Acculturation Attitudes of Multicultural Youth: Impacts on School Adaptation and Social Withdrawal

Background/Purpose: In South Korea, the multicultural population was estimated to be over one million in 2020 (Park et al., 2021). Among them, the number of families with school-age youth (8-19 years old) has gradually increased from about 88,000 in 2016 to about 148,000 in 2019. Most of these youth have one foreign-nationality parent and one Korean nationality parent. Challenges including language barriers and discrimination, potentially leading to the youth’s school maladjustment. This study examined multicultural youth's school adaptation and social withdrawal depending on their acculturation attitudes. Research questions included (1) what groups emerge according to the bicultural acceptance attitude? (2) what differences in school adaptation and social withdrawal occur according to groups? and (3) do bicultural acceptance attitudes affect school adaptation through social withdrawal?

Methods: Data and samples: Secondary datasets were used from the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute in 2019. A statistical analysis was performed using STATA 17.0. A total of 1,146 students in 12th grade were included in the analysis. Measures: Ten questions about the degree of bicultural acceptance such as “Learning Korean culture is critical for me” were measured using a 4-point Likert scale (Cronbach α .768). Social withdrawal was measured by 5 items such as “I feel awkward when there are many people around me” using a 4-point Likert scale (Cronbach α .909). School adaptation was measured by 12 items such as relationships with friend and teacher, academic adaptation, and school life satisfaction using a 4-point Likert scale (Cronbach α .778).

Results: Three types of groups were identified according to their bicultural acceptance attitudes: a "Korean culture-friendly group" with a relatively high acceptance attitude toward Korean culture, a "Foreign culture-friendly group" with a relatively high acceptance attitude toward the culture of the country in which one of their parents was born, and a "Bicultural group" with high acceptance attitudes toward both Korean and foreign culture. Prominently, the bicultural group was statistically significantly lower (p<.001) in social withdrawal and higher in school adaptation than the other two groups. Finally, in all groups, bicultural acceptance attitudes were found to have a positive effect on school adaptation and a negative effect on social withdrawal, but the mediating effect of social withdrawal appeared in the Bicultural and the Korean culture-friendly groups.

Conclusions and Implications: Youth population of multicultural families is on the rise due to increasing international marriages. However, for these school-age multicultural youth, there are still challenges to be addressed for their school adjustment and academic success. Study findings indicate that youth with multicultural backgrounds need to develop an acceptance attitude toward both cultures, not just one of cultures. Findings suggest that the government should make continuous efforts to help multicultural youth increase positive attitudes that accommodate both Korean and Foreign culture groups, thus reducing social withdrawal and improving school adaptation. Government-funded community-based counseling and after school programs for both youths and their parents are recommended. Future research regarding cultural diversity should be more focused on the impact of acculturation, respecting diverse backgrounds.