A Longitudinal Study on the Impact of Multicultural Mothers' Acculturative Stress on the School Adaptation of Their Multicultural Adolescents: Double Mediating Effect of Mothers' Parenting Efficacy and Children's Depression

Background: The flow of diverse cultures and races transcending borders has already become a universal trend of globalization. Korean society is facing rapid changes towards a multicultural society due to marriages among people of various ethnicities and nationalities within this flow. Multicultural adolescents live in Korean society with language barriers, discrimination, and the confusion of dual culture, and grow up in confusion due to their parents' acculturative stress and parenting efficacy. These difficulties may cause psychological difficulties such as depression and anxiety among multicultural adolescents, making it difficult for them to adapt to school. This study aimed to identify the longitudinal changes in the impact of multicultural mothers' acculturative stress on the school adaptation of their adolescent children in middle school and to verify the double mediating effects of multicultural mothers' parenting efficacy and children's depression.

Method: The subjects of the study were 1,184 multicultural adolescents and their mothers who participated in the 4th to 6th year (2014-2016) survey of the Korean Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study. Analysis was conducted using frequency analysis, descriptive statistics analysis, and correlation using the SPSS 26.0 program. Mediation effect verification was performed using Hayes' Process Macro 4.0.

Results: First, the multicultural mothers' acculturative stress (4th wave) when the children were 7th grade had a statistically significant negative effect on their childern’s school adaptation at 9th grade (6th wave). In addition, it had a significant negative effect on the mothers' parenting efficacy and a significant positive effect on the children's depression when the children was 8th grade(5th wave). Second, the parenting efficacy(5th wave) of multicultural mothers at 8th grade had a significant positive effect on the school adaptation of multicultural adolescents at 9th grade. , while the depression of the adolescents at 8th grade had a significant negative effect on school adaptation at 9th grade. Third, the parenting efficacy(5th wave) of multicultural mothers at 7th grade had a significant negative effect on their children's depression at 7th grade. Lastly, between the effects of multicultural mothers' acculturative stress on the school adaptation of multicultural adolescents, a significant double mediating effect of the mothers’ parenting efficacy and the children’s depression was confirmed. In other words, as the acculturative stress of multicultural mothers increases over time, the parenting efficacy decreases, and the level of depression of children increases, and this, in turn, has a negative impact on the school adaptation of multicultural adolescents.

Conclusions and Implications: We examined not only the psychological and school adaptation problems of multicultural adolescents, but also the difficulties that are related with acculturative stress experienced by their marriage-immigrant mothers. Accordingly, practical policy measures are being proposed to reduce the acculturative stress of multicultural mothers and promote the adaptation of multicultural adolescents to school life. Therefore, it will play a positive role in helping the desirable development of multicultural families and promoting the healthy growth of multicultural adolescents.