Devoted abandonment : the children left behind by parental emigration in Ecuador

This research addresses the repercussions of parental emigration on children in Ecuador, which can be used to construct appropriate therapeutic methods. I examine: 1) the mobilization of cultural values relevant to separation, 2) how reactions to distress emerge and develop, 3) how values influence reactions to distress, and 4) the efficacy these reaction for psychological adaptation and social adjustment. The first part provides an overview of the context in which I acquired this data (Chapter 1), the perceptions of the researcher (Chapter 2), and the methodology for acquiring this data (Chapter 3). Part II provides a context for understanding the children's different responses to parental emigration in Part III. Chapter 4 describes the historical context of these separations. Constructed from informant data and an ethnography of a family that stays, Chapter 5 describes the daily life of the Ecuadorian family, which includes emigration. In Chapter 6, I describe the variability of experiences that children of émigrés face in just one family. With the children's different responses to parental emigration, Part III critiques the strict application of attachment theory. Chapter 7 addresses children from an Andean village who accept their parent's departure as evidence of devotion. Cultural learning normalizes a separation that an ethnocentric use of attachment theory would see as problematic. While theory often views socialization as unified, Chapter 8 shows that value internalization is more complicated. With exposure to conflicting valuations of émigrés, these children created culturally constituted defense mechanisms from available values to re-code their parents' departure as acceptable. Chapter 9 demonstrates that socialization is not directional. The children negotiate individual defenses to their situations. In addition to commenting on attachment research, the conclusion comments on urban anthropology and cultures in change. I also suggest a combination of cognitive and psychoanalytic theory to create a typology of adaptations including cultural learning, culturally constituted defense mechanisms, and individual defense mechanisms. These three processes address the kind of distress, context of adaptation, and role of social approval. In the epilogue, I address the political and economic atmosphere and what this forebodes for familial reunification both in Ecuador and in the diaspor