Association between parents’ country of birth and multicultural adolescents’ psychological well-being in South Korea: A study on depression, worries, life satisfaction, and social withdrawal

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between parents’ country of birth and psychological well-being of multicultural adolescents in Korea, a country with a predominantly homogenous population. This study used data from the 8th wave of the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study (MAPS) conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute (NYPI). The participants included 1,147 multicultural adolescents (561 males, 586 females, mean age = 16.96 years). Adolescents whose mothers were born abroad, particularly those whose mothers were Chinese or Filipino, exhibited higher odds of experiencing depression (OR=1.13; 95% CI, 0.50–2.56) compared to those with native Korean mothers. Compared with male adolescents, female respondents were more likely to experience depression (OR=1.28; 95% CI, 0.99–1.66), worries (OR=1.98; 95% CI, 1.51–2.59), and lower life satisfaction (OR=0.75; 95% CI, 0.56–1.01). There was an association between mothers’ level of education and adolescents’ depression, with higher education levels corresponding to lower depression rates (0R=0.31; 95% CI, 0.13–0.72). These findings have important implications for addressing unique psychological needs in the context of multicultural adolescents, integrated with parental and socioeconomic factors. More support and policy measures should be taken to increase psychological well-being in this growing demographic segment. © 2025 Ghafary et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.