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Advancing Understanding of Acculturation for Adolescents of Asian Immigrants: Person-Oriented Analysis of Acculturation Strategy Among Korean American Youth

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Abstract

Acculturation strategy, a significant predictor of immigrant adaptation, has been under-studied with Asian Americans, in particular, Asian American youth. Using person-oriented latent profile analysis, this study identified acculturation strategies among Korean American early adolescents living in the Midwest. Two-hundred ninety-one families were interviewed in 2007 that included 220 youth (mean age 13, 47.7 % female), along with 272 mothers and 164 fathers (N = 656). They were re-interviewed in 2008 (N = 588). The study found three distinct acculturation strategies: separation (11.8 %, n = 26), integrated bicultural (66.9 %, n = 150), and modest bicultural (21.3 %, n = 44). Integrated bicultural youth reported the strongest sense of ethnic identity and the most favorable characteristics, providing empirical support for the benefit of biculturalism. The findings further suggest that separation may not be as detrimental as previously thought, and modest bicultural—biculturalism that is not fully developed—may in fact be less desirable among Korean American youth.

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Notes

  1. Unless notes, scales were constructed such that higher score means higher rates of the construct. Also, the majority of response options were Likert scale, for example, 1 (not at all) to 5 (very likely). Exceptions are described in the text.

  2. We considered only the percentage of White friends because the participating youth reported predominantly either Korean or White friends in peer compositions.

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Authors’ Contributions

Yoonsun Choi conceived, designed and directed the study, including acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, and drafted the manuscript. Kevin Tan performed statistical analyses and assisted with writing the method section. Miwa Yasui contributed to conceptualization and design of the study and helped to draft the manuscript. Hyeouk Chris Hahm participated in interpretation of results and their significance to the literature. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by a Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant No. K01 MH069910), a Seed Grant from the Center for Health Administration Studies, a Junior Faculty Research Fund from the School of Social Service Administration and the Office of Vice President of Research and Argonne Laboratory at the University of Chicago, to the first author.

Conflicts of interest

The authors report no conflict of interests.

Ethical Standards

This study was conducted in compliance with ethical standards. All procedures of the study including data collection and analyses were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Chicago to ensure the proper protection of human subjects, including confidentiality of the data and the informed consent process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, 969 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Yoonsun Choi, Kevin Poh Hiong Tan & Miwa Yasui

  2. School of Social Work, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Hyeouk Chris Hahm

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  1. Yoonsun Choi
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Choi, Y., Tan, K.P.H., Yasui, M. et al. Advancing Understanding of Acculturation for Adolescents of Asian Immigrants: Person-Oriented Analysis of Acculturation Strategy Among Korean American Youth. J Youth Adolescence 45, 1380–1395 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0496-0

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