Association between sociodemographic characteristics, stress level and resilience with family functioning of immigrants.

Objective: To analyze the association between sociodemographic characteristics, level of perceived stress and resilience with family functioning of immigrants in Brazil.

Method: Cross-sectional study with 122 immigrants living in a municipality in southern Brazil. Data collected in 2021, using questions for characterization, Family Cohesion and Adaptability, Resilience and Perceived Stress Assessment Scale. Data were analyzed in SPSS®, using descriptive and analytical measures (Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and post-hoc tests with Bonferroni correction).

Results: The immigrants were between 18 and 69 years old (average 35.6 years ± 12.0), the majority were female, Venezuelan, with up to eight years of education, family income of one minimum wage, lived in a rented house and had been in Brazil for more than two years. Half had a partner and 18.9% immigrated alone. Family cohesion was associated with marital status, age, education, number of residents and who they came to Brazil with; adaptability with length of stay, who came to Brazil with, number of residents and religion. Greater perceived stress occurred in disconnected families (with less cohesion) and more resilience in connected, agglutinated (with greater cohesion) and rigid (more adapted) families.

Conclusion: Sociodemographic characteristics, level of perceived stress and resilience influenced the family functioning of immigrants.