• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.27 no.6
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• pp.43-54
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• 2009

The main purpose of this study was to explore the variables predicting mothers' parenting attitudes in Korean-Japanese multi-cultural families in comparison to Korean families. Differences in parental beliefs, life-satisfaction and parenting attitudes between these two groups were also examined. Data were collected via questionnaires from 110 Japanese and 168 Korean mothers of young children. Results revealed that mothers' beliefs on value of child and parental role, life-satisfaction and parenting attitudes were different across the families. Costed-concept of child and low life-satisfaction predicted 'shaming' and 'coercive' parenting for Japanese mothers whereas parental role beliefs as an 'authority' figure predicted 'shaming' parenting for Korean mothers. Life-satisfaction was most influential to predict 'affectionate-rational' parenting for both group.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.639-651
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• 2009

Purpose: This study examined relationships among stress, stress coping strategies, and somatization in mothers-in-law from multi-cultural families in a rural area. Methods: Elderly mothers-in-law (n=227) living with foreign daughters-in-law completed a self-reporting questionnaire. Data were collected from April to August 2009. Questions related to stress (Visual Analog Scale, VAS), coping strategies (Coping Strategy Scale) for stress, and somatization (Symptom Check List 90, Revised). SPSS/WIN 12.0 program was used for descriptive analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analyses. Results: Subjects had a moderate level of stress (5.03). There were significant differences in stress level according to age, educational level, religion, chronic disease, health status, number of children, agreement of an international marriage of her sons, satisfaction in living with a foreign daughter-in-law, and family conflict. Stress showed a significant positive correlation with offensive coping strategy, passive strategy, and somatization. Stress, offensive coping strategy, and passive coping strategy affected the level of somatization. Conclusion: In a family situation involving co-habitation of mother- and foreign daughter-in-law, increased stress experienced by the mother-in-law can lead to increased offensive and passive coping strategies, and increased somatization. More effective means of stress reduction are needed for mothers-in-law from multi-cultural families.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.973-987
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• 2015

This study was conducted to investigate the eating habits and food preferences of elementary school children belong to multi-cultural families and ordinary families. The data were obtained by interview based on questionnaire from November to December in 2012. The subjects of multi-cultural families and ordinary families were 99 and 376 children, respectively. In comparison with eating habits, the ordinary children showed higher scoring in the items of eating proteins, green and yellow vegetables, and fruits or fruit juice than those of multi-cultural children. The ordinary children ate less midnight-meals than those of multi-cultural children (p<0.05). Furthermore, the ordinary children ate kimchi more frequently than the multi-cultural children. It was significantly different (p<0.05) on the items of 'eating-out types' dietary habits between two groups. Education of mothers correlated with the ordinary children's eating habits more than multi-cultural families. In the investigation of the food preference to Korean foods, 'beef and radish soup', 'pumpkin porridge', and 'wheat flakes noodles' were more preferred by children of ordinary families than by those of multi-cultural families (p<0.05). To conclude, nutritional education for their parents should be done and maintained to keep a right eating habit of children of multi-cultural families even at home.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.217-228
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• 2017

This paper examined the effects of children's interests and attitudes toward mother's native culture and use of mother's native language on satisfaction of the mother-child relationship in multi-cultural families. Data from the 2012 National Survey of Multi-cultural Families demonstrate that for children aged between 9 and 12 years, their fluency and desire to speak well in the mother's native language as well as father's encouragement for using the mother's native language at home were positively associated with satisfaction of the mother-child relationship. For those aged between 13 and 18 years, mother's nationality (i.e. Southeast or South Asia) was negatively related with mother-child relationship satisfaction. Both mother's and children' communication skills, children's interests in mother's native culture, pride for mother being a foreigner, and desire to speak well in the mother's native language were positively associated with mother-child relationship satisfaction. Therefore, there is a need for foreign wives to be educated in Korean language and culture as well as opportunities for children to learn their mother's native culture and language.

• 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.