This qualitative study explores Korean transnational families, known as gireogi gah-jok. In this type of family, the mother and her children move to an English-speaking country for the children's education while the father stays and supports his family financially from the country of origin. We conducted interviews with thirteen mothers who resided with at least one adolescent child in the northwest area of the USA. Guided by symbolic interactionism, we examined how women perceived the gireogi family situation separated in the two countries and how their perception influenced their maternal roles as gireogi mothers. Findings indicate that these women reshaped their maternal self and renegotiated gendered roles in response to their residence in the foreign country and physical separation from their husbands. The findings also suggest that participants made an effort to maintain family cohesion by frequent communication using technology and sporadic reunions.

This study springs from a larger cross-cultural project about mothering a child with a disability in South Korea and in the United States. The present analysis focuses on data collected in South Korea. Integrating critical feminist and disability theories within a social constructionist framework (McGraw & Walker, 2007), we asked (a) how dominant sociocultural systems related to mothering and disability shape South Korean mothers’ understanding of themselves and their children with autism and (b) how mothers conform to and resist these systems. To answer these questions, we conducted in-depth interviews with 14 middle-class, South Korean mothers with children who have autism. We found that mothers resist stigmatizing beliefs about their children by reconstructing the meaning of “normal” childhood and by relying on a network of similarly situated mothers for support. We also found that these mothers conform to traditional beliefs about “good” mothering by adhering to Confucian family values that encourage women to sacrifice themselves to focus on their children’s success. From these findings, we offer implications for practice.

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Chinese, Japanese, and Korean American families in the United States share several similarities, but they should not be interpreted as the sameness. Each group has gone through different immigration trajectories, and family members in a group have had different experiences. To get further knowledge of different family experiences in contemporary U.S. society, the trajectories of the family relationships among different Asian ethnic groups are examined. We specifically look at the time from arrival to World War II, from World War II to the 1960s, and after the 1960s.

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ObjectiveThe goal of this study is to uncover latent classes of maternal and paternal helicopter parenting among American and Chinese college students, and to examine whether latent classes of maternal and paternal helicopter parenting are related to college students’ mental health (depression and self‐esteem).BackgroundPrevious studies have examined the association between helicopter parenting and college students’ well‐being. However, less is known about how the multidimensional construct of helicopter parenting is related to college students’ mental health across Western and Eastern cultural contexts.MethodWe conducted three‐step latent class analyses using nine helicopter parenting indicators for 1,386 mother–child and 1,214 father–child groups in the United States and 520 mother–child and 454 father–child groups in China. Next, we tested the association between the class membership of maternal and paternal helicopter parenting and college students’ mental health.ResultsWe identified distinct helicopter parenting latent classes among four American and Chinese parent–child groups. We also found that American college students in the strong maternal helicopter parenting latent class reported poorer mental health than those in other latent classes.ConclusionOur findings indicate that the multidimensional construct of helicopter parenting can be interpreted differently by parents and college‐aged children according to their social and cultural contexts.ImplicationsThe findings of this study suggest that it is necessary to strengthen understanding of the multidimensional construct of helicopter parenting for parents with college‐aged children to enable them to develop more appropriate parenting practices as well as support their children's well‐being.

Primary caregivers’ beliefs often influence their experiences of providing care to children with disabilities. This exploratory study qualitatively probed the meanings that five Korean immigrant mothers attributed to the unanticipated responsibility of parenting children with autism spectrum disorders and communication disorders. From a symbolic interactionist theoretical perspective, the mothers’ narrative indicated that they accepted the responsibilities of care for their children with disabilities, worked to build stronger family ties, and transformed their understanding about life. From these findings, we discuss implications for practice to support Korean immigrant mothers who have children with disabilities.