• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.879-888
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• 2012

Purpose: There is evidence that parent-child cohesion is a potentially influential factor in children's self-esteem and acculturation. However, no research to date has examined cohesion with parents as a potential pathway between Korean proficiency and self-esteem or acculturation among children from multicultural families. This study was done to address these limitations by examining whether and to what extent cohesion with parents mediated the effect of Korean proficiency on self-esteem and acculturation among children from multicultural families. Methods: Data were collected from a sample of 138 mothers and their children living in Seoul, Daegu, Kyungi province, and Kyungpook province. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between the variables of interest. Mediation effects of cohesion with parents were tested by following the procedure recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986). Results: Cohesion with parents partially mediated the relationship between Korean proficiency and self-esteem. For children's acculturation, the effect of Korean proficiency was partially mediated through father-child cohesion. Mother-child cohesion completely mediated the relationship between Korean proficiency and acculturation. Conclusion: These findings suggest that to help children from multicultural families experiencing difficulties with self-esteem or acculturation, it might be useful to develop programs that are aimed at strengthen cohesion with parents.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.149-175
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to find out marital conflicts and coping strategies among married female immigrants and Korean men in multicultural families. The data were collected by in.depth interviews with 12 female immigrants and 5 Korean men. The major findings of this study are as follows: Female participants suffered from marital conflicts with their spouses, conflicts with mothers.in.law, stereotyped gender roles as a wife and a daughter.in.law, economic conflicts, and cultural differences between Korea and their country. In addition, male participants reported conflicts from economic support for their wife's family, gender role differences, and cultural differences. Coping strategies used to deal with the conflicts, such as mutual dedication and understanding their spouse's stance, and developing a compromise for the family's happiness were mentioned. A personal positive nature and attitude helped them to meet the marital conflicts. Supports from their husband, parents.in.law, and society also helped female immigrants to adapt to cultural differences. However, some of them used negative coping strategies which did not reduce conflicts, and resulted in separation and divorce. The coping strategies to deal with the conflicts depended on the participants' personal ability. While female participants who had English language skills took advantage to adapt to Korean society, those who did not have any other natural abilities could develop a definite position in their family and society with their diligence and positive attitude. The results showed that female participants who were supported by their family and society tended to cope successfully with conflicts and also showed that multicultural families' marital adjustment was maintained with their efforts as well as by relationships with their relatives and society.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.45-65
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• 2014

This study was designed to look into whether there is any mediated effect of psychological well-being and empowerment on the path of the negative emotions of mothers from multi-cultural families turning into the life satisfaction and tried to demonstrate empirically factors to mitigate the decline in the life satisfaction due to negative emotions of mothers from multi-cultural families. In addition, we verified the differences of psychological factors according to the characteristics of the sociology of population of mothers from multi-cultural families. For this, the survey was conducted with 400 mothers from multi-cultural families across the nation. The results are as follows. First, in case of negative emotions, there were differences among groups depending on ages, years of marriage and educational background. In case of psychological well-being and empowerment, there were differences among groups with different age, years of marriage, their own or their spouse's educational background. Second, as a result of looking into the path through which negative emotions turned into life satisfaction, there were the path effects between negative emotions and empowerment, between negative emotions and life satisfaction, and between psychological well-being and life satisfaction. This means that dealing properly with negative emotions can have positive impacts on the three dimensions of psychological well-being, empowerment, and eventually the life satisfaction. This study is meaningful in that it took psychological factors of mothers from multi-cultural families into consideration and the results can be used as useful data to come up with political measures for mothers from multi-cultural families in the future.

• 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.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.15-29
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to explore ethnic socialization enacted by Japanese marriage migrant women currently raising 7- to 18-year-old children in Korea. To accomplish this goal, we examined the following research questions: (1) What is the level of ethnic socialization enacted by Japanese marriage migrant mothers? (2) Does the level of ethnic socialization vary by demographic and ethnocultural factors? (3) To what extent do demographic and ethnocultural factors influence the enactment of ethnic socialization by Japanese marriage migrant mothers? The sample consisted of 243 Japanese marriage migrant women currently raising 7- to 18-year-old children in Korea. For data analysis, T-test, correlation, ANOVA, and hierarchical regression analyses were used. Also, we performed separate analyses for two subtypes of ethnic socialization in particular, namely cultural socialization and preparation for bias. Ethnocultural factors examined in this study were the level of discrimination experience, Japanese ethnic identity, and husbands' ethnic orientation in childrearing. The main results of this study were as follows. First, results showed that Japanese marriage migrant women enacted moderate levels of cultural socialization and preparation for bias. Second, Japanese marriage migrant women's cultural socialization and preparation for bias were both positively related to the levels of women's discrimination experience and Japanese ethnic identity. Also, the younger the age of the firstborn child, the more preparation for bias these women performed. In addition, women whose Korean husbands wanted to raise their children more biculturally performed more cultural socialization compared to those with Korean husbands who wanted to raise their children as Korean. Third, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that women's discrimination experience and ethnic identity positively predicted both types of ethnic socialization. Also, Korean husband's bicultural orientation towards childrearing predicted a higher level of cultural socialization by Japanese marriage migrant women. Results of this study provide basic information about ethnic socialization among multicultural families in Korea, which can be useful for promoting positive self-identity among multicultural children. Furthermore, the results suggest that husbands' support and cooperation in ethnic socialization can be crucial for marriage migrant women to socialize their children utilizing their cultural and experiential resources.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.41-55
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• 2019

