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Socio-cultural Readjustment of Korean Students Returning from Overseas  

Choi, In-Hwa (Graduate School of Social Welfare, Myongji University)
Publication Information
International Journal of Human Ecology / v.10, no.1, 2009 , pp. 87-98 More about this Journal
Abstract
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.
Keywords
returnee students; socio-cultural readjustment; acculturative stress; school adjustment; re-acculturative stress;
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