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Well-Being of Immigrant Children and Their Parents: Evidence from Albanian and Serbian Families in Italy

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Global Perspectives on Well-Being in Immigrant Families

Part of the book series: Advances in Immigrant Family Research ((ADIMFAMRES,volume 1))

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Abstract

Immigration brings significant challenges for immigrant families who are often faced with the complex task of parenting their children in new places of settlement as well as negotiating both the heritage and the dominant cultures. Little attention has been paid to the ways in which immigration affects immigrant parents’ well-being and the consequent psychological and social adjustment of their children. Even less number of studies have focused on adjustment pathways in immigrant families and their children in Italy, which is facing increasing recent waves of immigration, particularly in comparison to other European countries. Only one study we are aware of has investigated the influence of immigration experience among children from different ethnic groups in Italy as a way of identifying positive or negative outcomes during their acculturation process in the country. The present study was designed to build on this prior work by exploring the influence of immigration on children and their parents’ well-being in families from Albania and Serbian immigrants compared to Italian mainstreamers in Northeast Italy. In the following discussion, we first give an overview of the research findings on well-being and adjustment of immigrant populations into their host cultures before presenting the study.

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Acknowledgement

The first author would like to thank Maria Tallandini, Ingrid Bersenda, Sara Sinozic, Chiara Cardile, and Elisabetta Giovannini for their help in carrying out the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000, Tilburg, LE, The Netherlands

    Radosveta Dimitrova & Athanasios Chasiotis

Authors
  1. Radosveta Dimitrova
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  2. Athanasios Chasiotis
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Correspondence to Radosveta Dimitrova .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tilburg University, LE Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Radosveta Dimitrova

  2. Tilburg University, LE Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Michael Bender

  3. Tilburg University, LE Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Fons van de Vijver

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Dimitrova, R., Chasiotis, A. (2014). Well-Being of Immigrant Children and Their Parents: Evidence from Albanian and Serbian Families in Italy. In: Dimitrova, R., Bender, M., van de Vijver, F. (eds) Global Perspectives on Well-Being in Immigrant Families. Advances in Immigrant Family Research, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9129-3_15

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