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The Role of Ethnic Socialization, Ethnic Identity and Self-Esteem: Implications for Bi-ethnic Adolescents’ School Adjustment

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Abstract

Bi-ethnic adolescents of marriage migrant mothers in Korea are often encouraged to be “pure” Koreans for their adjustments and not given the opportunities to explore their ethnic identity or to learn about their mother’s culture of origin. Existing studies conducted with mono-ethnic minorities in other countries, however, do not support this belief. We tested a conceptual model on the role of ethnic socialization, ethnic identity and self-esteem on school adjustment among bi-ethnic adolescents in Korea based on social identity theory and theoretical models of ethnic socialization and ethnic identity. We used data from 2015 National Survey of Multicultural Families. The study sample consisted of 296 adolescents aged 9–18 who were born between Korean fathers and Vietnamese marriage migrant mothers. We used structural equation modeling to specifically examine the association between ethnic socialization in terms of parents’ linguistic socialization and adolescents’ school adjustment mediated by ethnic identity in the form of ethnic regard and self-esteem among bi-ethnic adolescents. The results verified the hypothesized model, showing positive relationships between linguistic socialization and ethnic regard, ethnic regard and self-esteem, self-esteem and school adjustment, and ethnic regard and school adjustment. Additionally, the results of bootstrapping test showed that the indirect effect of linguistic socialization on self-esteem through ethnic regard was significant. The indirect effect of ethnic regard on school adjustment through self-esteem was significant and the indirect effect of linguistic socialization on school adjustment via ethnic regard and self-esteem was also significant. These results shed light on the important role of ethnic identity fostered at home among bi-ethnic adolescents of marriage migrant mothers in Korea.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the BK21 Plus Program of National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-22B20152813529). This study was presented at the International Society for Research on Identity (ISRI) 24th Annual Conference.

Author Contributions

JL: designed the study, conducted the data analyses, and wrote the manuscript. YC: designed the study and wrote the manuscript. XW: assisted with the design and writing of the study. GC: supervised the design, provided feedback, and edited the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child Development & Family Studies, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Jiyeon Lee, Xinying Wei & Grace H. Chung

  2. Psychology Department, Fordham University, Dealy Hall 235, 441 East Fordham Rd., Bronx, NY, 10458, USA

    Yuen Mi Cheon

  3. SNU Multicultural Human Ecology Center, Seoul, South Korea

    Grace H. Chung

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  1. Jiyeon Lee
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Correspondence to Yuen Mi Cheon.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The data has been nationally approved (Nationally Approved Statistics No. 117079).

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Lee, J., Cheon, Y.M., Wei, X. et al. The Role of Ethnic Socialization, Ethnic Identity and Self-Esteem: Implications for Bi-ethnic Adolescents’ School Adjustment. J Child Fam Stud 27, 3831–3841 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1235-9

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