• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2015

Unlike daily hassles or minor stressors, immigration is an intense life event that may cause excessive stress. In particular, immigrant parents find themselves in a more stressful situation in that they experience stresses caused by immigration and stresses caused by parenting at the same time. The purpose of this study is to develop and validate an Immigrant Parental Stress Inventory (IPSI), that objectively and comprehensively assesses the stress experienced by immigrant parents within the Korean context. Based on the Immigrant Parental Stress Inventory developed within the American context, preliminary items were refined through a literature review and the discussions of experts and immigrant parents and were empirically validated with a sample of 203 immigrant parents residing in Korea. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, six main factors were identified (Factor1 Difficulties in communication, Factor2 Financial difficulties, Factor3 Difficulties in social adjustment, Factor4 Social discrimination, Factor5 Lack of social resources, Factor6 Difficulties in parenting). The IPSI was shown to be a psychometrically sound instrument that is capable of measuring immigrant parental stress within the Korean context. Social service professionals and researchers studying or working with immigrant families could use the IPSI to examine immigrant parental stress.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.57-71
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• 2003

This study investigates the relationships between parental efficacy and parental practices among Korean immigrant parents in the US. Parental efficacy constitutes a special aspect of parental belief systems focusing on the beliefs that parents have the capabilities to manage the tasks of nurturing and socializing their children. Results showed that parental efficacy was positively related to the authoritative dimension of parental practices. However, there was no significant negative relationship between parental efficacy and the authoritarian dimension of parental practices. Interestingly, the authoritative and authoritarian dimensions of parental practices were highly correlated among Korean immigrant parents. This finding is in contrast to much of the research on Anglo American parenting that indicates that authoritarian practices are not compatible with authoritative practices. For Korean immigrant parents, authoritarian practices seem not to have detrimental connotation. Therefore, it can be assumed that Korean immigrant parents parental practices have different underlying mechanisms compared to Anglo American parents. We need to focus parenting research with a broader perspective on the sociological and historical context from which parental practices arise.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.111-121
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to examine how immigrant Korean American parents' aspirations for children's educational attainment are related to their childrearing behavior, their beliefs about the nature of children's intelligence, their level of acculturation, and their beliefs about achievement. One hundred and twenty five immigrant Korean mothers in the United States participated in the study. The present study found that parental expectation for a daughter's educational attainment was significantly related to the mother's educational level. The results of regression analysis also indicated that for daughters, the significant predictors for parents' aspirations for children's educational attainment were the mothers' educational level and parental beliefs about achievement; for sons, significant predictors were the mothers' educational level and parental nurturance.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.101-112
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• 2009

Purpose: The study was to assess marital satisfaction. needs for help, and stress of immigrant women. Method: The study employed a descriptive design of data collection. Structured Questionaires were given to the subjects; 144 women who immigrated to Korea through marriage. The data were then analyzed using $x^2$-test, one way ANOVA, and Pearson's Correlation. Results: Stress of immigrant women was significantly different according to their nationality. Housework was the highest among stress domains, the next were finance, husband, parents in law, health, children, and friends. Among these, the subject's stress was significantly correlated to the domains of husband and parents in law. The level of immigrant women's marital satisfaction was significantly different according to their job. Immigrant women's Korean proficiency was correlated to marital satisfaction and their marital satisfaction was significantly correlated to stress. Needs for help of immigrant women were rated in the following order : communication, the raising of children, culture and institution, finance, employment, socialization, marriage problem, discrimination, and self development. Conclusion: The findings of this study could be useful to help develop new programmes, and to support existing projects that help immigrant women integrate into Korean society.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.2074-2084
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• 2014

Social capital is an important resource for Korean immigrant children's successful school life in the U.S. because most immigrants are not familiar to new language and culture. However, immigrant parents and their children have limited ability to join and create social networks freely both inside and outside school. We, the researchers of this study, adopted qualitative research method: open-ended in-depth interview, coding and analysis based on grounded theory. The result of this study reveals that Korean immigrant parents utilize their coethnic networks in getting educational information and English plays important role in educational decision-making process of the parents.

• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.105-122
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• 2013

The relationship between an adolescent and his/her parents is one of the most important relationships that can have a significant effect on adolescents' well-being and functioning. While there has been an increase in research on Asian American families in recent years, still much less is known about adolescent-parent relationships in these families. Asian American adolescents face some of the challenges that mainstream European American adolescents face, but their experiences are complicated by the cultural and immigration-related factors that have unique contribution to their relationships with their parents. As such, there is urgent need for research that identifies and provides a comprehensive understanding of factors that contribute to the experiences of Asian American immigrant families. The current paper provides a systematic look at adolescent-parent relationships in Asian American immigrant families using the Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. More specifically, this paper provides a succinct review of the literature on developmental issues, immigration, and culture-related factors that affect Asian American adolescent-parent relationships, and guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory, an ecological framework of Asian American adolescent-parent relationships is proposed.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.45-61
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• 2015

This study examines the effects of time spent with parents and peers on generational differences in children's externalizing behavior problems in immigrant families. Using the Child Development Supplement and Time Diaries from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we found that first and second generation children exhibited fewer externalizing behavior problems than did third generation children, despite their lower socioeconomic status. First and second generation children spent more time with either one or both parents, and less time with peers, on the weekend day than did third generation children. We found a marginal but beneficial effect of time spent with fathers on the weekday, but not on the weekend day. The implications are that time spent with fathers on weekdays differs from time spent with fathers on the weekend, and that promoting immigrant father involvement on the weekday through school or community programs could benefit immigrant children.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.1
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• pp.5-29
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• 2015

Career development of Korean Immigrant Adolescents is important element for their Korea social adjustment and reduction of social exclusion. Especially, vocational identity is considered significantly for their career development. This study investigated the relationships and levels of discrimination, depression, self-esteem on vocational identity by comparing Korean immigrant adolescents and non-Immigrant adolescents(Korean parents family: non poor family or poor family). The major findings of this study can be summarized as follows. First, the depression level of immigrant adolescents is higher than non poor family adolescents and their self-esteem level is lower than non poor family adolescents by means analysis. second, The path analysis and multi group analysis showed that the degree of discrimination by perceived immigrant adolescents had direct influence on vocational identity and also mediated depression, self-esteem as indirect influence. But non poor family adolescents and poor family adolescents showed that their degree of discrimination had only indirect influence on vocational identity as mediation of depression, self-esteem. The result of analysis were used to discuss theoretical, practical implication for career development of Korea immigrant adolescents.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.145-157
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• 2010

This is a study that explores the influence of self-differentiation and acculturation among married immigrant women on their feelings of marriage satisfaction by residential area. The aim was to verify the level of self-differentiation and acculturation that married immigrant women secure from multicultural marriage. To achieve this objective, the study widely distributed a questionnaire that targeted women who were participating in education and other services at health and family support centers, multi-cultural family support centers, general social welfare centers, immigrant women shelters, and Korean language classrooms which are located in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, Jeolla, and Gyeongsang. Data analysis involved frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, one-way-Anova, and multiple regression analysis. Based on the results of descriptive statistics, two factors, namely, (1)interpersonal-relation differentiation, a sub-scale of self-differentiation, and (2)marginalization, a sub-scale of acculturation, had the lowest average. In verifying its various hypotheses, the study achieved the following results. Firstly, among demographic characteristics, there was difference of the mean in the marriage period, average monthly income, the frequency of meetings with the married woman´s parents-in-law and her own parents, and the average cost of supporting the woman's parents-in-law and her own parents. Secondly, among demographic characteristics, the variable of influencing marriage satisfaction showed negative influence in the case of women dwelling in farming and fishing villages. This shows that women residing in cities whether small, medium or large have higher marriage satisfaction. Also, as a result of verifying whether self-differentiation has influence on marriage satisfaction, the element of interpersonal-relations differentiation had a negative influence on marriage satisfaction. Thirdly, as for influence of acculturation upon marriage satisfaction, the study showed that just integration, which is a sub-scale of acculturation had positive effect on marriage satisfaction. In other words, the study showed that the interpersonal-relation differentiation among the sub-scales of self-differentiation among married immigrant women had a negative influence, and that integration among the sub-scales in acculturation had a positive influence on marriage satisfaction. Based on these results, in order to increase interpersonal-relation differentiation, as well as marriage satisfaction among immigrant women, the study suggests the integration of the women's families with the nuclear and extended families in the communities where the women reside.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.75-86
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• 2005

This study examines unique manifestations of intergenerational conflict related to the acculturation process of immigrant families. No scale that measured the acculturation aspect of intergenerational conflict exsited. Thus, a new scale was developed to investigate this unique aspect among Korean American adolescents. The study design was cross-sectional, and employed a convenience sampling method. The participants were Korean American adolescents of junior and senior high school age, 14 to18 years old. The study was conducted at eleven Korean churches and one hakwon (private out-of-school studies .institute) in Fairfax County, Virginia. Korean American adolescents expressed that the issues related to education, such as academic pressures and high expectations, caused intergenerational conflict most frequently. Unlike findings from previous studies, the participants indicated that language differences between parents and children rarely caused intergenerational conflict. Contrary to previous findings, none of the characteristics variables, such as age, gender, length of residency and language preference, were significantly correlated with this unique conflict. This study provides a rare opportunity to enhance our understanding on how Korean American adolescents interact with their immigrant parents.