• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.973-987
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• 2015

This study was conducted to investigate the eating habits and food preferences of elementary school children belong to multi-cultural families and ordinary families. The data were obtained by interview based on questionnaire from November to December in 2012. The subjects of multi-cultural families and ordinary families were 99 and 376 children, respectively. In comparison with eating habits, the ordinary children showed higher scoring in the items of eating proteins, green and yellow vegetables, and fruits or fruit juice than those of multi-cultural children. The ordinary children ate less midnight-meals than those of multi-cultural children (p<0.05). Furthermore, the ordinary children ate kimchi more frequently than the multi-cultural children. It was significantly different (p<0.05) on the items of 'eating-out types' dietary habits between two groups. Education of mothers correlated with the ordinary children's eating habits more than multi-cultural families. In the investigation of the food preference to Korean foods, 'beef and radish soup', 'pumpkin porridge', and 'wheat flakes noodles' were more preferred by children of ordinary families than by those of multi-cultural families (p<0.05). To conclude, nutritional education for their parents should be done and maintained to keep a right eating habit of children of multi-cultural families even at home.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.505-526
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• 2010

Because of the international marriage of bachelors in the rural areas, there have been grown many foreign residents, the Multi-cultural families. For the improvement of multi-cultural families, the first important thing is their early settlement in Korea. For those foreigners' settlement, systematic approach to Korean education program is necessary. Second, multi-cultural families need support to maintain their basic lives safely. Agricultural education for the next generation is, moreover, also important for them. Third, healthy growth and training for the formation of the Self-Identity of their children are needed for those multi-cultural families too. Education for bring up their children as the global talents, the cost of private education and the one of bringing up children also have to be supported. Fourth, the improvement of understanding multicultural families is significant. Development and education of various programs to participate multi-cultural families are also required.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.235-248
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to establish strategies that support multi-cultural children' development and adaptation in day care centers. The subjects were 61 young children, 49 parents from multi-cultural family and 550 Korean young children. The instruments utilized were the Sukemune-Hiew Resilience Test for parents and the Danaka Deveopment Test for children. The statistical instruments used were the t-test and the Pearson product correlation coefficients. Our results indicated that : (1) In the case five or six years old children from multi-cultural families, language development lagged behind that of Korean children. (2) Social support systems were insufficient for parents of multi-cultural families. Our cnclusions suggest that establishing strategies is necessary for not only supporting the linguistic development of children from multi-cultural families, but strategies aimed at supporting their parents in day care centers need to be developed.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.37-47
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to grasp the factors having influence upon the social adjustment of children in multi-cultural families and to examine the degree of influence of these influential factors. For these aims, it targeted 186 children of multi-cultural families, that access social welfare institutions or multi-cultural institutions in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk areas. The findings are as follows. First, the factors having influence upon the social adjustment of children in multi-cultural families were indicated to be self-esteem, parental marital relations, bullying, and the support of adults other than their parents. In other words, these children's higher level of social adjustment was correlated with higher self-esteem, better parental marital relations, fewer bullying experiences from their peer group, and more support from adults other than their parents'. Secondly, support from adults other than parents was indicated to be the most influential among the variables affecting the social adjustment of children in multi-cultural families. The factor having the second highest level of influence was indicated to be self-esteem, followed by parental marital relations, and then bullying.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.121-142
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• 2011

This study explores the structural relationships between personal factors (young children's self-esteem and language ability) and environmental factors (mother's acculturation, parenting, and teacher's multi-cultural education attitude) on young children's adjustment to early childhood educational institution in multi-cultural families. 150 young children in multi-cultural families of aged 3, 4, and 5, their mothers, and 108 classroom teachers participated in this study. The results of this investigation reveal the following : (1) Mother's integrative acculturation significantly affected mother's parenting. (2) The relationship between mother's acculturation and young children's adjustment to early childhood educational institution in multi-cultural families are significantly mediated by mother's parenting and the young children's self-esteem. (3) Young children's language ability in multi-cultural families significantly affected their degree of adjustment to early childhood educational institution.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.85-108
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• 2018

Objective: This study intended to analyze parenting characteristics, difficulties and support needs of multi-cultural families that had children under 3 years old, in order to develop their supporting resources. Methods: This study performed semi-structured interviews with 7 mothers from multi-cultural families that had their young children enrolled at child care and education centers in Gyeonggi Do. The interview data transcribed were analyzed using the successive contents analysis, and led to 4 themes and 12 sub-themes. Results: First, the mothers from multi-cultural families were married without understanding the Korean language and culture. Second, the multi-cultural mothers didn't properly respond to their children's needs in interaction and language aspects. As a result, the multi-cultural support centers and child care and education centers gave help to them. Third, in the view of the difficulties facing mothers, parenting problems caused by the lack of information concerning child education, the biased burden of parenting, and the different parenting values of Korean families were all expressed by the mothers. Fourth, regarding support needs, providing individual professional support for children and child-raising support for mothers, customized language and employment support for mothers and parenting education for fathers and family education on multi-culturalism are needed. Conclusion/Implications: Suggestions for decreasing the difficulties facing multi-cultural families that had children under 3 years old were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.65-77
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• 2012

