Ambiguous Loss and the Media Practices of Transnational Latina Teens

A Qualitative Study

Bibliographic Data

ID12780376
AuthorsLucila Vargas (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume6
Issue1
Pages37-52
Publication date2008-01-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePopular Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1540-5702 • E-ISSN: 1540-5710
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15405700701697587
OpenAlexW1979448328
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited21

Drawing on ethnographic data from a study with 17 working-class, transnational Latina teens, I examine the media practices they perform to cope with ambiguous loss. According to Pauline Boss (1993 Boss, P. 1993. The experience of immigration for the mother left behind: The use of qualitative feminist strategies to analyze letters from my Swiss grandmother to my father. Marriage & Family Review, 19(3-4): 365–378. [Google Scholar], 1999 Boss, P. 1999. Ambiguous loss. Learning to live with unresolved grief, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar], 2006 Boss, P. 2006. Loss, trauma, and resilience. Therapeutic work with ambiguous loss, New York: W. W. Norton & Company. [Google Scholar]), ambiguous loss refers to a distinct type of loss that defies closure, such as the feelings of the family of a missing person. My findings suggest that Latina teens use media to recreate cultural spaces, bridge gaps between the familiar and the foreign, and sustain a sense of historical continuity. I argue that many of the teens' media practices are rituals of both bereavement and reincarnation; as such, media practices may be essential not only to successfully cope with ambiguous loss but also to develop resiliency and to construct transnational subjectivities

Boss · Ethnography · Feeling · Grief · Immigration · Media studies · Political science · Qualitative research · Refugee · Social science · Sociology · Child Welfare and Adoption · Gender Studies · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Psychology · Social Psychology

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