Chapter 6: Working with Diverse Children, Parents, and FamiliesAna Vanessa Serrano GarcíaMulticultural Issues in Human ServicesGuest Lecture, Fall Semester 2012

Objectives

• Recognized the role culture plays in children’s development.

• Identify the differences in parenting styles of individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds.

• Explain the importance of culturally sensitive treatments for children with diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

The Big Picture

"Strangers in a new culture see only what they know."

-Unknown

The election of President Barak ObamaFor the African American community:

• Means the triumph of the values of the pioneers who paved the road to make it possible to obtain the “American Dream.”Self-empowerment, pride, resiliency, self-care

• Awareness of the social process in place to de-humanized, minimized and maintain communities, families and children of color in situations of disadvantage.

Community Psychology• Social problems are a reflections of systemic problems

• Changes can only be achieved through a systemic approach, impacting each layer, viewing society as a whole.(Individuals lives; Social networks; Support systems; Communities)

• Focus on correcting- victimization vs. empowerment• Social injustice• Promoting well-being• Cessation of oppression for disadvantage people• Prevention and promotion of mental health

Development of Racial Identity

• The genetic predispositions and patterns of cultural conditioning, shape the way we interact.• Children of color: early awareness of racial differences (3

to 4 years)• Evolves from the sequential acquisition of three learning

process:• Racial classification ability-learning to apply ethnic labels

accurately to diverse groups• Racial identification-learning to apply the newly gained concept

of race to him or herself.• Racial evaluation-the creation of an internal evaluation of one’s

own identity

Scenario 1

Clark: Is an African American boy in denial of his racial identity.

Do young African American children today follow the same pattern of racial identity of the study?

Racial Identity Formation (results)Racial Awareness Euros Afro

Racial classification: Develop the ability by ages 4-5

Develop the ability by ages 4-5

Racial Identification -Preschool: Children exhibit 80% Euro response, -Third grade: Had 90% pro-euro responses,

-Children exhibit 50%

-Exhibit 80% Afros response

Racial evaluation -Preschool: Exhibit 90% pro-Euro responses

-Exhibit 80% pro-Euro responses. In Adolescence reverse responses 90% pro-Afro

Racial acceptance - 50% acceptance of Afro playmates, -Third grade:80% own race

- 60% acceptance of Euro playmates-Third grade:80% own race

Adolescent Racial Identity• Race and racial identity issues become more relevant.• Absorb stereotype images of being of color• Reject characteristics and behaviors associated as being

White. • Turn toward their own group and reject of the majority and its

values and often adopt an “oppositional stance or Identity”• Emergence of a greater individualization and diversification of

racial identity.• Greater awareness of the systematic exclusion of Black people

from full participation in society

Erickson’s ModelAfrican American Adolescents• Form stable integration of self-image earlier in life• Homogeneous/ sameness in how they see themselves• Rigid and fix expectations of future images of parenting, fantasies

of future accomplishments and availability of positive roles• Exhibit identity foreclosure• Greater capacity for coping with life

White Adolescents• Identify progression and moratorium(slow steady movement

toward definition of self)• Experience higher levels of confusion, disequilibrium and

Personal exploration

Learning Styles

• Research studies suggests that the lower academic

performance documented in children of color is due to the

differences between their learning styles and the teaching

styles within the school systems.

• Attributed to Institutionalized racism.

• The academic performance improves when the teaching styles

match they ways children from minorities learn.

Learning Styles: Three Types of Ethnic Minorities

Autonomous• Tend to be small in

numbers • experience

prejudice but not widespread oppression.

• Possess traits related to academic success and do well

• Successful role models

Immigrant • Migrate to improve

their living conditions.

• Negatively perceived by others but not by themselves.

• Can returned home if conditions in the US do not improve.

• Tend to perform well academically.

“Cast-like” minorities• Disproportionate

amounts of school failure.

