Context of biethnic acceptance, biethnic affirmation, and life satisfaction among Korean biethnic adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to identify latent profiles based on familial ethnic socialization, peer discrimination, and school multicultural climate among biethnic adolescents in South Korea and to examine how the emerged profiles were related to their life satisfaction.We also examined how biethnic affirmation interacted with the profiles in predicting life satisfaction. Methods: Questionnaire data from the first wave of the Panel Survey of Korean Multicultural Youth Adjustment was used. The sample consisted of 358 biethnic adolescents in 5th and 6th grade in South Korea. The meanage was 11.41 years old. Approximately 60% of the participants were in 5th grade and 51.68% were girls. Results: The results of LPA showed that familial ethnic socialization, peer discrimination, and school multicultural climate formed two distinct profiles in the current sample. These profiles were characterized as contexts of high and low biethnic acceptance. Biethnic adolescents in the context of high biethnic acceptance were significantly more satisfied with their lives than those in the context of low biethnic acceptance.Further, the positive association between biethnic iaffirmation and life satisfaction was more pronounced among adolescents in the context of low biethnic acceptance. Conclusions: Findings suggest the importance of promoting biethnic acceptance across family, peer, and school settings for adolescents' biethnic affirmation and life satisfaction.Being a biethnic minority in a predominantly monoethnic society, such as South Korea, poses unique challenges for biethnic adolescents of multicultural families. According to Support for Multicultural Families Act enacted in 2008, multicultural families in South Korea are families formed via international marriage between native Korean citizens and foreign immigrants of non-Korean heritage. As of 2015, 81.5% of the multicultural families consist of Korean husbands and immigrant wives, predominantly from other Asian countries . The remaining 18.5% is a distinctly different group composed of Korean wives and non-Korean husbands. These families are different from the families of Korean husbands and immigrant wives in terms of marriage and immigration backgrounds. For this reason, the present study focuses specifically on biethnic adolescents with Korean fathers, who are members of the more dominant and mainstream ethnic majority group, and with immigrant mothers from China, Japan, Vietnam, or Philippines, who are members of an ethnic minority in South Korea.Historically, South Koreans have embraced the myth of Korea being a monoethnic nation and regarded mixed heritage as ignoble

The changes in biethnic acceptance across daily settings and biethnic adolescents' psychological well‐being during middle school transition

“…This study is an extension of the previous investigation by Chung et al (2020) which explored the context of biethnic acceptance of biethnic adolescents (5th and 6th graders) in South Korea. The authors utilized the ecological models of biracial identity (Gonzales‐Backen, 2013; Renn, 2003) asserting that immediate settings (i.e., family, peers, school) interact to form a unique context for biracial youths, influencing their identity development.…”

“…Higher scores indicated greater multicultural climate (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree). Cronbach's α was .93 at Wave 1 and .93 at Wave 3 (see Chung et al, 2020 for more details).…”

“…Latent transition analysis (LTA) was conducted with Mplus Version 8.8 (Muthén & Muthén, 2017). Consistent with Chung et al (2020), we identified the latent profiles of biethnic acceptance in daily settings using latent profile analysis (LPA), with three continuous indicators: familial ethnic socialization, peer discrimination, and multicultural school climate. For each time point, the optimal number of latent profiles was identified considering statistical indices 1 and conceptual interpretability.…”

“…The authors utilized the ecological models of biracial identity (Gonzales‐Backen, 2013; Renn, 2003) asserting that immediate settings (i.e., family, peers, school) interact to form a unique context for biracial youths, influencing their identity development. The study focused on the context of family ( familial ethnic socialization ), peers ( peer discrimination ), and school ( multicultural school climate ) as indicators of biethnic acceptance (see Chung et al, 2020 for detailed discussions). They found two distinct contexts characterized by high versus low biethnic acceptance.…”

The Influence of Parenting and Friendship on Self-Esteem in Adolescents

“…Such a development is vital for the growth of self-esteem in adolescents. The adolescents who grow up in a family with coziness and positive treatment will be the adolescents who can develop a good relation in society [8]. The studies also showed that the adolescents who grew up in families with positive parenting would be able to develop their self-esteem well [9].…”