Parent-Adolescent Storytelling in Canadian-Arabic Immigrant Families (Part 1): A Grounded Theory

Interviews with 20 mothers, fathers, adolescent sons and daughters from Arabic immigrant families elicited descriptions of participants’ experiences of storytelling in their families. Constructivist grounded theory analysis of interview data provided an initial conceptualization of intergenerational storytelling during adolescence that both reflects and serves to influence parent-adolescent relationships as well as the broader cultural domain through story content, storytellers’ intentions, and responsive interaction. This preliminary substantive theory presents storytelling in immigrant families during adolescence as relationally grounded, influenced and expressed through a cultural/language “prism,” responsive and active in moving relationships toward or away from connection, and dependent on story content/context as well as the storyteller’s delivery and listener’s response. These findings have implications for extending theoretical conceptualization of family interactions during adolescence beyond conflict, monitoring, and peer influences. In addition, practical implications for supporting and understanding the day-to-day interactions that support parent-adolescent relationships and cultural minority families are highlighte

Parent-Adolescent Storytelling in Canadian-Arabic Immigrant Families (Part 2): A Narrative Analysis of Adolescents\u27 Stories Told to Parents

This paper is the second of two papers presenting the results of a qualitative analysis of interviews inviting Arabic-Canadian immmigrant adolescents and parents to reflect on the stories they tell each other in the context of everyday family life. The first paper provides the results of a Grounded Theory Methodology and proposes a substantive theory of intergenerational storytelling during adolescence. This paper augments these results by presenting Narrative Analysis of a separate part of the interview inviting adolescents to tell a story to the interviewer as if telling it to their parents. Based on the stories told by 10 adolescents (5 male, 5 female), this analysis provides an initial representation of how the broad projects of acculturation and collective identity, as well as changes in parent-adolescent relationships, are brought directly into parent-adolescent day-to-day interaction in the form of small stories. These small stories present teens as performing in their day-to-day lives, with friends and strangers, and in the face of challengers and strange or familiar circumstances. The stories provide a context in which parent-adolescent interactional voices are prominent, and wherein understanding of unusual events, co-construction of self and family identities, broader social influences, and autonomy/connection dialectics emerge

‘The Mosques Are the Biggest Problem We’ve Got Right Now’ – Key Agent and Survivor Accounts of Engaging Mosques with Domestic and Honour-Based Violence in the United Kingdom.

This article considers the role of mosques in addressing domestic violence (DV) and honor-based violence (HBV) in the United Kingdom. Utilizing data extracted from interviews with 38 key agents and survivors, this article will highlight that some mosques can be difficult to engage with when attempting to raise awareness on violence against women (VAW). Participants explained that the patriarchal nature of mosques contributes to this difficulty together with their exclusion of women within organizational structures. Some mosques also deny that VAW is even a problem within their communities. This is a worrying trend as those on the pulpit often possess significant powers of influence across large congregations and are perfectly placed to help provoke dialogue on these issues. Furthermore, it adds yet another layer of inequality experienced by Muslim women that makes reporting abuse and seeking intervention that much more difficult. In the face of this resistance, this article will consider some ways in which mosques can raise awareness about VAW and where Muslim women can access support. It will also explore additional strategies and recommendations in relation to overcoming mosques unwilling to support VAW initiatives

Making Mindfulness Matter with Arabic Speaking Families: A Process Evaluation Study

Arabic-speaking refugees experience a significant amount of trauma in their pre-and post-migration journey in Canada, which can negatively impact their well-being. Mindfulness programs have demonstrated wide-ranging benefits for children and youth, but there is a gap in the literature on providing culturally based mindfulness programs to refugee families. The present study conducted a process evaluation for the culturally adapted version of the Making Mindfulness Matter (M3) program (an 8-week concurrent parent and children mindfulness intervention), to assess program successes and challenges with families. Three groups were run, and a total of nine families recruited from the Muslim Resources Centre for Social Support and Integration participated. Parents (n=8) and children (n=9) completed the weekly feedback survey on program activities and completed a mindfulness knowledge questionnaire at the beginning and end of the program. Researchers documented curriculum activities completed each week, and a focus group was conducted with mindfulness program facilitators (n=4) to understand barriers to delivering the M3 program. A thematic analysis was conducted for parents’ and facilitators’ feedback. Children (n=9) had a significant increase in their awareness of mindfulness concepts. The parents’ mean comparison score on the mindfulness survey between before and after the program showed no significant difference; however, scores were moving in the right direction. Preliminary results indicated that the implementation of the M3 program was a success with notable challenges in the practicality of online programming