Polyvictimization and Internalizing Behaviors Among Children from Multicultural Families in South Korea

Background and Purpose

Children from multicultural families (i.e., families with at least one parent from a country other than Korea) are among the most vulnerable groups in South Korea. They have internalizing behaviors such as depression and social withdrawal at higher levels than children from native families. Previous studies have shown that violence victimization is a major cause of internalizing behaviors, and more recent studies have emphasized that multiple violence exposure (i.e., polyvictimization) has a greater impact on internalizing behaviors than repeated and continuous violence victimization of a specific type. As children from multicultural families are embedded in both home and school environments, it is important to account for their violence victimization in both settings, which can be conceptualized as polyvictimization—exposure to more than two types of violence or child maltreatment. Therefore, this study examined the association between polyvictimization (i.e., child neglect and school violence) and internalizing behaviors among children from multicultural families.

Methods

This study analyzed data from the 2nd wave of the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study (MAPS, National Youth Policy Institute, 2012), which consists of 1,500 5th graders in South Korea. The polyvictimization variable was constructed by combining two variables: neglect and school violence. Depending on their responses regarding the neglect and school violence variables, respondents were assigned to one of the following four groups: No violence (0), Neglect only (1), School violence only (2), and Polyvictimization (3). Gender, age, self-rated health, and acculturative stress were included as covariates. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between polyvictimization and both depression and social withdrawal. The No violence group was used as the reference group in the multiple regression analysis.

Results

About 14.4% of children from multicultural families suffered victimization from both neglect and school violence. Approximately 46.5% of children from multicultural families experienced neglect, and 6.3% of children only experienced school violence. Children who experienced victimization from either neglect (β=.141, p<.001) or school violence (β=.104, p<.001) had significantly higher levels of depression than children without any exposure to violence, but polyvictimization had the greatest impact on depression (β=.285, p<.001). Similarly, only polyvictimization significantly increased levels of social withdrawal (β=.164, p<.001). On the other hand, exposure to only one type of violence victimization had no significant association with social withdrawal.

Conclusions and Implications

Polyvictimization puts children at the greatest risk of depression and social withdrawal. Unintended neglect can take place in multicultural families as foreign mothers lack formal and informal support resources. In addition, children from multicultural families are at greater risk of bullying and discrimination at school because of their different appearance, darker skin colors, and often because of their mother’s nationality. Thus, children from multicultural families should be assessed for polyvictimization, and social support for multicultural families should be expanded. Specifically, the government should make an effort to prevent neglect by expanding parental education and counseling for multicultural families.