Principal Investigator: Xin She, MD, Stanford Medicine Pediatrics

Research Team: Lindsay Weissert, MS, PILAglobal; Lisa Chamberlain, MD, Stanford Medicine Pediatrics; Erika Clairgue Caizero, MA, Universidad Iberoamericana

Funders: Office of Community Engagement, Center for Innovation in Global Health

Supporting refugee parents in raising children while navigating the extreme difficulties of living in a shelter and applying for asylum can be life changing for families. Parenting interventions in refugee settings have shown promise to improve pediatric and parental mental health, but evidence is lacking in Mexico. Non-profit workers such as PILA Global in Tijuana have started to address this by offering nonviolence parenting groups. Using a community-based participatory research model in partnership with parents on the border, Stanford, PILA and the local Iberoamericana University researchers aim to better understand and support parenting practices, parental mental health, and child socioemotional development among refugee parents in Tijuana, Mexico.

“We hope to fill in the gap in literature on culturally-sensitive, evidence-based programs that support refugee child and family health in Latin America,” said Principal Investigator Dr. Xin She. “More broadly, our mission is to help all vulnerable children achieve their full potential.”

Image courtesy of PILAGlobal