The changes in biethnic acceptance across daily settings and biethnic adolescents' psychological well-being during middle school transition.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Patterns of biethnic adolescents' perceived biethnic acceptance across families, peers, and school contexts were examined during the transition from elementary to middle school in South Korea. We also examined how the transition patterns were related to their psychological outcomes during this period. METHODS: Utilizing 2-wave data (2017 and 2019) from the Panel Survey of Korean Multicultural Youth Adjustment, a latent transition analysis was conducted. Participants were biethnic adolescents who were in 5th or 6th grade at Wave 1 (N = 245; 51.02% female; Mage = 11.38). Their fathers were Korean, and mothers were immigrants from neighboring countries. Familial ethnic socialization, peer discrimination, and school multicultural climate scores were used as indicators of biethnic acceptance. Outcomes of self-esteem, depression, and biethnic affirmation were also examined. RESULTS: Latent profile and transition analyses yielded two groups (i.e., high acceptance and low acceptance) at each wave and four transition patterns (i.e., high-high, low-high, low-low, and high-low). Compared to high-high group, which was the most prevalent group, low-low and high-low groups reported lower self-esteem and ethnic affirmation, and greater depression at Wave 3. CONCLUSIONS: While for the majority of participants, their daily settings continued to be high in biethnic acceptance across the transition period, most at risk were those who perceived a decrease in biethnic acceptance in their daily settings. Results shed light on the need for support to maintain the context of high biethnic acceptance surrounding biethnic adolescents for their psychological well-being in school transitions.