Parental and familial factors and their association with adolescents' mental health were examined among former Soviet Union (FSU) immigrants and nonimmigrants in Israel. Questionnaires regarding parental control, inconsistency, and rejection, in addition to adolescent-family connectedness and psychological disorders, were administered to 83 FSU immigrants and 106 nonimmigrant adolescents. According to the results, FSU adolescents are less connected to their families, experience their parents as less warm and more inconsistent in their childrearing behavior, report that their mothers subject them to a higher level of control, and the psychological disorders among them are more widespread than among nonimmigrant adolescents. Maternal control, maternal temporal inconsistency, and maternal and paternal rejection were associated with psychological disorders only among nonimmigrant adolescents. No such association was found among FSU adolescents, suggesting that FSU mental health problems are associated with immigration and cultural and social factors, rather than parental and familial factors. A comprehensive intervention program is required to provide support and assistance to help immigrants overcome their psychological distresses. © 2009 American Psychological Association.

Parental control Mental health Immigration inconsistency Rejection

Parents Israel psychological aspect methodology Adolescent Psychology mental health human statistics Internal-External Control control USSR Adaptation, Psychological Rejection (Psychology) social support ethnology Mental Disorders mental disease Humans family attitude Adolescent male Emigrants and Immigrants child psychology female risk factor Risk Factors adaptive behavior questionnaire Parent-Child Relations Parenting Article social adaptation Questionnaires migration Authoritarianism authority Analysis of Variance Social Adjustment child parent relation parent