A Structural Relationship of Cultural Adaptation of Marriage Immigrant Women and Elementary School Children's School Adjustment: The Mediating Effect of School Activity Participation and Parenting Efficacy

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the cultural adaptation types (assimilation and integration) of marriage immigrant women on their children's school adjustment, mediated by school activity participation and parenting efficacy. For this purpose, data from the first year of the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study(MAPS) 2nd cohort(MAPS 2) conducted by the Korea Youth Policy Institute were utilized, involving 2,224 households with fourth-grade elementary school students. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling using AMOS 22.0 were conducted, and path analysis utilizing phantom variables was performed to verify the influence of each path. The main findings of this study are as follows: First, the cultural adaptation type of marriage immigrant women had a significant effect on school activity participation, but had negative effects on parenting efficacy, and had no effects on school adjustment. Second, in the relationship between the cultural adaptation assimilation type of immigrant women and school adjustment of their children, both school activity participation and parenting efficacy were found to have significant dual mediating effects. Furthermore, parenting efficacy was found to have a significant partially mediating effect in the relationship between cultural adaptation assimilation type and school adjustment of their children, while it had a significant statically mediating effect in the relationship between cultural adaptation integration type and school adjustment of their children. Based on the findings, educational implications were discussed.