• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.357-367
• /
• 2009

This research examined the psychological characteristics of children, such as children's attachment to their mothers, self-concept, daily stress, and depression, in both multicultural and typical Korean families. Elementary school children in 3rd to 6th grade were surveyed in Chunnam province. 158 cases of multicultural families and 181 cases of typical Korean families were analyzed by the methods of Cronbach's a coefficient and independent t-test using SPSS program. Children from multicultural families had less attachment to their mothers and self respect than those from typical Korean families. Regarding daily stress, children from multicultural families highly recognize the economic and physical environments, whereas children from typical Korean families highly recognize the academic achievements and the relationships with their teachers. Children from multicultural families were highly prone to depression compared to the children from typical Korean families.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.103-117
• /
• 2015

Family environment plays a significant role in adolescent development. Multicultural adolescents in Korea are brought up in a distinctive family environment, where they get to experience two different cultures within their families. Thus, it is important to examine how internal characteristics of the family environment in multicultural families and interactions between family members influence adolescents. The aim of the current study was to examine structural relationships among Southeast Asian mothers' and Korean fathers' bilingual socialization, adolescents' attitude toward mothers' native culture, and mother-adolescent relationship satisfaction. Specifically, the following two questions were addressed in this study: 1) Does bilingual socialization of each parent affect adolescents' attitude toward mothers' native culture? 2) Does children's attitude toward mothers' native culture affect mother-adolescent relationship satisfaction? To answer these questions, the survey data from the '2012 Nationwide Survey of Multicultural Families' was analysed, using SEM. The sample consisted of 318 multicultural adolescents (aged 9-17) living with Korean fathers and immigrant mothers from Southeast Asia. The main findings were as follows. First, Korean fathers' bilingual socialization had a positive effect on immigrant mothers' bilingual socialization. The path from Korean fathers' bilingual socialization to adolescents' attitude toward mothers' native culture was significantly mediated by immigrant mothers' bilingual socialization. Second, adolescents' attitude toward mothers' native culture had a positive effect on mother-adolescent relationship satisfaction. Results suggest that Korean fathers' bilingual socialization is an important factor for bilingual socialization of multicultural adolescents. It is also worth noting that each parent's bilingual socialization helps multicultural adolescents to form a positive identity as a member of multicultural families.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.20 no.9
• /
• pp.420-431
• /
• 2019

This study examined the mediating effect of parenting stress on the influence of self-differentiation of mothers in multicultural families on their learned helplessness. The study determined the correlation between the following variables: self-differentiation, learned helplessness, and the parenting stress of mothers in multicultural families. The study was conducted on mothers who are raising children in multicultural families and 193 cases of supplementary data were finally analyzed. The data derived from the survey was analyzed using the SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 programs. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, the self-differentiation of mothers in multicultural families showed a negative effect on parenting stress and the mothers' learned helplessness, while parenting stress had a positive effect on the mothers' learned helplessness. Parenting stress was found to have a mediating effect on the relationship between the self-differentiation and the learned helplessness of mothers in multicultural families. This study suggests that the mothers of multicultural families may decrease parenting stresses and learned helplessness by increasing the level of self-differentiation in the context of cultural differences and adapting to new societies.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.235-260
• /
• 2012

This study was aimed at looking into and understanding child-rearing experience of mothers from multicultural families based on the grounded theory, one of the qualitative research methods. For this, twelve mothers from multicultural families were selected and data were collected through in-depth interviews with them and then analyzed through the open coding, axial coding and selective coding. The analysis suggested that main phenomena mothers from multicultural families experienced are the conflict of child-rearing and educational crisis, and the confused identity of parenting. These main phenomena had much to do with contextual factors such as economic hardship, lower level of the Korean language, cultural differences, prejudices and ignorance. The severeness of conflict and crisis of child-rearing and the intensity of identity confusion for parenting depended on arbitral conditions such as family bonds, positive expectation for the future of their children, and the help of supportive systems. Mothers were dealing with difficulties of child-rearing through action and interaction of resignation and denial, introspection and the intention to overcome difficulties, and the capacity building. As a result, mothers from multicultural families acknowledged that there is a limit to their position and roles they can play and tried to change in order to resolve problems related to their children, positioning themselves for more active lives in Korean society. Through discussion based on the findings of the study, this study can help better understand child-rearing experience of mothers from multicultural families and suggest several directions for future researches on multicultural families.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
• /
• v.10 no.11
• /
• pp.313-323
• /
• 2020

