Problems With Immigrant Children Essay

In prior researches (Kataoka et al., 2003; Beehler et al, 2011), there are significant problems among immigrant children, especially mental health problems. Immigrant children could have pre-migration trauma, being undocumented, and most importantly language problems. So, developing strategies to help immigrant children acculturate effectively would be necessary. There is also a study which suggests that unstable immigrant status increases a child’s risk for psychological and behavioral problems, such as anxiety disorders, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and eating disorders (Pumariega et al. 2005). Moreover, most of literature mentioned that lots of immigrant children experience various problems as learning a new

In an earlier study, Sue and Morishma (1982) found that East Asian American students showed higher level of anxiety than non-Asian students. The authors concluded that there are increasing rates of depression, school dropout, substance abuse, and juvenile delinquency among East Asian American adolescents. Also, according to Aldwin and Greenberger (1987), Korean students were significantly more depressed than European American students, as well as the participants’ perceived parental traditionalism was related to higher levels of depression among the Korean participated students. Okazaki (1997) measured differences in depression and social anxiety among East Asian American and European American college students. The author found that East Asian students were significantly higher on both measures of depression and anxiety than European American students. In addition, in a current study, Young and his colleagues (2010) concluded that Korean American students are more depressed than Chinese American, other Asian American, and Caucasian students. Also, the authors suggested that cultural norms and intergenerational conflict may contribute Asian American children have more depressive symptoms (Young et al., 2010). Thus, adapting Young et al.’s perspective, I consider perceived cultural norms and