• 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.

• 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 Families and Better Life
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.169-184
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• 2011

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there are differences in mother's parenting behaviors and children's playfulness and communication abilities according to the type of family and to determine the relationships among these variables. A total of 154 pairs consisting of 77 pairs of children and their mothers from multi-cultural families and 77 pairs of children and mothers from general families along with 76 teachers in charge of the children participated in this study. We found that there was a difference in the children's playfulness and communication ability according to the family type. Moreover, the relationship between the mothers' parenting behaviors and their children's playfulness and communication ability levels differed according to family type. Therefore, to understand children's playfulness and communication ability in general and multicultural families, it is necessary to consider each child's environment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.5549-5558
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• 2013

This study is aimed at qualitatively looking into multi-cultual family mothers' experiences in children's bilingual education. The subjects for the study were seven married immigrant Vietnamese women with elementary school children who have recently finished bilingual education. After recording their interviews and then transcribing them, the data was analyzed by utilizing comparative analysis method. The results were divided into three categories of experiences: emotional, identical, and relational aspects. The results of this study will offer information about necessary support for bilingual education to multi-cultural family members.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.85-108
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• 2018

Objective: This study intended to analyze parenting characteristics, difficulties and support needs of multi-cultural families that had children under 3 years old, in order to develop their supporting resources. Methods: This study performed semi-structured interviews with 7 mothers from multi-cultural families that had their young children enrolled at child care and education centers in Gyeonggi Do. The interview data transcribed were analyzed using the successive contents analysis, and led to 4 themes and 12 sub-themes. Results: First, the mothers from multi-cultural families were married without understanding the Korean language and culture. Second, the multi-cultural mothers didn't properly respond to their children's needs in interaction and language aspects. As a result, the multi-cultural support centers and child care and education centers gave help to them. Third, in the view of the difficulties facing mothers, parenting problems caused by the lack of information concerning child education, the biased burden of parenting, and the different parenting values of Korean families were all expressed by the mothers. Fourth, regarding support needs, providing individual professional support for children and child-raising support for mothers, customized language and employment support for mothers and parenting education for fathers and family education on multi-culturalism are needed. Conclusion/Implications: Suggestions for decreasing the difficulties facing multi-cultural families that had children under 3 years old were discussed.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.65-77
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• 2012

This study aimed to investigate how mothers' Korean fluency and children's experiences in child-care centers influenced the communication ability of children from multi-cultural families. The subjects were 600 children from multi-cultural families who enrolled in child-care centers in Gyeonggi province, their mothers, and 350 teachers caring for these children. The data were collected by administrating a questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics and hierarchical regressions. The results of this study were as follows. The mothers' Korean fluency, number of years children had attended child-care centers, and language guidance provided by child-care centers for children from multi-cultural families all had positive effects on children's general and oral communication ability. On the other hand, the number of years that the children had attended child-care centers had no significant effect on the children's written communication ability, but the mothers' Korean fluency and language guidance provided by child-care centers for children from multi-cultural families had positive effects on children's written communication ability. Finally, the mothers' Korean fluency moderated the effects of children's child-care experiences on their communication ability. Specifically, the more fluent the mothers' Korean, the stronger the effects of children's child-care experiences on their communication ability.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2010

Objectives: This study was conducted to identify the characteristics of health behavior and self-esteem and the relationship between the two factors among elementary school students with multi-cultural family background. Participants: Survey participants were 87 multi-cultural family children who lived in Seoul and Kyoungi areas and were registered in the local elementary schools. Methods: Data collection was conducted by face-to-face interview survey. Elementary education majored undergraduate students who participated in the education support program for multi-cultural family children in the Ministry of Education and Science and primary researcher of this study interviewed the target students and finished the survey questionnaire based on the students' responses. Survey included general characteristics, multi-cultural family characteristics, self-esteem, and (physical, mental, and social) health behavior. Results: 1. The self-esteem scores of the multi-cultural families children were greater in girl than boys among the children whose parents were graduated from college or more, and whose father had his job. The participants' health behavior scores were different by mothers' educational level. 2. The better they speak in English the greater the self-esteem scores. There was no statistical difference in health behavior scores by the participants' multi-cultural family background. 3. Self-esteem had moderate level correlation with health behavior (r= .56, p= .00) including all sub-categories of physical, mental, and social health. Conclusions: Positive self-esteem level is more sensitive to explain multi-cultural family children's health behaviors, which means that self-esteem is an important factor determining multi-cultural children's health behaviors and their health status in future. Therefore, more research to identify the factors related to health behaviors should be supported and the health promotion programs utilizing self-esteem should be developed for the child and youth with multi-cultural family backgrounds.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.31-49
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• 2011

This study centred around the development of a parenting training program for improving parent-child relationships in multi-cultural families and to examine the effects of the program. The goal of this program was to improve parent-child relationships in multi-cultural families. The program consists of 8 sessions and each session employs a variety of activities and teaching methods to help multi-cultural mothers to become more involved in the a program. The participants were 12 mothers of multi-cultural backgrounds in Seoul and Asan city. There 12 mothers were assigned to the experimental group participated in this program for a total of 8 sessions. Data were analyzed according to frequencies, percentiles, means, standard deviations, and paired t-test. The results of this study indicated that this parenting training program for improving parent-child relationships was effective in improving multi-cultural mother's parenting efficacy and reducing their parenting stress.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.133-141
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• 2017

Purpose: This descriptive study aims to analyze the effects of the satisfaction level in the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, conflicts between them, acculturative stress and stress coping strategies on elderly depression in multi-cultural families. Methods: The survey was conducted on 89 mothers-in-law, aged 65 or older, in multi-cultural families with a foreign daughter-in-law. Data were collected through structured questionnaires, and then were used to conduct t-test, ANOVA, correlation and multiple regression analyses using the statistical program SPSS 21.0. Results: This study found several factors contributing to depression of mothers-in-law in multi-cultural families. Those factors include living alone without a spouse, poor health, a high level of perceived discrimination and a passive reaction in terms of stress coping strategies. Conclusion: A sense of discrimination perceived by the mothers-in-law having a foreign daughter-in-law implies that the people around them and the community should make efforts to reject distorted perspectives and remove prejudice against foreign daughters-in-law. In addition, the mothers-in-law should receive education and training to use more active and positive stress coping strategies in a stressful situation with the foreign daughter-in-law.