• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.87-98
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• 2009

This study examines the socio-cultural readjustment of the Korean students returning from overseas study at an early age. For this study 259 returnee students from elementary through high school completed a questionnaire which covered aspects such as school adjustment and re-acculturative stress in relationship to gender, grade, number of parents accompanying the students overseas, length of overseas stay, age of return, length of stay in Korea, and the acculturative stress experienced in a host culture. The findings indicate that re-acculturative stress level of returnee students is higher than the level of the acculturative stress, and that the two are positively related. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses reveal the grade and acculturative stress of returnee students as a significant predictor of school adjustment. The length of overseas stay and acculturative stress significantly predicted the re-acculturative stress level. The acculturative stress significantly affected both school adjustment and re-acculturative stress of returnee students back in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.164-172
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• 2020

This study investigated the longitudinal transition of adolescents' psychological character profiles, which includes self-esteem, acculturative stress, depression, and social withdrawal, and the predictive effects of parental efficacy, families' support, and friends' support in multicultural families. The sample consisted of 1,188 adolescents in elementary school, who were re-examined in three years, when they were in middle school from the part of waves 2 and 6 of the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study. A latent profile analysis identified three distinct profiles of psychological character among adolescents in elementary school and middle school: stable, social withdrawal, and unstable. As compared to elementary school, adolescents' psychological characteristics stayed stable and played critical roles on the latent classes. Parental efficacy, and supports from family and friends played critical roles on the latent classes. Specifically, as adolescents perceived full of supports from friends, they were more likely to make transitions to the stable group. Implications for intervention in multicultural families are discussed.