Enhancing relationship strengths in immigrant and refugee families: Examining the feasibility and acceptability of the ANCHOR parenting program
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Supportive parent-child relationships enable adolescents to navigate developmental transitions, respond to discrimination, strengthen ethnic-racial identity, and maintain well-being. Yet migration-related stressors, including systemic barriers, economic insecurity, parent-child acculturation gaps, and shifts in family roles, can strain these relationships. This paper reports a single-group pre-post evaluation of ANCHOR (Advancing Newcomer Caregivers' Harmony, Openness, and Resilience), a strength-based, community-informed program designed to support immigrant and refugee caregivers of adolescents. Grounded in attachment-based relational processes, ANCHOR aims to strengthen parents' ability to serve as a secure base and source of guidance throughout adolescence. Across 11 program deliveries involving 116 caregivers, 96 completed satisfaction surveys and provided qualitative feedback and 48 also completed pre- and post-program assessments of parenting and relationship strengths. Among caregivers with pre-post data, repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVAs) indicated significant increases in parenting efficacy, parental empathy, and parent-child congruence. Reflexive thematic analysis identified perceived improvements in emotionally attuned communication, appreciation of children's perspectives, confidence in supporting adolescents' needs and navigating a new sociocultural context, and trust and connection within parent-adolescent relationships. Caregivers also emphasized the importance of a supportive group process that centered cultural strengths. These results suggest that ANCHOR is a feasible and acceptable intervention for immigrant and refugee caregivers (82.3% women) and provide preliminary evidence of improvements in parenting confidence, empathy, and parent-adolescent relationships. Further evaluation using more rigorous controlled designs is warranted.
DOI: 10.1111/jora.70312
Institution: University of Victoria
Language: English
Topic: Migration, Health and Trauma
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,400
OpenAlex ID: W7225612173