct. Thus, limited attention has been given to exploring structural factors influencing family engagement. In response and drawing from the socio-ecological model, this dissertation combines two qualitative studies to discuss the importance of and mechanisms for building relationships in two different contexts. The first study, “Factors Influencing Family Engagement for Immigrant Latina Mothers Participating in Trauma-Informed Child and Family Behavioral Health Services”, explores qualitatively the in-depth experiences of immigrant Latina mothers in trauma-informed services to understand multilevel factors and patterns of interconnection between these factors in the social ecology that impede or foster engagement in such services. Culturally responsive strategies to trauma-informed behavioral health services employed by providers and service agencies that lower immigrant Latina mothers’ barriers are also discussed. The second paper, “Sociocultural Responsive Frameworks to Increase Family Engagement in Child Serving Systems through a Peer-to-Peer Model for Families Experiencing Trauma”, uses multimodal qualitative methodology to comprehensively examine the value of a peer-to-peer support model in the context of trauma-informed and culturally responsive approaches in order to enhance family engagement for communities at higher risk for social exclusion. Together, these studies will shed light on the importance of studying family engagement as a function of intertwined structural factors and capitalizing on meaningful relationships to overcome barriers to community-based service engagement to address health disparities.
ContributorsMelendez Guevara, Ana Maria (Author) / Sarah Johnson, Sarah (Thesis advisor) / White, Rebecca M.B (Committee member) / Lopez, Kristina (Committee member) / Gewirtz, Abigail (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Approximately 89 million Americans will be age 65 and older by 2050 in the United States. This older adult population is especially vulnerable to loneliness as a result of numerous age-related risk factors including loss of social support and declining health. In addition to these common risk factors, refugee older adults may face increased loneliness as a consequence of war-related trauma, loss, and marginalized cultural values in their host country. Despite their heightened vulnerabilities to loneliness, the experiences of refugee older adults remain understudied.
This is the first study aimed at understanding the loneliness experiences of community-dwelling Hmong older adults, an ethnic group resettled in the United States as refugees over 40 years ago. A constructivist grounded theory method guided by an intersectionality framework was used to address three aims: 1) to understand the concept of loneliness among community-dwelling Hmong older adults, 2) to explore the premigration, displacement, and postmigration experiences of loneliness among community-dwelling Hmong older adults, and 3) to examine how community-dwelling Hmong older adults cope with loneliness. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 17 Hmong older adults age 65 and older residing in Sacramento and Fresno, California. Analysis of the data was an iterative process between coding the data, generating focused codes, and connecting the categories to establish a conceptual pattern.
Participants conceptualized loneliness as a negative experience represented through physical and emotional expressions and intensity, which were influenced by an intersectional identity. Factors that influenced their experiences of loneliness in the premigration, displacement, and postmigration phase were discussed as trust, loss, aging-related issues, isolation, sense of community, access to cultural community, instability, violence, and cultural adjustments. Their narratives offered several coping mechanisms including religious and spiritual beliefs, social support, wandering, activity engagement, and control and avoidance. These findings informed a conceptual model of loneliness that incorporated an intersectional identity, influencing factors, and coping mechanisms. Overall, the results provide nuanced cultural meanings and insight into the loneliness experiences of Hmong older adults. Implications for social work research, practice, and policy suggests the need for greater culturally- and linguistically-competent services informed by Hmong older adults.
This is the first study aimed at understanding the loneliness experiences of community-dwelling Hmong older adults, an ethnic group resettled in the United States as refugees over 40 years ago. A constructivist grounded theory method guided by an intersectionality framework was used to address three aims: 1) to understand the concept of loneliness among community-dwelling Hmong older adults, 2) to explore the premigration, displacement, and postmigration experiences of loneliness among community-dwelling Hmong older adults, and 3) to examine how community-dwelling Hmong older adults cope with loneliness. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 17 Hmong older adults age 65 and older residing in Sacramento and Fresno, California. Analysis of the data was an iterative process between coding the data, generating focused codes, and connecting the categories to establish a conceptual pattern.
Participants conceptualized loneliness as a negative experience represented through physical and emotional expressions and intensity, which were influenced by an intersectional identity. Factors that influenced their experiences of loneliness in the premigration, displacement, and postmigration phase were discussed as trust, loss, aging-related issues, isolation, sense of community, access to cultural community, instability, violence, and cultural adjustments. Their narratives offered several coping mechanisms including religious and spiritual beliefs, social support, wandering, activity engagement, and control and avoidance. These findings informed a conceptual model of loneliness that incorporated an intersectional identity, influencing factors, and coping mechanisms. Overall, the results provide nuanced cultural meanings and insight into the loneliness experiences of Hmong older adults. Implications for social work research, practice, and policy suggests the need for greater culturally- and linguistically-competent services informed by Hmong older adults.
ContributorsVang, Cindy (Author) / Jackson, Kelly F (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Serge (Committee member) / Lopez, Kristina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019