Parental stress of Korean immigrants in the U.S.: Meeting Child and Youth's educational needs amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Joo Young Hong; Shinwoo Choi; Gregory A Cheatham

doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106070

Parental stress of Korean immigrants in the U.S.: Meeting Child and Youth's educational needs amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Child Youth Serv Rev. 2021 Aug:127:106070. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106070. Epub 2021 May 19.

Authors

Joo Young Hong¹, Shinwoo Choi², Gregory A Cheatham³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Exceptional, Deaf, and Interpreter Education, University of North Florida, United States.
² School of Social Work, Texas State University, United States.
³ Department of Special Education, University of Kansas, United States.

Abstract

This study investigates Korean immigrants' parental stress amid the COVID-19 pandemic, especially when they experience difficulties trying to meet their children's educational needs. Korean immigrant parents residing in the U.S. were invited to complete an online survey through purposive sampling. The final sample included a total of 341 Korean immigrant parents from 42 U.S. states. Three models of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions were conducted to examine the associations between parent-reported difficulties meeting the children's educational needs, parental stress, and the immigrant parents' resilience and social support. Findings indicate that parents' difficulties meeting their children's educational needs in general as well as language barriers were associated with increased parental stress. Moreover, parents' resilience and social support also significantly decreased parental stress levels. Implications for practice, policy, and future research are presented.

Keywords: Child(ren) education; Coronavirus disease (COVID-19); Korean immigrants; Parental stress; Resilience; Social support.