Korean American Youth and Their Mothers: Intergenerational Differences and Consequences

Abstract

From 1981 to 1990, Korea was one of the top five countries from which immigrants arrived, indicating a relatively new adaptation to the United States, unassisted by earlier generations. Furthermore, the culture of Korean immigrant families and that of the United States do not share much in the way of history, social culture, language, economic structure, and religion; nor do they share an ethical-moral system (Moon, 2008). For example, the Korean culture is strongly based on Confucianism, which emphasizes filial piety, family ties, and the patriarchal family order (Min, 1998) and is one of the most collectivist societies (Hofstede, 1991). These unique cultural experiences could account for Korean immigrants' adjustment problems when acculturating to a new, more individualistic, Western culture (Shim & Schwartz, 2008). This chapter will address the links and outcomes associated with intergenerational differences in acculturation and intergenerational cultural conflict for Korean American adolescents and their immigrant mothers. However, it is important to first discuss Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Systems model to contextualize these relationships and processes. 209 adolescent and mother dyads completed several measures. Results showed that when mothers and their adolescents differed in their acculturation, they also differed in their endorsement of the MMS. Second, adolescents who differed more from their mothers in terms of how acculturated they were to American culture also experienced more cultural conflict with their parents and, in turn, felt more psychological distress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)