Recently, the number of international marriage increased rapidly as the marital migration of foreigners has increased. According to the Statistics Korea (2011), the number of marriage with foreigners was 11,305 which were 3.5% of the total marriage. I...
Recently, the number of international marriage increased rapidly as the marital migration of foreigners has increased. According to the Statistics Korea (2011), the number of marriage with foreigners was 11,305 which were 3.5% of the total marriage. In 2006, the number was 38,759 which were 11.7% of the total marriage and 8.2% increase compared to 2000. In 2010, the number was 34,235 which were 10.5% of the total marriage, which is a slight decrease compared to 2006 but 2.8% increase compared to 2009 where the total number of marriage to foreigner was 33,300. The number of increase was 935.
As the international marriage increases, the number of children from multicultural family is rapidly increasing each year; 25,000 in 2006, 44,000 in 2007, and 28,000 in 2008. Also, the number of students enrolled in secondary schools reached about 25,000, which is 40% increase compared to the year before according to the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (2009). Many issues occurred due to such increase in children from Multicultural families.
Thus, the target of current study is elementary school students of multicultural families living in Gyeonggi-do district. The study analyzes which factors from the stress originating from cultural adaptation influence the issues that these children face when adapting to school life. The purpose of the study is to increase the level of school life adaptation by searching the appropriate measures.
The research was conducted from November 1st, 2012 to November 30th, 2012, targeting elementary school students from multicultural families of A city, Gyeonggi-do. Frequency analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis of each factor was conducted using 122 valid surveys among the total of 400 surveys. Multiple regression analysis was used in order to verify the model based on theoretical foundation. By using the SPSS1 8.0,
the result of the analysis is as below:
First, there were 58 male students (47.5%) and 64 female students (52.5%) which shows the even distribution in gender when selecting samples. As for the grade, upper grade level students were more than others since there were 25 fourth graders (20.5%), 31 fifth graders (25.4%), and 48 sixth graders (39.3%).
Second, 118 students (96.7%) lived in the city.
Third, most of the parents had high school diploma as their highest educational level attained, which consisted of 73% of fathers and 69% of mothers.
Fifth, 90.7% of the parents were foreigners. 53% of the students had mothers who are foreigners and 37.7% answered that both of the parents were foreigners. As for the national background of the parents, 71% of the students responded that their parents are from China. Philippines (20%) and Vietnam (16%) followed.
Sixth, 74% of the children from multicultural families answered that their Korean fluency level is very good.
Seventh, 70% of the children answered that their economic level is average.
Considering the tendency of difference in detailed groups, the difference was not large enough except for the foreign status of the parents. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the result using the post verification value. According to the variation analysis based on the foreign status of the parents, it showed significant result in perceived discrimination, perceived hostility, fear, cultural shock, guilt, and abiding to the rules.
In case of perceived discrimination, they felt more discrimination when both of the parents were foreigners compared to when only the father was a foreigner. The same result applied to perceived hostility, fear, cultural shock, guilt, and abiding to the rules. That is, there were more negative influence when only mother was a foreigner and when both of the parents were foreigner compared to when only father was a foreigner.
Lastly, the sample of the study was randomly selected among children from multicultural families who are enrolled in an elementary school located in Gyeonggi-do district which is the center of multicultural families. Therefore, there are limitations in generalizing the result of factors influencing the school life adaptation of children from multicultural families due to the distinct characteristics of the area and limitations. It is because the subject of the study was focused only on students enrolled in a multicultural family centered school. The follow-up study should expand the subject school to children from multicultural families enrolled in regular elementary school and include characteristics of an area and children from multicultural family in sampling so that the result can be applied to general population.
Based on the above study result and limitations, below proposal is suggested. In case of multicultural family centered school, the stress level in cultural adaptation of children from multicultural families was low, which means that they adapted to school life well. Therefore, multicultural family centered school should expand more than now.
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