• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.127-136
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• 2014

The number of multicultural families with children are growing in South Korea. When it comes to childrearing, co-existence of two different cultures in these families pose unique challenges as husbands and wives navigate differences in norms and practices. The goal of this study was to examine what predicts involvement in child care among South Korean fathers in multicultural families. We hypothesized that the degree of wives' adaptation to South Korea and husbands' cultural characteristics, such as family ideology and cultural competence, would influence father involvement in child care. The sample consisted of 138 Korean fathers and their wives from China. Participants completed a questionnaire. Results showed that South Korean fathers engaged in a moderate level of child care activities. As hypothesized, their Chinese wives' level of adaptation to South Korea and their own cultural characteristics were significantly associated with their involvement in child care. South Korean fathers were more likely to get involved in child care when their wives were less acculturated. Also, culturally considerate and less traditional men in terms of family ideology were more likely to perform child care.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.235-260
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• 2012

This study was aimed at looking into and understanding child-rearing experience of mothers from multicultural families based on the grounded theory, one of the qualitative research methods. For this, twelve mothers from multicultural families were selected and data were collected through in-depth interviews with them and then analyzed through the open coding, axial coding and selective coding. The analysis suggested that main phenomena mothers from multicultural families experienced are the conflict of child-rearing and educational crisis, and the confused identity of parenting. These main phenomena had much to do with contextual factors such as economic hardship, lower level of the Korean language, cultural differences, prejudices and ignorance. The severeness of conflict and crisis of child-rearing and the intensity of identity confusion for parenting depended on arbitral conditions such as family bonds, positive expectation for the future of their children, and the help of supportive systems. Mothers were dealing with difficulties of child-rearing through action and interaction of resignation and denial, introspection and the intention to overcome difficulties, and the capacity building. As a result, mothers from multicultural families acknowledged that there is a limit to their position and roles they can play and tried to change in order to resolve problems related to their children, positioning themselves for more active lives in Korean society. Through discussion based on the findings of the study, this study can help better understand child-rearing experience of mothers from multicultural families and suggest several directions for future researches on multicultural families.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.262-270
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• 2019

This study aimed to develop designs for an early screening questionnaire for developmental disorders among children from multicultural families in the Republic of Korea, who are at an increased risk of developmental disorders due to cultural and language barriers. Research on early screening questionnaires for multicultural families is extremely scanty, unlike that on ordinary early detection tests designed for the same category of disorders. Worse still, there have been no attempts made at overcoming the limitations of language-based and intercultural communication that are endured by multicultural parents and social workers in the field. Given the challenges, this study confirmed through professional seminars the present status of early developmental disorder screening questionnaires and the necessity for developing specialized versions for multicultural children. Then the study identified the needs of the stakeholders by employing surveys and interviews, and obtained insights and core design elements. These preceding implementations led to the creation of an early developmental disorder screening questionnaire for multicultural families. The test kit incorporates the style of illustrations preferred by multicultural parents, as well as a system of language-specific interpretation services. Produced in a leaflet format, the questionnaire will be used at support centers for multicultural families and for disabled persons in each district for the practical purpose of early screening of developmental disorders among multicultural infants and preschool children.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.6 no.10
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• pp.107-120
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to analyze research trends of bilingual education which are focused on foreigner parent's language education for children from multicultural families in South Korea. After searching, total 36 research papers were selected and analyzed. Results from this study showed that, (1) relevant researches started from 2009, later then the number of researches kept about 4-6 yearly and reached the peak of 11 (31%) in 2004; (2) a large majority (75%) of the analyzed researches published in the magazines relative to a field of language education or children education; (3) diverse research methods were employed, and the number of researches applied on qualitative research methods is similar with on quantitative ; (4) the researches mainly studied on the members of multicultural families (67%), and 10 analyzed researches investigated parents and children together 28%, and 9 targeted on parents or one of them (25%), and 5 just on the children from multicultural families (14%). and, (5) The research topics mainly divided into four fields current bilingual education programs (31%), bilingual education (31%), interaction related to bilingual education (22%), suggestion on policy improvement(17%). Based on the results, discussions and implications for further research and practice on bilingual education and foreigner parent's language education will be provided.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.171-181
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• 2018

