National Identity and Life Satisfaction Among Multicultural Adolescents in South Korea: The Sequential Mediating Roles of Bicultural Attitudes and Perceived Health

This study examined the longitudinal relationships between national identity, bicultural attitudes, perceived health, and life satisfaction among multicultural adolescents in South Korea. Following Berry’s bidimensional acculturation model, a strong sense of national identity encourages positive bicultural attitudes, which, in turn, improve adolescents’ perceived health and overall life satisfaction. The study also investigated how these factors develop over time. Data were collected from 2,271 South Korean students over 3 consecutive years from the nationally representative Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study. We examined the direct and indirect pathways connecting national identity, bicultural attitudes, perceived health, and life satisfaction over time using autoregressive cross-lagged panel models and longitudinal mediation analyses. Temporal stability was observed among the four constructs. National identity positively predicted bicultural attitudes, which had significant direct and indirect effects on perceived health and life satisfaction. Sequential mediation analyses showed that bicultural attitudes and perceived health were key psychological mechanisms through which national identity enhanced life satisfaction. These findings highlight the importance of fostering positive bicultural attitudes and perceived health to enhance life satisfaction and can inform interventions that promote cultural integration and well-being among multicultural adolescents in South Korea.