Comparative Study of Adolescents’ Mental Health between Multicultural Family and Monocultural Family in Korea

Abstract

Objectives：With the observation of factors influencing depression, self-reported happiness, self-reported stress and suicidal attempt, this study compared and evaluated the mental health of adolescents from multicultural families and monocultural families in Korea. Methods：This study compared the characteristics of adolescents from multicultural and monocultural families based on the analysis of data of The Tenth Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey and analyzed the factors influencing adolescent depression, self-reported happiness, self-reported stress and suicidal attempt. Results：There was no significant difference in the levels of depression, self-reported happiness, and self-reported stress between adolescents from multicultural and monocultural families. However, suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt were significantly higher in adolescents from multicultural families. Conclusion：There was no significant difference between the mental health of adolescents from multicultural and monocultural families. Because depression is the greatest factor for suicidal attempt, and violence has stronger relationship with depression of adolescents from multicultural families, further study is needed to prevent this trend.

The Mental Health of Ethnic Minority Youths in South Korea and Its Related Environmental Factors: A Literature Review

“…For more lethal symptoms, such as history of suicide attempts and hospitalization after a suicide attempt, the risk is two to three times higher among MY than among nativeborn adolescents, although a similar result was not obtained for suicidal ideations/plans [10,12,19]. This suggests that despite the lack of difference in the prevalence of suicidal ideations/plans between MY and NKRY, MY are more likely to attempt suicide, which warrants special attention.…”

“…They feel excluded or are dissatisfied with their peer group compared to their native-born peers [22]. Furthermore, studies that used data on Korean youth showed that MY were three to five times more likely to report being victims of school violence [10,12,23], and specifically those with foreign-born mothers were 4.1 times, and those with foreign-born fathers were 17.4 times at a higher risk of victimization respectively [75]. Given the critical role of peer relationships in the psychological adjustment of youth later in life [76,77] and the adverse effect of peer bullying on future psychopathology [78], interventions to enhance school connectedness and peer relationships are necessary for healthy MY adjustment.…”

“…Case-control studies that compared internalizing problems in MY, notably, depression and anxiety symptoms, with those of NKRY, showed variations in relative prevalence or severity. No significant difference was noted in reports on the prevalence and severity of internalizing symptoms including depressive and anxiety symptoms and suicidal ideation [9][10][11][12]. In other studies, however, the prevalence or severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms and suicidal behaviors among MY was high [13][14][15][16], even after adjusting for other sociodemographic variables [17,18].…”

“…Another study reported that dual identity partially mediates the effect of social rejection on withdrawal behaviors [54]. Problematic relationships with peers have deleterious psychosocial impacts such as a high risk for depressive moods, suicide ideation or attempts, and delinquent behaviors [12,23,29,31,53,57]. Moreover, stress resulting from conflicts with teachers has a significant impact on suicide attempts by MY when compared to other stressors [19].…”

Social Determinants of Health and Well-Being of Adolescents in Multicultural Families in South Korea: Social-Cultural and Community Influence

“…Participants were 206 AMFs currently living in South Korea, who were (i) selected across eight cities from 16 regular and three multicultural schools, which are established for children of multicultural families, (ii) aged 13–18 years, and (iii) eligible as per the definition of Korea's Multicultural Families Support Act in 2011 (children of families comprising either foreigners who have South Korean citizenship or marriage immigrants). We excluded (i) refugees, (ii) AMFs with severe physical disabilities or mental health issues, and (iii) North Korean defectors as previous studies suggest that they tend to experience post-traumatic stress disorder from the process of entering South Korea ( 26 ). Based on Soper's calculation ( 27 ), a minimum sample size of 173 was needed with effect size 0.3, power = 0.8, latent variables = 5, observed variables = 16, and probability level = 0.05.…”