Purpose: The study aimed to validate a structural model of self-concept among children and adolescents from multicultural families. Methods: Data were collected from 325 mothers of multicultural families and their 417 children. Confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis and multiple mediation analysis with a phantom variable approach were used to assess construct validity and relations between model variables. Results: Goodness of fit indices of the modified theoretical model, the standardized ${\chi}^2$ (2.75), RMR (.02), RMSEA (.07), NFI (.90), TLI (.92), CFI (.94), GFI (.89), and AGFI (.87), met criteria. Social support and mental health problem had significant direct effects on self-concept, whereas residential environment and school adjustment had significant indirect effects, accounting in combination for 53% of the variance in self-concept. Conclusion: Based on the results, mental health problem mediated the relationships of self-concept and parenting stress.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.117-149
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• 2011

This study examined the relationship between discrimination experienced by children of multicultural families and their psychological distress. As new minorities growing up with bicultural identities in Korean society, children from multicultural families are often exposed to racial discrimination and such experience often acts as a stressor in their everyday life. In order to examine the effect of discrimination on their psychological distress as well as the role of social support, a survey was conducted in 25 elementary schools in Daejeon city and Chungnam and Chungbuk province. Results indicated that children's experiences of discrimination significantly affected their psychological distress level that the more they were exposed to discrimination, the higher levels of depression and anxiety they experienced. Among social support domains, only peer support was found to be significantly related to both the experience of discrimination and their depression and anxiety levels. Supporting the social support deterioration model, the findings showed that more experiences of discrimination led to reduced peer support which in turn, increased the likelihood of being depressed and anxious. Peer support was also significant in partially mediating the discrimination-psychological distress relationship. Implications for social work practice with children from multicultural families are provided.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.395-410
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• 2010

This qualitative research on women in multi-cultural families aims to analyze their clothing weight, habit, management and purchasing of clothing as well as their children's in order to provide fundamental data or literature for their adjustment in Korean clothing culture and health management. The research was conducted by interviews to eleven married foreign women with nationality of various climates, and subsequently by categorical analysis and subject analysis. The final outcome in terms of subjects included 'heating/cooling system as to environmental temperature', 'scope of climate adaptation differences in the amount of clothing', 'sleepwear and bedding' and 'clothing purchasing behaviour'. The empirical survey showed that those who came from colder regions or warmer regions had difficulties adjusting to the climate. And their clothing weight & clothing habits, originated from their home countries, were found to be kept stable and to be systematically transferred to their children as well. When it comes to sleepwear and bedding, the women seemed to be less interested in them than normal outerwear, but they tended to like to cover the belly of their babies while they didn't have sufficient nightwear for themselves. And shopping and management of clothing were another area with differences between those women and Korean ones. These results imply that further research on the multicultural families, in particular on their clothing behavior, and on changeability of the behaviour through education or through evolution is needed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.420-431
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• 2019

This study examined the mediating effect of parenting stress on the influence of self-differentiation of mothers in multicultural families on their learned helplessness. The study determined the correlation between the following variables: self-differentiation, learned helplessness, and the parenting stress of mothers in multicultural families. The study was conducted on mothers who are raising children in multicultural families and 193 cases of supplementary data were finally analyzed. The data derived from the survey was analyzed using the SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 programs. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, the self-differentiation of mothers in multicultural families showed a negative effect on parenting stress and the mothers' learned helplessness, while parenting stress had a positive effect on the mothers' learned helplessness. Parenting stress was found to have a mediating effect on the relationship between the self-differentiation and the learned helplessness of mothers in multicultural families. This study suggests that the mothers of multicultural families may decrease parenting stresses and learned helplessness by increasing the level of self-differentiation in the context of cultural differences and adapting to new societies.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.43-55
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• 2021

Purposes: The purpose of this study is to confirm the effect of mother's nationality on screening rates for infants and children health screening. We intend to find out if there is a difference in health level between infants of multicultural families and infants of domestic families, and contribute to policies to enhance future national health levels by providing information on them. Methodology: Data for those who received the first infant and children health screening between 2012 and 2018 were obtained from the National Health Insurance Service(NHIS) DB. Frequency analysis, chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were performed with the SAS 9.4 program, and the case where all the 1st to 3rd checkups were completed was defined as type I, and the case of all the 1st to 7th checkups completed, type II. Findings: Complete screening rates for type I and type II were 45.8% and 20.0%, respectively. Especially, complete screening rate of infants whose mothers nationality is foreign is only 3-4th of that of domestic mothers, and it also differed according to nationality. Practical Implications: The difference in the screening rate according to the mother's nationality is likely to lead to a health gap between multicultural families and domestic families. It is necessary to promote and encourage proper monitoring and health management through continuous health screening for infants and children.