• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.365-388
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• 2012

This study examined the effect of bilingual bicultural home environment and mother's command of Korean language on their participation in child rearing as well as on children's developmental outcomes. We carried out Analysis of Covariance Structure using the 1st year(2011) data of Gyeonggi Education Welfare Panel, which consists of 459 matched pairs of immigrant women and their 5th~6th grade children living in Gyeonggi-do. The results indicated that when the immigrant mother has good command of Korean language and the children are exposed to their maternal culture and language, mothers tend to actively participate in child rearing and this in turn has positive effects on developmental outcomes of their children. These results demonstrate that Korean language programs targeting immigrant women by marriage are important not only for assisting their employment and adaptation but also for enhancing parenting behaviors in multicultural families. Moreover these findings suggest that we need to understand the bilingual bicultural home environment in these families as a significant resource that contribute to their children's developmental outcomes and not as a risk factor to their adaptation, as it has frequently been viewed.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.1-11
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• 2012

As the immigrant population is rapidly growing in South Korea, it is important for the next generation of Korean adolescents to foster unprejudiced attitudes towards immigrants. This paper thus seeks to shed light on adolescent prejudice towards immigrants, by addressing the following three questions: (1) Does a mother's prejudice towards immigrants and parenting style influence their adolescent children's prejudice towards immigrants? (2) Does an adolescent's prejudice towards immigrants influence his/her self-identity? (3) Does an adolescent's prejudice towards immigrants influence his/her coping styles? The sample consisted of 288 pairs of Korean adolescents and their mothers. According to hierarchical regression analyses, a mother's prejudice towards immigrants significantly predicted her adolescent's prejudice towards immigrants, after taking sociodemographic variables into account, whereas her parenting style did not. In addition, having a low level of prejudice towards immigrants among adolescents predicted high levels of self-identity (e.g. independence, proprioceptive, and mission orientation), and a greater use of positive coping skills (e.g. support-seeking and problem-solving). Overall, results showed that mothers played a significant role in shaping their adolescent's prejudice towards immigrants. Results also provided evidence that prejudice towards immigrants may interfere with the healthy development of self-identity and coping style during adolescence. In conclusion, this study suggests that multicultural education for adolescents can be more effective, when it is provided in partnership with a parent education program that is designed to raise parental multicultural awareness.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.543-556
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• 2021

This study aimed to investigate the factors that influence multicultural adolescents' proficiency in their mother's native language, or their immigrant mother's native language. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed on data from the survey answered by 1,028 multicultural adolescents aged 15 years old and whose mothers were from foreign countries for the 6th Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study(MAPS) conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute (NYPI) in 2016. The main results are as follows. First, multicultural adolescents' minority language proficiency was generally low and significant differences were observed according to their gender, parents' educational level, household income, and mother's native country. More specifically, a higher proficiency in minority language was found for girls than boys, adolescents with a higher parental educational level, adolescents with a higher income, and adolescents whose mothers were from Japan or China, compared with those from the Philippines, Thailand, or Vietnam. Second, a significant positive correlation was observed between multicultural adolescents' minority language proficiency and 1) foreign culture acceptance, 2) parent's educational support, and 3) the use of the minority language at home. Third, foreign culture acceptance, parents' educational support, and the use of the minority language at home were predictors of multicultural adolescents' minority language proficiency. The study is meaningful in that it examined multicultural adolescents' minority language proficiency, elucidating their bilingual development, whereas previous studies have only focused on their proficiency in Korean, which is the majority language.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.179-195
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• 2010

미국의 한국계 이민가정이 해마다 증가하고 있으나 부모의 문화적응과 자녀양육에 관한 연구는 미흡한 실정이다. 본 연구는 미국 동부지역의 88명의 한인 이민어머니와(M=35.9세 SD=3.77) 2-6세 유아를(M=4.29세 SD=1.06; 49.4% 여아) 대상으로 실시되었다. 어머니의 문화적응 유형에 따라 1) 양육실제에 어떠한 차이가 있는지, 2) 유아의 사회 정서적 행동에는 어떠한 차이가 있는지, 3) 양육실제와 아동의 사회 정서적 행동간에 어떠한 상관이 있는지를 살펴보았다. 연구결과, 한국과 미국문화를 균형지게 통합한 어머니들이 미국문화에서 고립되거나, 두 문화에서 모두 소외된 어머니들보다 자녀에게 더욱 긍정적인(애정표현, 합리적 문제해결, 자율성 격려) 양육실제를 사용하였으며 자녀들 또한 정서적 문제행동은 적은 반면 친사회적 행동은 높은 것으로 나타났다.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.59-74
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to explore the structures of consciousness on the experiences of formation and adjustment in multicultural families. A qualitative study was designed in this article. The research participants were 10 dyads of immigrant married women and their mothers-in-law. Before the marriage, the mother-in-law's expectation about her daughter-in-law was not high, and the daughter-in-law held the same opinion of her mother-in-law. During the marriage process, the mother-in-law had difficulties in terms of physical, emotional, and material aspects. The daughter-in-law endured the wedding procedure by holding onto hope and anticipation for the future. After the marriage, the mother-in-law eventually became satisfied with her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law grew to feel thankful for her new family members and expressed that she was living a happy life. Consequently, the essence of formation and adjustment in multicultural families was "obtaining precious family members through the undergoing of trial and error."

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.58
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• pp.103-139
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• 2017

The objective of this study was to examine in depth the life of Korean-Chinese adolescents before and after entering Korean society. These adolescents experienced early separation from their biological mothers in China and were raised by relatives due to the absence of parents. The adolescents' childhoods were filled with a sense of loneliness and emptiness, which made them feel hopeless in life, and traveling to Korea in hope and fear was a major challenge in their lives. After coming to Korea, they harmed themselves by engaging in toxic behavior and found themselves hopeless. They also experienced difficulties due to the relationships that needed to be rebuilt with their biological parents, as well as the relationships with their stepparents and half-siblings. However, they reported feeling self-confident and hopeful that their life would improve in the future. In addition, family support and social-support systems have given them a potential avenue for development. Verbal data collected from seven Korean-Chinese adolescents were analyzed. Based on the results, practical recommendations to be reflected in related programs were provided.

• 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.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.834-839
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• 2010

Purpose: This study investigates Korean speech sound development, including articulatory error patterns, among the Japanese-Korean children whose mothers are Japanese immigrants to Korea. Methods: The subjects were 28 Japanese-Korean children with normal development born to Japanese women immigrants who lived in Jeonbuk province, Korea. They were assessed through Computerized Speech Lab 4500. The control group consisted of 15 Korean children who lived in the same area. Results: The values of the voice onset time of consonants /$p^h$/, /t/, /$t^h$/, and/$k^*$/ among the children were prolonged. The children replaced the lenis sounds with aspirated or fortis sounds rather than replacing the fortis sounds with lenis or aspirated sounds, which are typical among Japanese immigrants. The children showed numerous articulatory errors for /c/ and /I/ sounds (similar to Koreans) rather than errors on /p/ sounds, which are more frequent among Japanese immigrants. The vowel formants of the children showed a significantly prolonged vowel /o/ as compared to that of Korean children ($P$<0.05). The Japanese immigrants and their children showed a similar substitution /n/ for /ɧ/ [Japanese immigrants (62.5%) vs Japanese-Korean children (14.3%)], which is rarely seen among Koreans. Conclusion: The findings suggest that Korean speech sound development among Japanese-Korean children is influenced not only by the Korean language environment but also by their maternal language. Therefore, appropriate language education programs may be warranted not only or immigrant women but also for their children.