Fathers' Alcohol Use and Spousal Abuse and Mothers' Child Abuse in South Korean Multi-Cultural Families: The Mediating Role of Acculturation and Parenting Stress

Background: Child abuse has become an important social issue in South Korean multi-cultural families, defined as a Korean husband, a foreign wife, and their child(ren). In particular, given that foreign mothers are likely to suffer from acculturation and parenting stress simultaneously, children in multi-cultural families are likely to be at high risk of being abused. Furthermore, the risk of child abuse can be amplified when combined with fathers’ alcohol abuse, particularly in that unhealthy alcohol use is prevalent among a large portion of Korean male adults. The links between fathers’ alcohol use and spousal abuse and between mothers’ abuse experience and child abuse are well-documented. However, little is known about the mechanisms of how all these factors are associated with foreign mothers’ child abuse in multi-cultural families. Even scarcer in this topic is research examining the role of foreign mothers’ acculturation stress. Therefore, this study is the first to examine this topic in Korea. Research questions are: 1) Is fathers’ alcohol use related to spousal abuse?, 2) Are fathers’ alcohol use and spousal abuse related to mothers’ acculturation and parenting stress?, and 3) Are mothers’ acculturation and parenting stress, in turn, related to child abuse?  

Methods: Data come from a direct survey, which was conducted during November and December, 2012 on a sample of 195 foreign mothers from 11 community centers for multi-cultural families. Fathers’ alcohol use is measured as a latent factor of 3 items (α=.88) regarding frequency, amount, and related problems; fathers’ spousal abuse as a latent factor of 15 items (α=.90) about couple conflicts; mothers’ acculturation stress as a latent factor of 16 items (α=.91) on discrimination, homesick, and maladjustment; mothers’ parenting stress as a latent factor of 12 items (α=.90) regarding difficulties in child rearing practices; and child abuse as a latent factor of 22 items (α=.94) about physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Demographic variables are included as covariates. We use structural equation modeling (SEM) to estimate a path model representing the hypothesized set of relationships stated above.

Results: Fathers’ alcohol use is associated with higher levels of spousal abuse (β=.28, p<.01) and, in turn, with higher levels of acculturation stress and child abuse (β=.22, p<.05 and β=.30, p<.001, respectively). Parenting stress is also associated with higher levels of child abuse (β=.53, p<.001). While acculturation and parenting stress do not mediate the association between spousal abuse and child abuse, acculturation stress mediates the association between spousal abuse and parenting stress (t=.18, p<.05), and parenting stress mediates the association between acculturation stress and child abuse (t=.36, p<.05). Model fit statistics indicate a good fit for the data (χ²(df=94)=125.327, RMSEA=.042, NFI=.908, TLI=.963, CFI=.974).

Conclusion: This study provides first empirical evidence on how fathers’ alcohol use and spousal abuse are associated with mothers’ child abuse in Korean multi-cultural families, with particular attention to the mediating role of mothers’ acculturation and parenting stress. The findings of this study suggest the need of a comprehensive approach to improve child and parent well-being of multi-cultural families.