Acculturation Gap, Family Conflict and Self-Esteem Among Korean American Adolescents

Background/Purpose:  To date, only a few studies have examined the relationship between acculturation gap and family conflict among Korean American adolescents (Kim, Landis, & Cain, 2013). Empirical studies with Korean immigrant families provide evidence for how incompatible values, beliefs, and attitudes engendered by a different rate of acculturation between immigrant parents and children can accentuate typical intergenerational conflict (Kim, 2011).  Furthermore, studies show that parent-adolescent conflict in Korean American families predicted depression, somatic symptoms, anxiety, anger, deviant behavior and suicide among youth (Cho & Bae, 2005).  However, positive mental health outcomes in this area of research are almost nonexistent.  Therefore, the present study chose self-esteem as an outcome variable to examine its relationship to acculturation gap and family conflict among Korean American adolescents. The purpose of this study was to examine: 1) demographic and psychosocial factors related to self-esteem among Korean American adolescents from immigrant families; and 2) mediating effects of inter-parental and parent-child conflicts on the relationship between intergenerational acculturation gap and self-esteem.

Methods: The participants were recruited from Korean ethnic churches in the summer of 2014.  The study employed a convenience sampling method and the participants had to meet the following eligibility criteria: (1) have at least one parent who immigrated from Korea; (2) reside with at least one parent; (3) maintained contact with both parents; (4) 12 to 18 years of age; (5) able to read and understand English; and (6) resided in New York and New Jersey at the time of investigation.  A total sample consisted of 340 Korean American adolescents.  The questionnaire comprised of: 1) demographic information; 2) a 10-item Rosenberg Self-esteem scale; 3) Acculturative Family Distancing (AFD-communication/values); 4) Asian American Family Conflict Scale (FCS); and 5) Children’s Perception of Inter-parental Conflict scale (CPIC).  Multiple mediation analyses were conducted using ordinary least squares (OLS) path analysis. 

Results: The relationship between acculturative values gap and self-esteem was partially mediated by inter-parental conflict but not parent-child conflict. The unstandardized regression coefficient representing the path between acculturative values gap and inter-parental conflict was statistically significant (A₁ = 0.470, p < .001).  Inter-parental conflict negatively predicted self-esteem (B₁ = -0.135, p < .05). Bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals for the indirect effects (A₁B₁ = -0.001) based on 10,000 bootstrap samples were entirely above zero (-0.134 to 0.003), meaning there was evidence of indirect effects of acculturative values gap on self-esteem through inter-parental conflict.  The direct effect of acculturative values gap on self-esteem after controlling the mediation effect was statistically significant (c’ = -0.283, p = .001).

Conclusions and Implications: Findings of this study suggest that acculturative values gap affect adolescent self-esteem partially through inter-parental conflict.  Observing gender differences in mediation paths suggest that acculturation gap and family conflict have a greater impact on self-esteem for girls than boys.