This study identified the relationship between hardiness and life satisfaction or expectation of multicultural Korean children, and examined the mediating models of acculturative stress moderated by resilience on hardiness and life satisfaction or life expectation. The participants in the study were 201 male and female children from Korean multicultural families. PROCESS Macro 3.5 Model 14 was used for the analysis of the moderated mediating effects. The results revealed that hardiness and resilience were positively correlated with life satisfaction and life expectation, whereas acculturative stress was negatively correlated with life satisfaction and life expectation of multicultural children. In a moderated mediating model for life satisfaction, there was no interaction effect of acculturative stress and resilience, but a conditionally indirect effect of acculturative stress was only significant in groups with low resilience. In a moderated mediating model for life expectation, there was a significant interaction effect of acculturative stress and resilience, and a conditionally indirect effect of acculturative stress was only significant in groups with low resilience and with very high resilience. These findings suggest that only when multicultural children have low resilience, the mediating effect of acculturative stress is significant in relations of hardiness and life satisfaction, as well as hardiness and life expectation. In particular, resilience moderates the influence of acculturative stress on life expectations.
Keywords: acculturative stress; expectation; hardiness; life satisfaction; multicultural children; resilience.
Copyright © 2021 Kim and Suh.