A Scoping Review on Parenting Beliefs and Practices of South Korean Immigrants in the US to Buffer Children from Anti-Asian Racism

Background— The US has a long history of anti-Asian racism. Asian Americans are often stereotyped as forever foreigners (Tuan, 1998). The fear and uncertainty of COVID-19 have increased the vulnerability of Asian Americans to racism.

As of 2019, there were more than 1.9 million Koreans in the US. Korean immigrants emphasize education, maintain strong family bonds, and respect authority. Yet the stereotype of Korean Americans as a model minority minimizes the need to address challenges including acculturative stress due to anti-Asian racism. Helping children to understand and respond to anti-Asian racism can be a challenge faced by Korean immigrant parents to the US.

Purpose— This exam examines the existing empirical literature pertaining to the parenting beliefs and practices of South Korean immigrant parents in the US, especially regarding the impact of anti-Asian racism on children’s development. My review of the literature is sensitized by the critical race perspective and ethnic-racial socialization.

Methods—A scoping review was conducted to identify current literature—to explore the depth and breadth of current research, and discover gaps in the literature. Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) four key phases of research were used. Twenty-two resources such as databases were searched.

Results and Conclusions—Fifteen studies that met inclusion and exclusion criteria were scoped. The literature suggests that parenting practices that support children’s acculturation can enhance children’s psychosocial well-being and educational achievement, and buffer them from racism. Quantitative literature describes how cultural socialization / pluralism, promotion of mistrust, and preparation for bias can result in both positive and negative outcomes for children. Positive outcomes include cultural socialization / pluralism being a protective factor against discrimination, especially at school. Negative outcomes include promotion of mistrust being associated with negative adjustment including lower ethnic identity. The qualitative literature expands on these findings by describing the challenges and strengths parents and children bring to the process of acculturation including an emphasis on positive psychosocial development, academic achievement to buffer racism, and interpretations of racial discrimination and minority status that support children’s development.

Gaps in Scoped Literature— Monomethod bias (Shadish et al., 2002) is a limitation to the validity of both the quantitative and qualitative scoped studies. The scoped quantitative studies are over-reliant on the ERS scale. Quantitative and qualitative studies over-rely on self-report.

Implications and Limitations—Parents may need assistance in the form of education or training, to better communicate with their children despite language barriers, and with schools, and to discuss racial discrimination and ethnic-racial identity with their children. Schools should provide interventions, with non-Korean students addressing anti-Asian racism. Interventions should be conducted with teachers and school administrators to raise awareness about racial biases and stereotypes and allow these authority figures to reflect on and change any biases they may have. Mainstream US culture such as media need to address messages perpetuating the model minority stereotype.

Limitations include that only studies about the US were scoped. Further, only studies of Korean immigrants were scoped. There is also a literature on Korean Americans that was not systematically scoped.