Family efficacy as a protective factor against immigrant adolescent risky behavior: A literature review

Research suggests that family efficacy—defined as a family’s beliefs in its capability to manage different situations in order to achieve a desired outcome—is linked to a decreased likelihood of adolescents to engage in risky health behaviors. It is not clear, however, if this is true for immigrant families when they are encountering with increased challenges in their host countries. To provide holistic nursing care to immigrant families, it is important to know the sources of family efficacy particularly for immigrant adolescents when they are developing health behavior. This integrative review examined existing literature to learn about the sources of family efficacy among immigrant adolescents and how different domain of family efficacy is related to risky behaviors. We examined 22 studies on the topics of immigration, adaptation, risky adolescent behavior, and family function. Findings showed that multidimensional sources of family efficacies (specifically those in the relational, pragmatic, and value-laden domains) exert significant positive effects on immigrant adolescents’ health behaviors.