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