The Influence of Acculturative Stress on Peer Support Through Depression and Aggression Among the Multicultural Adolescents: Focusing on the Moderated Mediation Effects of Coping Strategies and Gender Differences

The purpose of this study is to identify moderated mediation effects of coping strategies on the relationship between multicultural adolescents’ acculturative stress, depression, aggression and peer support and to examine gender differences. We analyzed data from 269 Korean-born middle school students with Korean fathers and marriage immigrant mothers using SPSS PROCESS macro. The main results of this study are as follows. The mediating effect of depression in the relationship between acculturative stress and peer support was found in both male and female, while the mediating effect of aggression was found only in males. Further, for male multicultural adolescents, the moderated mediation effect of emotion-focused maladaptive coping through depression and emotion-focused adaptive coping through aggression was found. Findings suggest intervention for multicultural adolescents’ peer support should consider coping strategies and gender differences.