Posted
January, 2011
Problems
Reported for Toddlers from Dutch and Immigrant Families in
the Netherlands
Around
the world, millions of people are emigrating to host societies
very different from their home societies. The children of
immigrant families may be affected by the challenges that
prompt families to leave their home societies and the challenges
of adapting to host societies. Like many large urban areas,
Rotterdam, Netherlands, has thousands of immigrants from numerous
societies. As part of the Generation R project, a longitudinal
study that began by assessing pregnant mothers, Jansen et
al. (2010) obtained CBCL/1½-5 ratings by 4,943 mothers
when their children were 1½ years old. In addition
to nonimmigrant Dutch mothers, the sample included substantial
numbers of mothers from Cape Verde, the Dutch Antilles, Indonesia,
Morocco, Surinam, Turkey, and European countries other than
the Netherlands. CBCL Total Problems scores were found to
be significantly higher for children from immigrant than nonimmigrant
families, with children from nonEuropean immigrant families
obtaining significantly higher scores than children from European
immigrant families. Because various risk factors were associated
with CBCL scores and were also more common among immigrant
than Dutch families, Jansen et al. compared CBCL scores after
controlling for risk factors such as low family income, maternal
psychopathology, low educational level, single parenthood,
high parity, and smoking in pregnancy. Controlling for the
risk factors reduced differences between immigrant and Dutch
CBCL scores, but CBCL scores remained significantly higher
for children from immigrant than Dutch families. Among immigrant
families, scores on the following variables were also associated
with high CBCL scores: Mothers born in the home society versus
mothers born in the Netherlands to immigrant mothers; poor
maternal Dutch language skills; and mothers' feelings that
they were not accepted by Dutch natives. Thus, factors related
to immigration, plus risk factors not specific to immigration
were separately associated with higher CBCL problem scores.
Jansen et al. concluded that "Our results imply that
both researchers and policy makers aiming to tackle ethnic
disparities in behavioural problems should take into account
the intertwined nature of national origin and family risk
factors" (p. 1162).
Reference:
Jansen, P.W., Raat, H., Mackenbach, J.P., Jaddoe, V.W.V.,
Hofman, A., van Oort, F.V, et al. (2010). National origin
and behavioural problems of toddlers: The role of family risk
factors and maternal immigration characteristics. Journal
of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 1151-1164.