This study is to examine the mediating effects of parenting efficacy the relation between the self-esteem and child career support behavior(encourage, meddle, non-involvement) of mothers of multicultural families. To this end, data from the 7th year's multicultural youth-parent panel were used, and descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were conducted on the data of 1,188 married immigrant women. The result of the analysis showed that self-esteem (β=.277) and parental efficacy (β=.134) were positively significant as factors affecting the child career support behavior of mothers of multicultural families. In addition, parental efficacy was found to provide partial mediation in the relationship between self-esteem and child career support behavior. Based on this, this study suggested policy and practical measures to improve parental efficacy of mothers of multicultural families and to conduct desirable child career guidance.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.221-229
• /
• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing depression among mothers-in-law in multicultural families. Methods: For this study, 159 participants from multicultural families were recruited through administrative units of the B. & U. Metropolitan City and G. Province. Data related to acculturation stress, resilience, and depression were collected from April to August 2014 and analyzed through t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and regression analysis with the SPSS/WIN 22.0 for Windows program. Results: The participants had a moderate level of acculturation stress ($2.43{\pm}0.75$: range 1~5) and resilience ($4.74{\pm}1.14$: range 1~7). About 58% of the participants had depression. The results of stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that mothers-in-law's depression was affected by resilience (${\beta}=-1.17$, p<.001), acculturation stress (${\beta}=0.85$, p=.026), perceived economic level (${\beta}=-0.83$, p=.016), difficulty in physical activity (${\beta}=-0.62$, p=.027), relationship satisfaction (${\beta}=-0.51$, p=.035), and education level (${\beta}=-0.48$, p=.033). The explanatory power of these factors was 35%. Conclusion: The findings indicated the need to lower the level of depression by enhancing resilience and reducing acculturation stress among mothers-in-law in multicultural families. Future research to reduce depression among mothers-in-law in multicultural families should consider how to enhance resilience and reduce acculturation stress.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.27-37
• /
• 2012

This study determines the factors that contribute to the sense of self-identity for children from multicultural and rural families and provides a systematic understanding of individual self-identity. It also provides implications on how parents, teachers, and professionals can approach their role when instructing and rearing children of different sociocultural backgrounds. The subjects consist of the 310 children from multicultural families (Korean fathers and immigrant mothers) residing in South Korea and 280 children from rural families with similar conditions to those in multicultural families in North Jeolla Province South Korea. The sense of self-identity and maternal parenting behavior were perceived differently by children of multicultural and rural families, whose sense of self-identity was affected by school satisfaction and maternal parenting behavior.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.35 no.6
• /
• pp.47-64
• /
• 2014

This study was conducted with the aim of examining the acculturation process of children and parents from multicultural families, which can affect the self-esteem of the children concerned. The participants from each family consisted of the fathers, mothers, and school-age children of 179 households. The results of this study reveal the following: (1) First, the multicultural children scored higher than the average in self-esteem in most areas except school life. Furthermore, the children and parents had a comparatively positive attitude toward acculturation (2) Second, the children's level of self-esteem had significant correlations only with the acculturation of mothers as opposed to fathers. (3) Third, the impacts of acculturation of the children and their parents on the children's self-esteem followed different patterns according to the sub-areas of self-esteem. Specifically, the self-esteem for overall self-value and family relations rose when the multicultural acceptance attitude of mothers was high. However, area of peer relations was affected only by the acculturation of children. The area concerning school life was high when the mother-culture propagation attitude of mothers was low.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.111-119
• /
• 2012

The objectives of this study were to evaluate oral health status of children in multicultural families and compare oral health behaviors of multicultural mothers with those of ordinary Korean families. The mothers' social characters, oral health behaviors and oral health status of children were investigated so that the data from this study can be utilized in developing programs for oral health care promotion especially designed for multicultural families. The subjects were 135 pairs of multicultural mothers and their children who participated in the community programs in suburban areas of Ik-san city and 168 pairs of ordinary Korean mothers and their children residing in Ik-san city. The results were as follows : 1. The dft index and dfs index of multicultural subjects were 4.17 and 6.67, respectively, while ordinary Korean subjects were found to have 2.69 and 4.63($p$ <0.05). 2. The frequency of tooth brushing per day of children from multicultural families was lower than that of children from ordinary Korean families($p$ <0.01). 3. The ratio of practice of oral health behaviors of mothers from multicultural families was lower than that of mothers from ordinary Korean families($p$ <0.01). Tooth brushing instructions were the most frequently carried out by multicultural mothers, which was followed by teaching the importance of oral health, restriction of carbohydrates, and dental check-ups. Significant correlations were not detected between mothers'oral health behaviors and children's dental caries experiences($p$ >0.05).

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.17-33
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate diversity in the situations of multicultural families regarding the education of their children and to suggest rational ways of educating children in multicultural families. The participants in this study were 16 mothers from multicultural families typically characterized by an international marriage in which a Korean male had married a non-Korean female. The data were collected using intensive interviews over a course of three months and were analyzed by grounded theory. The results of this study showed that the participants had difficulty in adapting to the styles of educating children in Korean families and that they could not help their children do homework by themselves due to the limited personal relationships, the shortage of information about educating children, and an lack of organized education programs on Korean culture and history. Thus, they solved these problems by depending on different extracurricular activities and thus incurred a financial burden to support these activities. This led to excessive amounts of time and energy to earn the money to support the activities, which gave them few opportunities to acquire information on educating children by, for example, meeting with others. This explained their dependency on different extracurricular activities so as to solve the problem of their educating children. In an effort to seek ways to break this vicious circle, this study emphasized that policies related to educating children in multicultural families should focus on helping multicultural families strengthen their abilities to educate their children fundamentally.