Hispanic mothers who send their children away to their country of origin for extended periods of time: A look at their object-relations, acculturation and stressors.
Item
-
Title
-
Hispanic mothers who send their children away to their country of origin for extended periods of time: A look at their object-relations, acculturation and stressors.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3074659
-
identifier
-
3074659
-
Creator
-
Kuttenplan, Carina L.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Steven Tuber
-
Date
-
2003
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Clinical | Psychology, Social | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
-
Abstract
-
The purpose of the present study was to use psychoanalytic and cross-cultural methods of inquiry on a non-clinical population to empirically evaluate those aspects that play a role in the behavior exhibited by many Hispanic mothers who separate from their children at an early age by sending them to their country of origin for long periods of time. Specifically, the goal of this study was to obtain a deeper understanding of the mother's psychology and of the needs addressed by their separating from their young children, who are then raised by relatives, oftentimes the mothers' mothers. It was proposed that mothers who separate from their children at an early age and for extended periods of time would be mostly mothers who have not become acculturated (or integrated in the host culture) but rather stayed primarily attached to their motherland traditions, women who experience overwhelming psychosocial stressors, combined with poor or limited sources of support, and women who have undeveloped and unintegrated object-relations , and who are consequently more conflicted about separating from their mothers and their culture. The variables explored in this study were those of acculturation, stressors and object-relations. The tools used were the Bidimensional Acculturation Scale for Hispanics, the Hispanic Stress Inventory, and the Object-Representation Inventory: Differentiation-Relatedness Scale of Self and Object Representations.;Results from the study revealed no link between acculturation and separation, indicating that acculturation is not a determinant factor in the decision to separate. On the other hand, this study's results show that mothers' stressors and their internal world, determined by their object-relations, play a crucial role in their decision to separate from their young children for extended periods of time. In particular, the results suggest that Hispanic mothers who separate from their children at an early age, had a long-term history of early neglect and/or abuse, markedly unintegrated and unstable self and object representations, and consequent significantly high levels of stress and anxiety. This result underlines the importance of considering the mothers' object-relations in the study of early and prolonged maternal separation.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
