Poster #41 - The Effects of Acculturation Stress of Immigrant Mothers in Korea on their Children’s Social Withdrawal

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

Purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of acculturation stress of immigrant mothers on their adolescent children’s social withdrawal through the mediation of parenting self-efficacy (PSE) and parental supervision. In Korea, the international marriages have been gradually increasing and 80% of marriage immigrants were women (Statistics Korea, 2020). Children of multicultural families doubled from 107,689 in 2009 to 264,626 in 2019(Korea Ministry of Public Administration and Security, 2019). Accordingly, researchers have focused on the adjustment of multicultural families and children. It is known that multicultural mothers can have direct impacts on their children in psychological and physical aspects such as depression, anxiety, withdrawal, and aggression when they experience acculturation stress (Pianta & Egeland, 1990). Especially, acculturation stress reduces their competence as a good parent, because the mothers are not certain whether they are raising the children appropriately for the new culture (Ceballo & Hurd, 2008; Oh & Oh, 2018). It is also expected that cultural orientation of parents influences their supervision for children because the values and beliefs about parental supervision vary across the culture (Harker, 2001). Parental efficacy can have a positive effect on children's social emotional adjustment by reinforcing their supervised parenting attitude (Shumow & Lomax, 2002). Therefore, the current study hypothesized that when immigrant mothers experience greater acculturation stress, they would show lower level of PSE and low PSE is related to weaker supervision for their children, which in turn, predict greater social withdrawal in their adolescent children. In other words, mothers PSE and parental supervision are expected to mediate the effects of acculturation stress of immigrant mothers on their children’s social withdrawal.
To test the hypothesis, the study analyzed the data from 1301 families with multicultural mothers and 7th-grader-children who participated in the 4th wave of the “Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study (MAPS)” of the Korea Youth Policy Institute in 2014 (Table 1). Mothers completed the questionnaires on acculturation stress (Lee, 1997), parenting self-efficacy (Shin, 1997), and parental supervision (Huo, 2000). Children’s social withdrawal (Lee, et al., 2011) was measured directly from the children. Child's gender, family monthly income, mothers’ education, and mothers’ Korean level were controlled. The data was analyzed using Process Macro 4.0, Model 6 (Hayes, 2021).
The results supported the hypothesis (Figure 1). The paths from mothers’ acculturation stress to PSE and parental supervision were all significant. As immigrant mothers experienced greater acculturation stress, they showed lower level of PSE and parental supervision. PSE also significantly predicted parental supervision. Mothers’ PSE was positively associated with their supervision for their adolescent children. Finally, both PSE and parental supervision predicted children’s social withdrawal, significantly mediating the effect of immigrant mothers’ acculturation stress on their children’s social withdrawal. Mothers’ acculturation also directly affected their children’s social withdrawal. As further analysis, the model comparison by child’s gender is planned and the results will be included in the poster presentation next year.

Authors

• Jin Lu Bao, Chung-Ang University

• Young Eun Chang, Chung-Ang University
  Presenting Author