Familial migration, and children's social competence and adjustment problems in Mexico

Abstract

Migration affects many families across the globe, yet, we know very little concerning how parental migration affects children’s development. It is well established that children in single-parent contexts tend to struggle compared to children in two-parent contexts, however, children may likewise struggle even when parents are not present for extensive periods of time. In particular, children of migrating parents may struggle in their social competence and adjustment. Using 2,268 households in Jalisco, Mexico, we examined the relations between mothers’ and fathers’ migration history and children’s social competence and adjustment problems. We interviewed caregivers of children ages 5 to 17. Older children (> 10 years) also provided self-reports. We conducted multiple regressions to examine the prediction of children’s social competence and adjustment problems from mothers’ and fathers’ migration history (89% mothers; 75% fathers never reported migrating) while controlling for parental education, child sex, and age. Regarding younger children, fathers who had migrated had children with lower behavioral control and higher internalizing and externalizing problems. Further, mothers who had migrated had children with higher familialism and sociability. Regarding older children, fathers who had migrated had children with lower self- (but not adult-) reported regulation and higher self- (but not adult-) reported internalizing problems. Our findings suggest parent migration may have both negative and positive implications for younger and older children. However, we cannot rule out the possibility of selection effects into migration. Another limitation is our inability to assume migration occurred after and not before the children in this study were born. Our future directions include investigating the impact of parent migration on children’s development using models that control for selection effects once wave 2 data are collected and exploring other facets of familial migration that may have an impact on children’s development.