A R T I C L E SATELLITE BABIES IN TRANSNATIONAL FAMILIES: A STUDY OF PARENTS’ DECISION TO SEPARATE FROM THEIR INFANTS YVONNE BOHR York University CONNIE TSE Aisling Discoveries Child and Family Centre ABSTRACT: This study examines a practice which is characteristic of an era of intensifying globalization: As part of a transnational lifestyle, an increasing number of immigrants to North America send infants thousands of miles back to their country of origin to be raised by members of their extended families— a culturally sanctioned tradition. After several years of separation, the children return to the biological parents to attend school in the adopted country, a custom which, according to Western mental health models, could have significant sequelae for attachment relationships and other facets of development. This practice is particularly prevalent among immigrants from the People’s Republic of China, but a modified version of it can be found in other groups as well. The work described here is the first phase of a longitudinal project that explores the advantages and potential repercussions, for both infants and parents, of a transnational lifestyle. The current study reviews the decision-making process of a group of Chinese Canadian immigrant parents who are considering a separation from their infants. Preliminary findings show that the expected concerns about disrupting attachment relationships are embedded in more salient considerations of economic need and cultural perspective. These exploratory data exemplify an emergent field of culture-focused research and practice in infant mental health, and support the call for innovative models to situate infant developmental pathways in global and transcultural contexts. RESUMEN: Este estudio examina una pr´ actica caracter´ ıstica de una era de globalizaci ´ on intensificada: como parte de un estilo de vida transnacional, un n´ umero creciente de inmigrantes a Am´ erica del Norte env´ ıa a sus infantes miles de millas de vuelta a sus pa´ ıses de origen para ser criados por miembros de sus familias extendidas, una tradici´ on culturalmente aprobada. Despu´ es de varios a ˜ nos de separaci ´ on, los ni ˜ nos regresan a sus padres biol ´ ogicos para asistir a la escuela en el pa´ ıs de adopci ´ on, una costumbre que, de acuerdo con los modelos de salud mental occidentales, pudiera tener significativas secuelas en la relaci´ on de afectividad This study was partially supported through a Research Development Grant from the LaMarsh Research Centre, Faculty of Health, York University. The authors thank Dr. Patrick Lee for his critical reading of this article, and Dr. David Rennie for so generously sharing his expertise in grounded theory methods. The authors also acknowl- edge the valuable suggestions made by reviewers. Direct correspondence to: Yvonne Bohr, Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3 Canada; e-mail: bohry@yorku.ca INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Vol. 30(3), 265–286 (2009) C  2009 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/imhj.20214 265