The present study examined the direct effects of parental support and monitoring on multicultural adolescents' school adjustment and the mediating role of ego-resilience in the relationships, under the condition of controlling foreign mothers' Korean language abilities. We used data from 1,325 1^st grade middle school students from multicultural families, who participated in the Multicultural Adolescent Panel Survey(MAPS) administered by the National Youth Policy Institute(NYPI). Structural equation modeling analysis revealed the following: parental support and monitoring directly and positively related with multicultural adolescents' school adjustment, and the direct effect of parental support on the school adjustment of multicultural adolescents was greater than that of parental monitoring. In addition, the adolescents' ego-resilience partially mediated the relationships between parental support and monitoring, and their school adjustment. Finally, we recommended the roles of parent education and home economics education in supporting school adjustment and elevating ego-resilience in multicultural adolescents.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

This study developed and evaluated a Seoul National University literacy program for multicultural family children (SNU-LPMFC). The program was developed to enhance Korean language ability for children from multicultural backgrounds. The characteristics of this program were education using fairy tales and nursery rhymes, individual education from home visiting teacher, and parent participation education for effective children's learning support. The effectiveness of this program was examined based on 54 young children and their mothers (34 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group). To examine the effect of SNU-LPMFC, we assessed children's literacy ability as pre-tests and post-tests as well as interviewed the home visiting teachers. After 8 weeks' field application, the experimental group exhibited higher scores than the control group in total language ability and phonology. Home visiting teachers highly praised the effectiveness of the program as the children showed a higher level of interest and attention. SNU-LPMFC was shown to be an effective program to improve multicultural family children's literacy. Implications for research and practice were discussed along with the main results of this study. This study extends the limitations of existing language education programs with uniform teaching methods, configured a customized education approach for children from multicultural families and helps develop concrete teaching material that validated its effectiveness.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Health Science
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.1032-1039
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• 2017

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to understand the stress of rural mothers-in-law by identifying the nature of their stress experiences with highly educated foreign daughters-in-law using phenomenological methods, and to provide basic data on nursing intervention plan. Methods. The method of this study is to first examine the relationship between marriage and marriage of highly educated immigrant women in Philippines, centered on the nuclear family, through literature reviews such as existing media reports, papers, books and reports, and then to analyze by using Colaizzi's phenomenological research methodology. Results. The results of this study were based on interviews with an elderly women who lives in a rural area and accepted a highly educated foreign daughter-in-law 10 years ago. The essential themes that fit into the context of the 4-existential grounds of Making an Inevitable Choice, Augmenting Conflicts, Expecting hope beyond the endless fence, Crisis in Crisis - Still my family Conclusions. Recently, interest in multicultural families and societies is growing, but there is little empirical study of the system for adopting international marriages, especially for rural mothers to live with foreign wives and to intake such cultural interactions.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1049-1069
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine post-divorce adjustment and new partnership of immigrant single mother after divorce. 4 immigrant single mothers from Vietnam were interviewed and data were analyzed by qualitative method. The results were as follows. First, immigrant single mothers coped with stress after divorce through sending their children to Vietnam, working and remittance. Second, they began dating a new man in the work place who were of various nationalities, such as Korean, Vietnamese, Uzbekistan and developed partnership to remarry, cohabit or date with deep intimacy. Third, single immigrant mothers in various partnership like remarriage, cohabitation or dating were satisfied with intimate and loving relationships and support from both sides parents and the birth of new child. However, participants were anxious about the new partner's favoritism toward the biological child and discrimination against the new partner with an unfamiliar cultural background, for example, being from a like a Muslim country. The results suggested immigrant women after divorce showed various partnership on a path towards marriage and that we should pay attention to the aspects of change in multicultural families after divorce.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.299-321
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate how marriage migration females understand and adjust to the culture of family life in Korea. The study was the conducted by extensively interviewing one member from each of a total of 16 women's multicultural families at a daycare center area in Seoul between June 16, 2010 and July 28, 2010. The results can be summarized as follows: All interviewees were marriage migration females, in the range 20 to 50 years of age, and with middle educational backgrounds. They all had middle-level incomes. Through the content analysis of the informants' responses, three major factors were found to influence the understanding and adjustment of to the culture of family living: personal factors, familial support, and sociocultural support systems. Among the personal factors, the intimacy of the married couples was trouble major factor. An issue that tended to arise was that Korean husbands' traditional culture in terms of their way of thinking was often different from that of the wife's culture. However, husbands supported their wives' outside activities and friendships in order to help them adjust to the culture of family living. The husbands made an effort to understand their wives' original culture and national food, often visiting restaurants that served their wives' national cuisine. In terms of familial support, the most important factors affecting marriage migration females were orienting the education of children to the mother's native language, cooking their national foods, and visiting the mother's nation with the children. Marriage migration females had the following requires: The teacher in the daycare center needed to be interested in children from multicultural families and encourage self-pride in the marriage migration females' children. In terms of sociocultural support systems, marriage migration females are conscious of the indisposition and lack of consideration in Korean life. However, the Korean government and local provinces are concentrating attention on education for marriage migration females in terms of language, because learning the language can help these women to become accustomed to the rituals of Korean life. Marriage migration females make an effort to understand and adjust to Korean family living culture that involves the food culture for ceremonial occasions, folk plays, and places of historic interest. A matter of importance is Korean people's effort to understand and adjust to multicultural family with their distinctive cultures. Welfare policy related to multicultural families involves adopting supportive laws and actions.