The objective of this study is to understand the influencing relationship between parental child-rearing attitude perceived by children from multicultural families, and their school adjustment. It aims to verify how parental child-rearing attitude, bicultural adjustment, and social competence would have effects on school adjustment, and also to examine the mediating effects of bicultural adjustment and social competence on the relief of these relationships.
Targeting 355 children(4th-6th graders of elementary school) from multicultural families with Korean father and foreign mother, the structured self-reported questionnaire was used for data collection. Using SPSS 20.0 Program for statistical dataprocessing of the collected data, the correlation analysis was conducted. Using AMOS 20.0 Program, the structural equation model was analyzed. Also, in order to verify the mediating effects, the indirect effect of multiple-mediating effects was verified by using Bootstrapping and phantom variable.
The main results of this study are like below. In the results of analyzing the direct effects:
First, the parental child-rearing attitude had positive effects on bicultural adjustment, which means that positive parental child-rearing attitude increases bicultural adjustment.
Second, the parental child-rearing attitude had positive effects on social competence, which means that positive parental child-rearing attitude increases social competence.
Third, the bicultural adjustment had effects on social competence, which means when bicultural adjustment is high, it increases social competence.
Fourth, the parental child-rearing attitude had positive effects on school adjustment, which could be interpreted that parents' positive child-rearing attitude increases their children's school adjustment.
Fifth, the bicultural adjustment had effects on school adjustment, which means when bicultural adjustment is high, it increases school adjustment.
Sixth, the social competence had effects on school adjustment, which means when social competence is high, school adjustment is increased.
Next, the results of verifying the multiple-mediating effects on the effects of parental child-rearing attitude on school adjustment are like following.
First, the bicultural adjustment had mediating effects between parental child-rearing attitude and school adjustment, which means when parental child-rearing attitude is positive, the bicultural adjustment is increased, which is led to influence school adjustment.
Second, the social competence had mediating effects between parental child-rearing attitude and school adjustment, which means when parental child-rearing attitude is positive, the social competence is increased, which is led to influence school adjustment.
Third, the bicultural adjustment and social competence had multiple-mediating effects between parental child-rearing attitude and school adjustment, which means when parental child-rearing attitude is positive, the bicultural adjustment and social competence are increased, which eventually increases school adjustment.
Like above, the relationship between parental child-rearing attitude perceived by children from multicultural families, and school adjustment has direct effects while also having indirect effects with the mediation of bicultural adjustment and social competence. Therefore, for the school adjustment of children from multicultural families, it would be necessary to support and develop diverse programs to improve parenting skills, bicultural adjustment, and social competence.