Korean American Mothers' Perceptions of Self-Determination of Primary School Children With Autism

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Equity, Race, and Cultural Competence

Abstract

Although self-determination has been broadly studied in adolescents for successful secondary transitions and lifespan outcomes, research on the acquisition of self-determined behaviors in childhood has been scarce. Particularly, the importance of family roles in children’s self-determination behaviors has been highlighted in literature, family roles and their contributions to the children’s development of such skills have not been widely studied. Given that families with culturally/linguistically diverse backgrounds may have a different understanding or definitions of self-determination, we investigated five Korean-American mothers’ perceptions and meaning of self-determination education for their children with autism. With phenomenological approach, data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis method. Three themes were identified: emerging perceptions of self-determination, value conflicts of self-determination, and cultural identity of Korean mothers.

Authors

• Sunyoung Kim, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Jieun Kim, Trinity International University

• Min-Chi Yan, Northeastern State University - Broken Arrow

• Veronica Youn Kang, University of Illinois at Chicago