The Serial Multiple Mediating Effects of Self-esteem and Bicultural Acceptance Attitude on the Relationship between Parental Support and School Adaptation of Muticultural Adolescents’

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of parental support on school adaptation among multicultural adolescents and to empirically analyze the serial multiple mediating effects of self-esteem and bicultural acceptance attitudes within this relationship. A total of 2,073 data points from the second wave of the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study(MAPS), conducted by the Korea Youth Policy Research Institute, were analyzed. Process Macro's Model 6 was employed to test the significance of multilevel mediation effects. The results can be summarized as follows: First, perceived parental support among multicultural adolescents was positively associated with school adaptation. Second, self-esteem mediated the relationship between parental support and school adaptation. Third, bicultural acceptance attitudes also mediated the relationship between parental support and school adaptation. Lastly, self-esteem and bicultural acceptance attitudes jointly exerted a serial multiple mediating effect on the relationship between parental support and school adaptation. These findings confirm that self-esteem and bicultural acceptance attitudes sequentially mediate the relationship between parental support and school adaptation among multicultural adolescents. Based on these results, practical and theoretical implications for enhancing the school adaptation of multicultural adolescents are discussed.