The UT Austin School of Social Work is conducting a study regarding how U.S. citizen children are affected when their parent's are deported or placed in removal proceedings. They need research participants and are looking for client referrals. They are prohibited from contacting the clients themselves, so attorneys or clients must contact them. The study is being conducted in Austin, Texas.
The project description is below:
Exploring the Effects of Parental Deportation on U.S. Citizen Children
Luis H. Zayas, Ph.D., Principal Investigator, University of Texas at Austin
M. Andrea Campetella, Ph.D., Project Manager, University of Texas at Austin
We are grateful for your willingness to help us in recruiting participants for this study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Grant # R21 HD068874). We hope that our study will increase the existing knowledge about Latino families in the United States, and that this knowledge will be helpful to those trying to better serve this population.
Purpose of our study is to understand what happens to the mental health of U.S. citizen-children who have left the U.S. following their parents in deportation, or have remained in the U.S. under the care of one parent or other family or friends.
Research participants are U.S. citizen-children of undocumented Mexican immigrant parents. Over the course of two years, we interview a total of 80 children (50% females) between the ages of 10 and 12. A portion of these kids can be from anywhere in Austin metro area. Participants will be divided into four groups of 20 children each:
- Group A: children who accompanied their deported parents to Mexico
- Group B: children who remained in U.S. with one parent
- Group C: children who remained in U.S. after parents’ deportation in the care of family or friends
- Group D: children whose undocumented parents are not under removal proceedings.
Eligibility criteria for participants are
- Child must be a U.S. citizen, between the age of 10 and 12 (inclusive)
- Child cannot have a severe mental illness, autism, mental retardation, or developmental disabilities
- Child must know that his/her parent(s) are undocumented immigrants
- One or both parents are undocumented Mexican immigrant (one parent may be undocumented from another Latin American country)
- Parents in groups A, B, and C must not have been deported due to criminal felony conviction
- Parents in group D must be residing in the U.S., and must not be in removal proceedings
Each child will be interviewed twice in a span of six months to gather qualitative and quantitative data. Parents and guardians will provide some demographic information on child and family, and will complete some clinical measures for the child. We follow strict procedures set forth by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Texas at Austin.
Your role is to help identify potential participants and put them in touch with our team. We cannot approach families until they agree to be contacted. You or your staff will need to make sure that eligibility criteria are met and tell parents briefly about the study. If parents are interested in more information or in participating, they can contact us directly. Or, parents may give you permission to share their contact information with us (mostly a telephone number). You and we will assure parents and children that if they decline to participate, there will be no adverse effects on the services they receive from your agency or organization. We have received a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health that provides protection against compulsory disclosure, such as subpoena, for all data collected for this study.
You can expect that we will a) Protect families’ privacy. We protect the privacy and identity of study participants. We follow all HRPO regulations as well as guidelines that the research team has set in place in an effort to protect the identity of our participants. b) Dedicate ourselves to learning from our partners and study participants, and to helping immigrant families and changing immigration policies for the better. c) Communicate actively with you, be available for questions you might have, and keep you informed on the study’s progress.
Contact for this project in Austin is Andrea Campetella at Campetella@austin.utexas.edu, phone 512-471-1458
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