Mexico-U.S. migration creates situations that may cause psychological distress. The purpose of this research project was to study the impact of father's physical absence due to international migration (FPAIM) on adolescent offspring of rural immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico. Stressors and compensators were studied from the adolescent's perspective and were analyzed using a stress-mediator-consequences theoretical framework. Qualitative (n = 24) and quantitative (n = 310) methodologies were used with a nonrandom sample of adolescents. Results show that the FPAIM is an ambivalent experience for adolescents that has positive and negative elements. Though migrants' children seem to be more vulnerable to psychosocial stress than are the offspring of nonmigrants, gender, not father's absence, appears to be the most important risk factor for psychological distress.

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psychological aspect human Factor Analysis, Statistical Life Change Events sex difference life event Stress, Psychological mental stress Father-Child Relations parental deprivation ethnology Mexico interview United States father child relation Humans family Adolescent male female questionnaire Article Questionnaires migration Sex Factors Paternal Deprivation Interviews Emigration and Immigration Transients and Migrants factorial analysis Child