• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.7-31
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• 2013

School adjustment has been a popular topic among scholars in multicultural family studies, and they commonly report poor adjustment of children from multicultural families. However, without subjects for comparison, these findings may be considered premature. This study investigated school adjustment of children from multicultural families by comparing their adjustment level to that of children from families with Korean parents. By using the matching procedure, this study examined whether children's multicultural family background attributes to their school adjustment with children's observable characteristics paired and matched. For the analyses, the first and fourth wave of Korean Children and Youth Panel Study data were used. When the school adjustment level was examined before the matching procedure, the school adjustment level was indeed lower among children of multicultural families, and their family status was a significant predictor of school adjustment. However, when two groups were paired and matched using matching, the family background had no significant effect, indicating that school adjustment is not predicted by their multicultural family status. Implications for research and practice are also discussed in the paper.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2010

Objective : The purpose of the study is to investigate and compare multi-cultural families in terms of mother' s attitude on child-rearing and their children's sensory processing ability. Methods : 19 multi-cultural families and 38 ordinary families were investigated and all the targeted families had children aged 3 to 7 years. Data were collected by a questionnaire asking general characteristics of mother-child; mother's attitude on rearing; and child's sensory processing ability, the Korean-translated version of Short Sensory Profile [SSP], and the Mother nurturing attitude. Data analysis has been done by Descriptive Statistics for subject characteristics and by Mean-Whitney U test for comparison between multi-cultural family group and ordinary family group. Results : There are significant differences between the two family groups in terms of the rearing attitude, especially in sub-item 'refusing(p=.000)'and 'autonomous(p=.000)'. Result of the SSP also indicate significant differences between the two groups in total score(p=.002) and sub-items such as taste/smell sensitivity(p=.004), movement sensitivity(p=.021), underresponsive/seeks sensation(p=.010), auditory filtering(p=.016), low energy/weak(p=.003), visual/auditory sensitivity(p=.029). Conclusion : The results of this study well describe differences between multi-cultural families and ordinary families in maternal child-rearing attitude and sensory processing ability of the children. It is suggested to collect data regarding adaptation of multi-cultural families and their child development through more profound qualitative studies in further.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.365-388
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• 2012

This study examined the effect of bilingual bicultural home environment and mother's command of Korean language on their participation in child rearing as well as on children's developmental outcomes. We carried out Analysis of Covariance Structure using the 1st year(2011) data of Gyeonggi Education Welfare Panel, which consists of 459 matched pairs of immigrant women and their 5th~6th grade children living in Gyeonggi-do. The results indicated that when the immigrant mother has good command of Korean language and the children are exposed to their maternal culture and language, mothers tend to actively participate in child rearing and this in turn has positive effects on developmental outcomes of their children. These results demonstrate that Korean language programs targeting immigrant women by marriage are important not only for assisting their employment and adaptation but also for enhancing parenting behaviors in multicultural families. Moreover these findings suggest that we need to understand the bilingual bicultural home environment in these families as a significant resource that contribute to their children's developmental outcomes and not as a risk factor to their adaptation, as it has frequently been viewed.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.85-97
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• 2009

Korean society has been facing many challenges and promises resulting from the rapid population shifts into multi-cultural and multi-ethnic family composition. Government strived to respond to the impending demands and needs of Korean cultural families, in terms of marriage and birth, caring and educating children, and labor and work. This paper overviews the current state of Korean multicultural trends and facts in terms of family, marriage, children, and work. It also overarches major issues of multicultural studies of family relations and child development. By wrapping the facts and issues in current discourse and studies, pragmatic policy points were provided and condensed into some suggestions for the policy-making and program implementation.