Korean American Parents

This article examines aspects of the relationship between Korean American parents and their children. The study aimed to measure the association between the perceived parental levels of acceptance and rejection with levels of parental control, ranging from permissive to strict. Self-report data was collected from the individual members of 106 Korean American families for the purpose of this study. The children answered questions about their parents while the parents reported about themselves. The majority of both groups reported the parents as being affectionate while having a control level of moderate to firm. Both children and mothers reported that there was a positive correlation between maternal levels of control and perceived rejection
Using Parker’s four categories of parental attachment styles, Park examines the results from a Parental Bonding Instrument scale to understand which attachment styles were associated with self-esteem, social support and depression. Among the categories of affectionless control, affectionate constraint, optimal parenting, and neglectful bonding, nearly half of Korean American adolescents viewed their parents as having an affectionless control parenting style. This style, characterized by high control and low care, often led to children feeling inadequate next to their parents’ expectations. The author points out that this parenting style and the resulting conflict may be attributed to the cultural differences between the traditional parenting values of Korean immigrant parents and their acculturating children. In congruence with previous studies, optimal parenting, consisting of low control and high care, resulted in higher levels of self-esteem and social support, as well as lower depression. The emphasis of the study is the importance of parental care and acceptance on adolescent’s mental health and self-concept. The findings of this study complement Eunjung Kim’s 2005 study in that it confirms Korean American children’s perception of their parents’ caregiving styles. In addition, it goes a step further to analyze the effect that the parenting styles have on
Using the factors of values orientation, daily lifestyles, social networks and language, the authors compare and contrast four categories of acculturation, including assimilation, separation, marginalization and integration. Although the Korean American ethnic group has generally done well in maintaining their cultural characteristics and learning American values, the study found distinct differences in acculturation between generations. The study also found a difference in expectation of acculturation between generations. Parents strongly expected successful assimilation for their children, whereas children reported that it was less important for their parents to learn about American society. The authors discuss that the children’s perspective could be attributed to the understanding that their parents find comfort and enjoyment in maintaining their Korean identities. Another explanation offered is that the adolescents have come to the realization that their parents are unlikely to change their traditional ways. The findings of this study help to explain the academic pressure Korean American students experience, as mentioned in many articles on the topic of parent-child relationships in Asian American families. Specifically, the expectation for children to