Religiosity and Immigrant Family Narratives in Korean American Young Adults

Abstract

Korean Americans are known to be a highly religious population. According to the recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report Asian Americans: A mosaic of faiths (2012), 71% of Korean Americans identified themselves as Christian, only second among Asian American groups. Of particular note, even among the American-raised, English-fluent second-generation Korean American adolescents and young adults, many continue to affiliate with Korean congregations rather than non-ethnic churches (S. Kim, 2010). The Korean ethnic church has been a critical institution in the formation and maintenance of Korean American community since the early waves of immigration (Yoo, 2010). Korean church youth groups and second-generation Korean American churches serve not only as religious communities but also as places that nurture cultural and ethnic identities (S. Kim, 2010), provide leadership opportunities (I. Kim, 1981), and foster the development of social capital through networking and information sharing (Lew, 2006). However, relatively little attention has been paid to how Korean Americans' religiosity contributes to the values and factors associated with positive psychology. Positive psychology scholars have documented that religiosity increases happiness, especially among those living in societies with difficult life circumstances, by increasing social support, respect, and meaning in life that, in turn, lead to subjective well-being (Diener, Tay, & Myers, 2011). Beyond individual happiness, religion has also been found to promote spiritual qualities such as forgiveness, gratitude, and hope (Watts, Dutton, & Gulliford, 2006) that are features of positive psychology character strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). In this chapter, we examine how Korean American young adults narrate and interpret immigrant family lives through the lens of religiosity. We argue that their religiosity contributes to positive functioning by providing a religious narrative framework that promotes character strengths (e.g., forgiveness, gratitude, prudence), which the young adults employ to make meaning out of the past challenges in their immigrant families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)