Notes
Key recommendations
Early mental health promotion with recent immigrant parents is critical for supporting immigrant children’s wellbeing in a new country
Key findings
African immigrant parents struggle with the tension of holding traditional cultural views of wellness in an environment where structures and services are centred around Western notions of mental health and illness and the potential impact this can have on their parenting practices and children’s mental health.
Perceptions of mental health and child mental health promotion practices of African immigrants:
(1) Mental health as synonymous to mental illness – mental health to visible symptoms of advanced psychiatric disorders, known colloquially as “madness.”
(2) Mental health challenges as a spiritual problem – mental health as a spiritual problem that ought to be addressed in the physical realm.
(3) Stigma and mental health – culturally-based perceptions that relate mental health to taboos, spiritual inflictions, and fear of “madness” or losing touch with reality.
(4) Contesting concepts of mental health diagnoses and treatment – mistrust and refusal of professional diagnosis of child mental health conditions
Gaps identified
Tension between traditional African parenting practices and Western approach to parenting
Community organizations
African community organizations
Key populations
African immigrant parents
Integration timeline
At what point during the integration process the study was conducted?
NA
Publisher: Canadian Ethnic Studies Association
