The Relationship Between Acculturative Stress, Integration Strategy, Parenting Self-Efficacy, and Multicultural Youth's Perceived Parental Support in South Korea

Over the past decades, ethnically and racially diverse populations have constantly increased in South Korea. In their acculturation, a number of multicultural families encounter acculturative stress, which can negatively influence their individual as well as relational well-being. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the association between acculturative stress of multicultural parents ( n = 2,249) and parental support perceived by multicultural youth ( n = 2,271) in South Korea. Additionally, the authors examined the potential mediating effect of parental self-efficacy moderated by parental acculturation on the association between parental acculturative stress and perceived parental support. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted to test the association between multicultural mothers’ acculturative stress and their youth's perceived level of parental support with the mediating effect of multicultural mothers’ parenting self-efficacy level moderated by integration strategy. The moderation analysis identified a significant buffering effect of achieving an integrated level of acculturation on multicultural parents’ acculturative stress and parenting self-efficacy. In addition, parenting self-efficacy significantly mediated the link between multicultural parents’ acculturative stress and multicultural youth's perceived level of parental support. Implications and future directions for mental health professionals, educators, and researchers were discussed.