Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
Program Name/Specialization
Spiritual Care and Counselling
Faculty/School
Martin Luther University College
First Advisor
Dr. Kristine Lund
Advisor Role
Dissertation Supervisor
Abstract
Abstract
This dissertation explores the parenting experiences of immigrant Muslim mothers in Canada, with particular attention to how motherhood is shaped at the intersection of faith, culture, gender, migration, racialization, family life, trauma-related acculturative stress, and wellbeing. While immigrant parenting has been widely examined in the literature, the voices and lived experiences of Muslim mothers remain underrepresented, particularly in research that attends to spirituality, meaning-making, mental health, and structural conditions. This study addresses this gap by examining how immigrant Muslim mothers understand, navigate, and make meaning of their parenting roles within the Canadian sociocultural context.
Guided by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this qualitative study draws on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with twelve first-generation immigrant Muslim mothers. The analysis foregrounds participants’ meaning-making processes and highlights parenting as a relational, moral, spiritual, and mentally and emotionally demanding practice. Findings reveal that mothers’ experiences are shaped by interconnected processes of acculturation and enculturation, faith-based parenting practices, post-migration and trauma-related stressors, gendered caregiving expectations, father involvement, Islamophobia, anti-Muslim racism, and engagement with institutions such as schools, healthcare, counselling, settlement services, and social services.
Participants understood motherhood as more than caregiving. Many described children as blessings and trusts from God and viewed parenting as a spiritual responsibility connected to love, moral formation, accountability, and the hope of raising children with faith, dignity, and belonging. At the same time, mothers did not pass on culture or religion uncritically. They preserved, revised, questioned, and adapted inherited practices in response to their children’s needs and the realities of life in Canada. Their parenting involved ongoing reflection, discernment, advocacy, and care.
The findings further demonstrate that maternal wellbeing is not solely an individual concern, but is deeply embedded within family, community, spiritual, institutional, and structural contexts. Support from spouses, extended family, mother-to-mother networks, Muslim communities, faith-based spaces, mental health services, spiritual care, and culturally and spiritually responsive supports emerged as important to mothers’ resilience and overall wellbeing. Conversely, gaps in holistic and responsive support systems intensified maternal stress and burden, with implications for children, families, communities, and institutions.
Mothers also described significant mental, emotional, and advocacy-based labour as they worked to protect their children’s wellbeing, maintain religious and cultural continuity, and negotiate inclusion within environments sometimes marked by Islamophobia, gendered Islamophobia, anti-Muslim racism, misunderstanding, or inadequate accommodation. These experiences shaped maternal worry, help-seeking, institutional trust, and children’s sense of belonging.
By integrating Berry’s Acculturation Theory, enculturation processes, Pargament’s Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy Framework, a Social Determinants of Health perspective, and an intersectional lens, this study offers a relational, spiritually attentive, trauma-aware, and structurally situated framework for understanding immigrant Muslim motherhood. The research contributes to scholarship on immigrant parenting, Muslim motherhood, faith and whole-person care, culturally responsive practice, Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim racism. It also informs counselling, psychotherapy, social work, spiritual care, healthcare, education, settlement services, and policy by underscoring the need for holistic support systems that recognize faith, culture, mental health, religious identity, inclusivity, and belonging as interconnected dimensions of individual, family, and societal wellbeing.
Keywords: Immigrant Muslim mothers, Muslim motherhood, immigrant parenting, acculturation, enculturation, intersectionality, Islamophobia, gendered Islamophobia, anti-Muslim racism, mental health, spirituality, spiritual care, acculturative stress, trauma-related acculturative stress, Muslim mental health, women’s mental health, culturally responsive care, spiritually integrated care, whole-person wellbeing, Canada, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, faith-based parenting practices
Recommended Citation
Sezen, Selda Kateroglu, "Parenting in Canada: Lived Experiences of Immigrant Muslim Mothers" (2026). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 2963.
https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2963
Convocation Year
2026
Convocation Season
Fall
Included in
Community-Based Research Commons, Counseling Commons, Counseling Psychology Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Islamic Studies Commons, Migration Studies Commons, Multicultural Psychology Commons, Practical Theology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Social Work Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons