The main purpose of this study is to examine the degree of change over time in multicultural family mothers’ parenting competency factors (parenting attitudes & parental efficacy) and children’s psychosocial adjustment factors (self-esteem & school adjustment) and to find out how mothers’ parenting competency that influences multicultural family children’s psychosocial adjustment significantly exerts effects on children’s psychosocial adjustment over time. The subjects of this study are the data collected from the first year (elementary school fifth year in 2012) to the eighth year (middle school junior year in 2016) of the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study (MAPS) conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute to multicultural family mothers and children participating in the study. Final data selected from 1,322 multicultural households of which mothers and children participated in the survey without exception from 2012 (elementary school fifth year) to 2016 (middle school senior year) went through analysis.
This study adopted SPSS 27 and Mplus 8.2, and specific methods used to analyze the data are as follows. The reliability of the measurement tool was verified by calculating Cronbach’s α between the items of each variable, and independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA were carried out to verify intergroup differences. To confirm correlation between variables and the effects of major variables, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were conducted. Lastly, the latent growth model was analyzed to confirm the developmental trajectory of multicultural family mothers’ parenting competency and children’s psychosocial adjustment and to investigate the causality between variables.
The results of this study are summarized as follows:
The latent growth model was analyzed to estimate the change over time in the main variables of this study: multicultural family children’s self-esteem and school adjustment and mothers’ parenting attitudes and parental efficacy. It has been confirmed that multicultural family mothers’ initial parenting attitudes have significantly positive effects on initial self-esteem and school adjustment but do not influence the slope of self-esteem and school adjustment significantly. This means that the higher the level of multicultural family mothers’ initial parenting attitudes, the higher the initial self-esteem. Also, it has been found that the slope of mothers’ parenting attitudes has significantly positive effects on the slopes of self-esteem and school adjustment both. This implies that when the level of parenting attitudes is higher, multicultural family children’s self-esteem and school adjustment both change positively over time. It has been found that the initial values of multicultural family mothers’ parental efficacy, too, have significant effects on the initial values of self-esteem and school adjustment but does not influence the slopes. On the other hand, the slope of mothers’ parental efficacy has significantly positive effects on the slopes of self-esteem and school adjustment both; therefore, we can see that when the level of parental efficacy is higher, both self-esteem and school adjustment change positively over time.
Major findings are shown below:
1. According to the developmental trajectories of multicultural family children’s self-esteem and school adjustment, the two variables both indicate ‘linear change models’, and as the variance of initial values shows significant results, there is difference among the children in self-esteem and school adjustment in the second year.
2. The development trajectories of multicultural family mothers’ parenting attitudes and parental efficacy show ‘linear change models’, and as the initial values of those variables and the changing rates of the slopes are found to be statistically significant, the trend over time has been verified. In particular, as the variance of initial values shows significant results, there is difference found among the multicultural family mothers in both parenting attitudes and parental efficacy in the second year.
3. According to the results of analyzing the latent growth model of parenting attitudes and children’s self-esteem, when multicultural family mothers’ parenting attitudes change greatly, children’s self-esteem also change greatly. This means that as parenting attitudes change positively over time, children’s self-esteem changes positively, too.
4. According to the results of analyzing the latent growth model between parenting attitudes and children’s school adjustment, when the initial level of parenting attitudes is higher, the initial level of children’s school adjustment is higher, too. Also, the slope of parenting attitudes has significant effects on the slope of children’s school adjustment; therefore, when the level of parenting attitudes is higher, children’s school adjustment changes positively over time.
5. According to the results of analyzing parental efficacy, one of the multicultural family mothers’ parenting competencies, and children’s self-esteem and school adjustment, as parental efficacy changes, children’s self-esteem and school adjustment change, too, greatly. This implies that when parental efficacy changes positively over time, children’s self-esteem and school adjustment both change in significantly positive ways, too.
Based on the results, this study has derived following implications:
1. Based on the results of examining the developmental trajectories of multicultural family children’s self-esteem and school adjustment, it is needed to consider their developmental stages in political approaches. In practical approaches, both self-esteem and school adjustment are found to change from the elementary school fifth year to middle school third year, and there are differences found among multicultural family children; therefore, it is necessary to develop gradual stepwise and customized programs in consideration of school levels and individual characteristics.
2. According to the results of examining the development trajectories of multicultural family mothers’ parenting attitudes and parental efficacy, it is necessary to consider various cultural or environmental factors that influence parenting competencies in political approaches. Moreover, year-based plans should be devised systematically in order to improve mothers’ positive parenting attitudes and reduce their negative parenting attitudes. In addition, it is necessary to operate year-based parental efficacy promotion programs that can support children’s psychosocial adjustment considering their growth stages.
3. The levels of multicultural family mothers’ parenting attitudes and parental efficacy are found to influence children’s self-esteem and school adjustment both positively over time. Based on this, it is needed to intervene with systems more efficiently by developing and distributing integrated programs that can support mothers and children both at the same time.
4. Longitudinal studies on multicultural family children should be continued with the support of policies and systems as they lay the grounds for multicultural policies and practices through observation on the changes of children’s growth and development.