• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.229-252
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• 2013

In this study, WSS developmental checklist and nursery maladaptive test were conducted and applied to 203 multicultural children and non-multicultural children. The children were 3-5years old and were attending 34 kindergartens located in Gimpo-si and Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do to investigate the developmental level and status of adaptation to the nursery in multicultural children. The result shows that there is no difference in the development of scientific thinking and mathematical thinking while developmental level is lower in personality, sociality, language, reading and writing area in multicultural children compared to non-multicultural children. According to age, there is no difference in the development between 4~5-year-old multicultural children and non-multicultural children while there is a difference in the development between 3-year-old multicultural and non-multicultural children. It also shows that there are no significant differences in nursery adaptation between multicultural children and non-multicultural children.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.57
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• pp.83-112
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• 2017

This study aimed to investigate the mediating effects of spiritual well-being and ego resilience in the association between parent-child relationships and cultural adaption among children from multi-cultural families. For this purpose, surveys were administered to 4th to 6th graders in 200 elementary schools (150 multi-culturally focused and 50 in preparation for multi-cultural education) located in seven provinces in Korea. For the current study, we analyzed data collected from 706 children in 119 schools by utilizing structural equation modeling. To verify the mediating effects and its significance, a Sobel test was conducted. The results showed that parent-child relationships within the multi-cultural families was positively and significantly associated with spiritual well-being and ego-resilience in children, but not with children's cultural adaptation. Also, the results of the Sobel test showed significant mediating effects of spiritual well-being and ego-resilience in children in the association between parent-child relationships and children's cultural adaptation. Based on these results, policy and practice implications for children from multi-cultural families are suggested.

• 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.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-31
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• 2009

This study aims to conduct a music psychotherapy program on North Korean child defectors, who are experiencing acculturative stress, and to discover the effects of the program on the participants' acculturative stress. This study targeted four North Korean child defectors, who belonged to an H afterschool class in Seoul and performed the program in individual sessions for about 40 minutes per session, totaling 14 sessions. The research results include the following. First, after comparing the results of acculturative stress score that measured before and after the execution of the music psychotherapy program, the mean of the score was significantly decreased from 32.75 to 23 average. Furthermore, as a result of conducting a qualitative analysis of the lingual responses that the participants demonstrated in musical activity, in relation to acculturative stress, the participants were found to experience a positive change. These results imply that the music psychotherapy program offers consistent support through music to North Korean Child Defectors, who are cowering psychologically and experiencing difficulty in adaptation, and reinforces inner resources through their positive self-perception, which indicates that it can be an effective mediation in reducing their acculturative stress.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.179-195
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• 2010

미국의 한국계 이민가정이 해마다 증가하고 있으나 부모의 문화적응과 자녀양육에 관한 연구는 미흡한 실정이다. 본 연구는 미국 동부지역의 88명의 한인 이민어머니와(M=35.9세 SD=3.77) 2-6세 유아를(M=4.29세 SD=1.06; 49.4% 여아) 대상으로 실시되었다. 어머니의 문화적응 유형에 따라 1) 양육실제에 어떠한 차이가 있는지, 2) 유아의 사회 정서적 행동에는 어떠한 차이가 있는지, 3) 양육실제와 아동의 사회 정서적 행동간에 어떠한 상관이 있는지를 살펴보았다. 연구결과, 한국과 미국문화를 균형지게 통합한 어머니들이 미국문화에서 고립되거나, 두 문화에서 모두 소외된 어머니들보다 자녀에게 더욱 긍정적인(애정표현, 합리적 문제해결, 자율성 격려) 양육실제를 사용하였으며 자녀들 또한 정서적 문제행동은 적은 반면 친사회적 행동은 높은 것으로 나타났다.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.321-331
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• 2014

This research purposed to verify the effects of children's peer attachment, community spirit, and multi-cultural acceptability on their adaptation to school. Also, I verified the difference of school life adaptation according to the degrees of peer communication, trust, alienation, community spirit, and multi-cultural acceptability. This research utilized Korean Children and Adolescent Panel Survey data to get more comprehensive and objective research result. As a result, the children who had higher peer attachment relationships (with more peer communication and better trust), higher community spirit, and higher level of multi-cultural awareness and acceptability adapted to school better. In particular, peer attachment had the highest effect on the children's school adaptation, community spirit next, followed by multi-cultural acceptability. Therefore, children's education needs to enhance their intimacy with peer groups, compliance with basic norms in school communities, and arouse rightful multi-cultural awareness in order to help them adapt to school better.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.117-131
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to develop the prevention program of child abuse and to verify the effects of the program for marriage immigrant women in Korea. The prevention program was consist of 5 sessions and it was provided to participants once a week for five weeks. Participants were recruited thru the community centers for multi-cultural families in Korea. This study verified the effects of the prevention program with the comparison groups(pre-post). With the independent-samples t-test and paired-samples t-test, the program verified significant effects on the variables of acculturation stress, social support, and recognition of social policy. This study suggests the parenting education of child abuse for multi-cultural families in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.179-202
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• 2014

This study was designed to explore the structural relationship of social support, acculturative stress and parenting stress which influenced child abuse among married immigrant women in Korea. For study 195 married immigrant women participated and structured questionnaire was used. This study identified that the variable of parenting stress directly affected child abuse and the variable of acculturation stress indirectly affected child abuse with a variable of parenting stress as a mediator variable. In addition, the variable of social support indirectly affected parenting stress with a variable of acculturation stress as a mediator variable. Also, the variable of social support did not directly affect child abuse, but it was verified as a protective factor to reduce the risk of child abuse. This study suggested the social interventions to prevent child abuse among multi-cultural families based on the study results.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.270-282
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• 2013

The present study aims to investigate the effects of bicultural characteristics and social capital on psychological adaptations such as depression and self-esteem. A survey was conducted on 295 foreign-born mothers and their 305 children, ranging from third to sixth grade in elementary school up to seventh to ninth grade in middle school, residing in South Korea's seven major cities, including the city of Seoul. The results of this research are the following: 1) With regards to factors that influence depression among children in a multicultural family, less support from a friend leads to a larger exposure to multicultural programs. Also, the lower the perceived income level of his or her family, greater is the state of the child's depression. 2) Significant factors that influence self-esteem for multicultural children are friends' support, level of mothers' Korean language proficiency, teachers' support, and numbers of multicultural programs. Two implications may be addressed from this study. One is the need to consider bicultural characteristics and social capital to enhance psychological adaptability for children raised in multicultural families. Another is to apply social support characteristics such as friends' and teachers' support to multicultural programs.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.147-166
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between cultural identity and the psychosocial adjustment levels of children in international marriage families by focusing on the effects that different types of cultural identity have on children's overall psychosocial adjustment. The data for this study came from a survey conducted on 122 third to sixth grades children with foreign mothers living in Seoul and Gyeonggi-Do. As a result, it was found that children's identification with Korean culture was on average higher than their identification with their mother's culture. Secondly, in terms of identity type, assimilation and separation types appeared to be the most dominant, followed by the integration and marginalization types. Finally, it was found that cultural identities had significant effects on children's psychosocial adjustment in international marriage families. In particular, the level of self-esteem was the highest for children in the integrated group, while it was the lowest for those in the marginalized group. These results indicate that identification with the mother's culture is just as important as one's Korean identity when it comes to determining the degree of psychosocial adjustment of children in international marriage families.