• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.49 no.7
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• pp.51-66
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to review the current language level of children from multi-cultural background and whether the language level of these children would be increased after participating in the 'We Start Language Intervention Program'. The subjects were 30 36-75-month old children attending daycare centers in Ansan city, South Korea. The results showed that the receptive and expressive language levels of children from multi-cultural families were low compared to those of other children, and that their expressive language level was evaluated more negatively than their receptive language level. After participating in the 'We Start Language Intervention Program', language test scores, language age and language percentile rank were all increased. It was also found that the developmental language level of multi-cultural children increased, and that of the children that had a language delay or language disorder decreased.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.810-822
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• 2012

The present study aims to investigate the mediating effects of social support in regard of the impacts of stress-coping styles on depression in children from multi-cultural families. In a nutshell, the findings in this study are as follows: First, the stress-coping styles of children from multi-cultural families and depression were found to be negatively related, while social support and depression were negatively correlated. Second, as for the effects of stress-coping styles in children from multi-cultural families on depression, the more passive and active stress-coping styles of children from multi-cultural families, the less their depression, behavior disorder, loss of interest, self-abasement and physical symptoms. Third, high levels of teachers' support partially mediated the relation between stress-coping styles and depression in children from multi-cultural families. This finding implies that children from multi-cultural families, who perceive high levels of peer support, cope with stress better and thus reduce depression.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.255-268
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to deepen our understanding about mothers' parenting stress in multi-cultural families. The study was conducted through in-depth interviews of 6 mothers from Mongolia, Philippines, and Japan who were living in Seoul. The findings of this study were as follows. First, mothers of multi-cultural families had difficulties of giving birth and child rearing, especially in the earliest years of their children. They were not fully adapted to the ways of living in Korea with little social support from family members and neighbors. Second, they were worried about their children's development, particularly language development due to their lack of understanding and fluency in Korean. Third, they were concerned about the cultural and racial discrimination against their children. They expected their children to be treated and respected equally like ordinary Korean children. Fourth, they were anxious about the fact that their children might not acquire the basic academic skills before they enter the elementary schools. Furthermore, they were worried that their children might not get as much educational support as they want. Fifth, despite the burden of mother's role in Korea, they wished to get a job to support their children for better education. In conclusion, the marriage immigrant mothers experienced the stress due to the lack of social support, the discrimination against immigrants, the possibilities of their children's delays in development, the disparity in the level of support for educating their children and the high expectations about their children's education in Korean society. Therefore it is necessary for the policy makers to consider more practical support system for the multi-cultural families in order for the marriage immigrant mothers to build up self-confidence in child rearing and educating their 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.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.95-113
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• 2016

This study investigates the potential for multi-cultural youths, given their innate bilingual and dual culture, to be trained as the competent ODA professionals. For the purpose of collecting information, we organized two different kinds of FGI in 2015. The first FGI was conducted with a group of 10 expert participants from August 17 to September 25. The second FGI was conducted four times, from October 5 to October 23, with 13 adolescents from multi-cultural families from Russia, Mongolia, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Japan, and China. The semi-structured interview items were passed through a formal review process of the Institutional Ethics Committee. Furthermore, with the participants' pre-consent to recording, all recorded data were categorized through the transcription process. The results are as follows. While the potential for nourishing bilingual and dual cultural capabilities are high for the adolescent children of multi-cultural families, the expert group also emphasized the negative aspects of these capabilities being suppressed due to the relatively oppressed family environment. The expert group therefore suggests the following: building parent awareness of ODA human resources, developing an educational career transition roadmap, and providing institutional incentives for ODA. In addition, to some extent, the researchers were able to detect some positive self-esteem among the adolescent children of multi-cultural families as a result of the bilingual and dual cultural competencies required to be ODA personnel. In sum, the research provides insight into the need for national social support for the adolescent children of multi-cultural families, so that their strengths are not extinguished, in order that they might grow up as competent ODA personnel.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.35-52
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that are associated with a child's development within a multi-cultural family, taking into account the factors that influence the child's language ability and their play interactions with their mothers. First, there was no significant difference in the children's language ability based on the child's gender, or based on the language in which the mother communicated with her children. However there were significant differences depending on the children's age, the mother's native country, and the period of time the mother had lived in Korea. Second, there was no significant difference in the child-mother play interaction based on the children's age, gender, the mother's native country, the period of time the mother has lived in Korea, or the language in which the mother communicated with her children. However, the boys showed a more hostile attitude toward their mothers, in comparison to the girls. In conclusion, it can be said that there is an urgent need for comprehensive social support services and policies for the overall development of multi-cultural children, especially through programs for children and mothers.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.23-36
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• 2009

Relationships between immigrant mothers' Korean language ability and preschoolers' language development in multi-cultural families were studied with 91 mothers and their children. Language capacity of mothers and children was measured by receptive and expressive vocabulary test, sentence comprehension test and two kinds of reading tests. Results showed that mothers' level of comprehension was relatively low but their reading ability was higher than that of elementary school first-grade Korean students. Comprehension of children in multi-cultural families with non-immigrant counterparts showed a lower level of language ability. Mother's level of expressive vocabulary, receptive vocabulary and reading ability correlated with children's language development. These results indicate a relationship between children's delayed language development in multi-cultural families and mother's low proficiency in Korean language.

• The Korean Journal of Elementary Counseling
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.171-192
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• 2012

This study examined the aspects in elementary school students' career interest and career awareness by gender, age, and multi-cultural families/general families. The subjects were 341 elementary school students from multi-cultural families and general families. The results were as follows. First, there were significant differences in investigative, artistic, and social interests by gender. The children from multi-cultural families and general families showed no significant differences in career interest. Second, the children from general families had higher scores than those from multi-cultural families in self-awareness, occupational exploration, career attitude, and career awareness. And the girls had higher scores than boys in self-awareness, occupational exploration, and career awareness. Third, there were meaningful differences in career interest and career awareness by age. The younger children had higher scores in career interest and lower scores in career awareness. Fourth, the career interests had significant correlations with career awareness in both groups. And there were stronger correlations in general children. Fifth, the regression analyses showed that career interests had significant effects on career awareness in both groups, and there were higher effects in general children. The artistic interests in multi-cultural children and the social interest in general children had significant effects on career awareness. And the effect of multi-cultural families/general families was noticeable in occupational exploration, career attitude, and career awareness. The implication for multi-cultural career education and counseling practice are discussed based on the result of the present study.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to synthesize the results of studies on the effects of multi-cultural education program for Korean children. Using the author's own selection criteria, 17 studies were finally selected and 31 effect sizes were calculated from these studies and used for meta analysis. The overall effect size for all studies on the random effect model was .802, and it was positive and high. Given the heterogeneity among the effect size, subgroup analysis was conducted. According to the analysis, effect sizes significantly differed depending on program goal, concerned multi-cultural higher than others. Result also showed that the high scored effect sizes were the general family, pre-school age children group, and the program were 11-20 children group in size, and 11~20 times in frequency of education.