• Objects of systematic racism and disadvantages (systemic).

• View academic success as “acting white”

Parenting

Seeks to create a safe environment where their child can go throw the developmental stages unharmed. Parents of children of color have the additional variable of race to consider.

• Create a buffer zone against negative attitudes and stereotypes.

• Teach them how to deal with the feeling/emotions that can emerge from experiencing racism.

• Prepare their children cognitively for the world outside the buffer zone.

Scenario 1

• Ho: Issues on parenting in culturally diverse families.

The role each parent play and the decisions he or she makes in the upbringing of the children has everything to do with the culture.

Preparing the Child • Parenting for Self-esteem • Strategies to promote Self-esteem

• Physical punishment to discipline vs. gentler discipline• Parental distance/absence vs. closeness and support of extended

family• “Blame the victim” attitude vs. positive attitudes toward owns race

• Emotionally for Racism• Children should not feel alone in their struggles through racial

issues .• Support-Parents should model the strategies to deal with racial

situations and allow them to handle situations by themselves.

Preparing the Child (Cont.)

• Things to avoid:

• Verbal regimen of “Black is beautiful” (if it is, why do I need to

say it?)

• Too permissive or accommodating out of guilt may harm the

development of coping strategies.

• Overly authoritarian , instead of “toughen them up” may

eventually lead to abuse and promotion of violence cycle.

• Compensatory mechanism may encourage the child to remain

passive and to avoid aggressive behavior.

Preparing the Child (Cont.)

Helping them understand racism

• Don’t deny or avoid talking about racism, it confuses them and

promotes a passive approach in dealing with their ethnic identity.

• “Learning the truth” when the child is older my be more harmful.

Learning to deal with racism is a on-going process that should be

address as the child experiences it.

• Contribute to develop strong and positive ethnic identities based

on values inherent to their ethnic group to “cancel” or

counteract the negativity.

Preparing the Child (Cont.)

• Racial hatred is a social not an individual or personal problem. At the

same time, Parents should not expect certain behaviors because who

their child is ethnically.

• “Interdependence of fate”- Joining the group for support in some cases

may lead to blaming a subgroup for the fate of everyone (people with

light skin vs. people with darker skin.)

• Children should learn not to fear multiple alliances (multicultural

competence). By forcing children into groups in order to preserve their

ethnic identity might result in the opposite.

• Children usually model their parents. Any issue or struggle parents may

have with ethnic identity might be reflected on the child.

Scenario3

• Bicultural families: The dynamics of bicultural couples, their relationships and their unique perspectives their children face.

Bicultural Children & Families

Bicultural families represent an important and little-understood growing sector of American society.

Three prevalent Myth Reality

Turn out to be very tragic and marginal individuals.

Can develop healthy ethnic identities and find stable social place

Must choose to identify with only one parent (group).

The opposite: healthy identities involves an integration of both cultures, making it unique

Uncomfortable discussion their ethnic identity with others.

Welcome the opportunity to discuss and explore who they are ethnically

Bicultural Couples

Psychological Profile

• Type 1: Tend to approximate extremes in healthy functioning-

advance communication skills, good cultural understanding of each

other, strongly motivated to be open and working through difficulties.

• Type 2: Individuals who enter in a bicultural relationship for

unconscious reasons and unaware of the circumstances and poor

interpersonal skills a little insight.

Bicultural Couples (Cont.)

• Why entering in bicultural relationships?• Personal attraction• Asserting/affirming their autonomy –• Whites: from over controlling families• African Americans: “overcoming limits” place on them by

racism.• African American families were more accepting of the

bicultural couple than Whites. • Reported frequent focus on issues of race and ethnicity

and work actively to resolved them (hurtful in nature and as result of attachment issues)• Experience rejection and social isolation.

Bicultural Couples (Cont.)

• Reported frequent focus on issues of race and ethnicity and work actively to resolved them (hurtful in nature and as result of attachment issues)• Experience rejection and social isolation.

