TY - JOUR
T1 - The enactment of relational maintenance when Guatemalan parents are forcibly separated from their families due to deportation
AU - Valdez, Carmen R.
AU - Schlag, Karen
AU - Vangelisti, Anita L.
AU - Padilla, Brian
N1 - Funding Information:
Participants were prevented from fulfilling family-related tasks due to deportation, acts seen as consequential to their family role. Before being forcibly returned to Guatemala, participants engaged in household tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and home repair, along with daily childcare activities, such as helping children with grooming or taking them to school or to the park. Participants also provided financial support by paying for rent, utilities, food, and school items. When describing family tasks, participants portrayed these responsibilities as gendered, with mothers describing missing childcare and household work and fathers mentioning their struggles to provide family financial support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 National Communication Association.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - This study examines how parents deported to Guatemala from the United States (U.S.) use relational maintenance strategies to preserve relationships with their family living in the U.S. In a context of forced separation where family reunification is severely constrained, this study considers economic, social, and cultural impacts on individuals’ abilities to engage in relational maintenance. Interviews conducted in Guatemala with parents having previously been deported from the U.S. were coded and analyzed using contextualist thematic analysis. Findings revealed that relational maintenance is crucial to family preservation, with parents relying on assurances, positivity, advice-giving, and social networks to maintain a sense of relational continuity and their own position of influence within the family. Parents faced barriers to enacting strategies of shared tasks, openness, and conflict management. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.
AB - This study examines how parents deported to Guatemala from the United States (U.S.) use relational maintenance strategies to preserve relationships with their family living in the U.S. In a context of forced separation where family reunification is severely constrained, this study considers economic, social, and cultural impacts on individuals’ abilities to engage in relational maintenance. Interviews conducted in Guatemala with parents having previously been deported from the U.S. were coded and analyzed using contextualist thematic analysis. Findings revealed that relational maintenance is crucial to family preservation, with parents relying on assurances, positivity, advice-giving, and social networks to maintain a sense of relational continuity and their own position of influence within the family. Parents faced barriers to enacting strategies of shared tasks, openness, and conflict management. The implications and limitations of the study are discussed.
KW - Deportation
KW - family communication
KW - family separation
KW - Latinx/Hispanic/immigrant
KW - relational maintenance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85160068183&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/00909882.2023.2206460
DO - 10.1080/00909882.2023.2206460
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85160068183
SN - 0090-9882
JO - Journal of Applied Communication Research
JF - Journal of Applied Communication Research
ER -