Received: August 19, 2011; Revised: September 7, 2011 Accepted: October 7, 2011.
ABSTRACT
The effect of an adolescent's being in a multicultural family, including the psychological, cultural, and situational characteristics of this experience, in terms of how it impacts acceptance of Korean culture, social competence, and educational adaptation was investigated. 120 multicultural family adolescents who were enrolled in Seouland Gyeonggi-do middle and high schools were surveyed. The results were analyzed by the PASW Statistics v18 program. Firstly, it was found that the psychological, cultural, and situational characteristics of multicultural family adolescents were significantly affected by family's general economic level and their mother's occupation and nationality. Secondly, multicultural family adolescents with higher self-perception, good accommodation of crosscultural attitudes in Korean culture and more relationships with Koreans tended to adapt to Korean culture more easily. Thirdly, multicultural family adolescents who adapted to Korean culture more easily could also adapt to school life well, and those who had better interpersonal relations and more advanced problem-solving skills had better relationships with school friends.