• Interfaith Couples• Must agree to learned to share practices in the home and

religious education.• Bicultural couples of color• Must learned to live with their partners values, lifestyle priorities

and expectation- traditions and values acquire more significance even if they were not as important before.

Bicultural Relationships

Bicultural Children• Psychologically, they received the reflection of the conflicts

and tensions that plays out in the broader society and within the family.

• Develop a racial identity early in life-”What are you?”• Important to remember they are “Not merely reflections of

the two sides but the unique integration of them.”• More successful in the identification process when issues of

race are discuss openly and frequently and are in contact with integrated environments and positive role models of both ethnic groups.

Bicultural Relationships

Bicultural Children• Strong pressure to choose one ethnic group over the other,

specially during the adolescence.

• Experience rejection early on and the parents are not always aware of the existing differences between them and their child (not an extension of them.)

• Child tends to overly empathize identify with the parent who’s cultural support system is more limited. In case of single parents, they tend to identify with the lone parent.

Bicultural Relationships

Adopted Children• Second source of bicultural families.• Voices against interracial adoptions:• White parents are incapable of providing adequate connection

with the culture of birth and training on how to deal with racism.• Very few White parents understand the complexities of ethnicity

and racism, therefore many children of color feel isolated.• Confusion: contradictory messages:

• Positive vs. negatives feeling from parents (as representatives of the culture who discriminates against them.

• The broader social groups vs. home environment

Therapy with Bicultural FamiliesThree compromising dynamics for the racial identity development• Messages about race in the family – Therapist must point out the

negative messages they sent to the child, so they can change them. • Negatives messages encourage the child’s incapable of embracing

the parts of him or herself associated with negative messages.• Creation of perception of “sides must be taken”- Help parents

become aware of the existence of loyalty binds and allow the child to create relationships with each parent on their own terms.

• External racism: prepare the child for the world. Promote open communications about race

Therapy with Bicultural FamiliesCulturally Sensitive• Requires simultaneous attention to:• Expanded definition of family

• Male dominated and hierarchal families (Mexican American) • Use nondeficit deficit definition of family structures and process

• Focus on the strengths: African American families have a strong influence of the mother figure.

• Resiliency as a therapeutic goal• Strengthening personal characteristics in the child that will allow hi

or her to cope better in stressful situations.• The reality of biculturalism

• Learns to negotiate, tolerate competing cultural values and practices.

Therapy with Bicultural Families

Narrative Therapy with Children• Framework emphasizes social justice and multiculturalism.• Unique elements: combines the nonblaming, collaborative

and contextual based approach.• Based on postmodern ideas.• The self is co-created through the interactions with others

and the society; there is no single self but many selves, “multi-storied” and multi-selves”.

• Societal discourses work to influence and shape the stories and selves. (Ex. Classism, sexism, racism etc.)

• The problem is the “problem” not the individual.• Technique-Externalization.

Therapy with Bicultural Families

Narrative Collective Practice: The tree of life• Adapted to work with children in group or collective

settings.• The tree of lives: exercise to enable children talk about

their lives in a way that makes them stronger.• Generates a second story focus on strengths and skills.• Four parts:• The tree of life- Our roots• Forest of life- Our story• Storms of life –The bad things• Celebration of life- What I gain

Therapy with Bicultural Families

School-Based Social Justice Intervention Program• Aimed at working with youth at risk for academic,

behavioral and emotional difficulties.• Goal: encourage greater achievements and socio-

emotional growth.• Integrated cognitive behavior psychoeducational models

for:• Building and promoting competence, growth and change through

development of insight and specific skills.• Acknowledges the injustices and oppression present on the lifes

of the participants

“Our cultural strength has always been derivedfrom our diversity of understanding and experience.”-- Yo-Yo Ma (French-Born American Cellist, United

Nations Messenger of Peace; b. 1955)

Thank you!