This study aimed to investigate how mothers' Korean fluency and children's experiences in child-care centers influenced the communication ability of children from multi-cultural families. The subjects were 600 children from multi-cultural families who enrolled in child-care centers in Gyeonggi province, their mothers, and 350 teachers caring for these children. The data were collected by administrating a questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics and hierarchical regressions. The results of this study were as follows. The mothers' Korean fluency, number of years children had attended child-care centers, and language guidance provided by child-care centers for children from multi-cultural families all had positive effects on children's general and oral communication ability. On the other hand, the number of years that the children had attended child-care centers had no significant effect on the children's written communication ability, but the mothers' Korean fluency and language guidance provided by child-care centers for children from multi-cultural families had positive effects on children's written communication ability. Finally, the mothers' Korean fluency moderated the effects of children's child-care experiences on their communication ability. Specifically, the more fluent the mothers' Korean, the stronger the effects of children's child-care experiences on their communication ability.

• The Korean Journal of Elementary Counseling
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.171-192
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• 2012

This study examined the aspects in elementary school students' career interest and career awareness by gender, age, and multi-cultural families/general families. The subjects were 341 elementary school students from multi-cultural families and general families. The results were as follows. First, there were significant differences in investigative, artistic, and social interests by gender. The children from multi-cultural families and general families showed no significant differences in career interest. Second, the children from general families had higher scores than those from multi-cultural families in self-awareness, occupational exploration, career attitude, and career awareness. And the girls had higher scores than boys in self-awareness, occupational exploration, and career awareness. Third, there were meaningful differences in career interest and career awareness by age. The younger children had higher scores in career interest and lower scores in career awareness. Fourth, the career interests had significant correlations with career awareness in both groups. And there were stronger correlations in general children. Fifth, the regression analyses showed that career interests had significant effects on career awareness in both groups, and there were higher effects in general children. The artistic interests in multi-cultural children and the social interest in general children had significant effects on career awareness. And the effect of multi-cultural families/general families was noticeable in occupational exploration, career attitude, and career awareness. The implication for multi-cultural career education and counseling practice are discussed based on the result of the present study.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.810-822
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• 2012

The present study aims to investigate the mediating effects of social support in regard of the impacts of stress-coping styles on depression in children from multi-cultural families. In a nutshell, the findings in this study are as follows: First, the stress-coping styles of children from multi-cultural families and depression were found to be negatively related, while social support and depression were negatively correlated. Second, as for the effects of stress-coping styles in children from multi-cultural families on depression, the more passive and active stress-coping styles of children from multi-cultural families, the less their depression, behavior disorder, loss of interest, self-abasement and physical symptoms. Third, high levels of teachers' support partially mediated the relation between stress-coping styles and depression in children from multi-cultural families. This finding implies that children from multi-cultural families, who perceive high levels of peer support, cope with stress better and thus reduce depression.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.255-268
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to deepen our understanding about mothers' parenting stress in multi-cultural families. The study was conducted through in-depth interviews of 6 mothers from Mongolia, Philippines, and Japan who were living in Seoul. The findings of this study were as follows. First, mothers of multi-cultural families had difficulties of giving birth and child rearing, especially in the earliest years of their children. They were not fully adapted to the ways of living in Korea with little social support from family members and neighbors. Second, they were worried about their children's development, particularly language development due to their lack of understanding and fluency in Korean. Third, they were concerned about the cultural and racial discrimination against their children. They expected their children to be treated and respected equally like ordinary Korean children. Fourth, they were anxious about the fact that their children might not acquire the basic academic skills before they enter the elementary schools. Furthermore, they were worried that their children might not get as much educational support as they want. Fifth, despite the burden of mother's role in Korea, they wished to get a job to support their children for better education. In conclusion, the marriage immigrant mothers experienced the stress due to the lack of social support, the discrimination against immigrants, the possibilities of their children's delays in development, the disparity in the level of support for educating their children and the high expectations about their children's education in Korean society. Therefore it is necessary for the policy makers to consider more practical support system for the multi-cultural families in order for the marriage immigrant mothers to build up self-confidence in child rearing and educating their children.