The Effects of Cultural Adaptation Stress of Multicultural Adolescents on School Life Adaptation: The Double Mediation Effect of Friend's Support and Self-esteem

The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors influencing cultural adaptation stress of multicultural adolescents on school life adaptation and to verify the mediating effect of friend support and self-esteem. To this end, the second data of the 2019 Multicultural Youth Panel Survey (MAPS 2019) were used, and a total of 2,271 fourth graders in elementary school were analyzed. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and correlations were conducted with SPSS 26.0, and mediating effect analysis was conducted with the Process Macro 4.0 program. The effect analysis was confirmed that cultural adaptation stress negatively affected the friend's support in the indirect effect analysis of cultural adaptation stress and friend support (b=-.17, P<.001). In the effect of cultural adaptation stress on self-esteem, cultural adaptation stress negatively affected self-esteem (b=-.11, P<.001), and friend support had a positive direct effect on self-esteem (b=.38, P<.001). In the analysis of the effects of cultural adaptation stress, friend support, and self-esteem on school life adaptation, cultural adaptation stress (b=-.13, P<.001), friend support (b=.29, P<.001), self-esteem (b=.19, P<.001) was found to have a significant indirect effect, and adaptation to school life related to cultural adaptation stress had a negative direct effect (b=-.21, P<.001). Based on this, it is necessary to contribute to the development of various education and counseling programs to understand the factors that affect school life adaptation stress.