Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis Between Depressive Symptoms, Social Withdrawal, Self-Esteem, and School Adaptation in Multicultural Adolescents

In Korea, as the number of multicultural families formed through the marriage of Korean men and foreign women from lower-income countries such as China, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia increases, the psychosocial adaptation of adolescents from these families is becoming increasingly important. This...

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Main Authors: Chung Choe, Seunghee Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ubiquity Press 2025-01-01
Series:Psychologica Belgica
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Online Access:https://account.psychologicabelgica.com/index.php/up-j-pb/article/view/1310
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author Chung Choe
Seunghee Yu
author_facet Chung Choe
Seunghee Yu
author_sort Chung Choe
collection DOAJ
description In Korea, as the number of multicultural families formed through the marriage of Korean men and foreign women from lower-income countries such as China, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia increases, the psychosocial adaptation of adolescents from these families is becoming increasingly important. This study examines the longitudinal and reciprocal relationships among depressive symptoms, social withdrawal, self-esteem, and school adaptation in multicultural adolescents in high schools. We applied an autoregressive cross-lagged model to a sample of 594 multicultural adolescents extracted from three consecutive years of data from the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Survey and found that depressive symptoms and school adaptation had reciprocal negative relationships in multicultural adolescents’ first and second years of high school. In these years, while higher school adaptation led to lower social withdrawal, social withdrawal did not affect school adaptation. In the second and third years of high school, self-esteem and school adaptation had a reciprocal positive relationship. Females had more severe psycho-emotional problems than males. Child neglect increased the risk of depressive symptoms and social withdrawal while lowering self-esteem. A high household income was associated with lower social withdrawal. Adolescents in urban areas exhibited higher levels of depressive symptoms, lower self-esteem, and poorer school adaptation compared to those in rural areas. These results imply that reducing parents’ neglect of their children is necessary to alleviate depressive symptoms and school maladaptation among multicultural adolescents. Moreover, financial support for multicultural adolescents in their learning can improve school maladaptation and reduce social withdrawal.
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spelling doaj-art-07ff3903bbe340ea97dd75bc61a3e2ad2025-02-11T05:42:03ZengUbiquity PressPsychologica Belgica2054-670X2025-01-0165138–5338–5310.5334/pb.13101295Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis Between Depressive Symptoms, Social Withdrawal, Self-Esteem, and School Adaptation in Multicultural AdolescentsChung Choe0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5173-9644Seunghee Yu1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4508-3722Professor of Department of Economics, Konkuk University, SeoulCollege of General Education, Kookmin University, SeoulIn Korea, as the number of multicultural families formed through the marriage of Korean men and foreign women from lower-income countries such as China, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia increases, the psychosocial adaptation of adolescents from these families is becoming increasingly important. This study examines the longitudinal and reciprocal relationships among depressive symptoms, social withdrawal, self-esteem, and school adaptation in multicultural adolescents in high schools. We applied an autoregressive cross-lagged model to a sample of 594 multicultural adolescents extracted from three consecutive years of data from the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Survey and found that depressive symptoms and school adaptation had reciprocal negative relationships in multicultural adolescents’ first and second years of high school. In these years, while higher school adaptation led to lower social withdrawal, social withdrawal did not affect school adaptation. In the second and third years of high school, self-esteem and school adaptation had a reciprocal positive relationship. Females had more severe psycho-emotional problems than males. Child neglect increased the risk of depressive symptoms and social withdrawal while lowering self-esteem. A high household income was associated with lower social withdrawal. Adolescents in urban areas exhibited higher levels of depressive symptoms, lower self-esteem, and poorer school adaptation compared to those in rural areas. These results imply that reducing parents’ neglect of their children is necessary to alleviate depressive symptoms and school maladaptation among multicultural adolescents. Moreover, financial support for multicultural adolescents in their learning can improve school maladaptation and reduce social withdrawal.https://account.psychologicabelgica.com/index.php/up-j-pb/article/view/1310multicultural adolescentsdepressive symptomssocial withdrawalself-esteemschool adaptation
spellingShingle Chung Choe
Seunghee Yu
Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis Between Depressive Symptoms, Social Withdrawal, Self-Esteem, and School Adaptation in Multicultural Adolescents
Psychologica Belgica
multicultural adolescents
depressive symptoms
social withdrawal
self-esteem
school adaptation
title Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis Between Depressive Symptoms, Social Withdrawal, Self-Esteem, and School Adaptation in Multicultural Adolescents
title_full Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis Between Depressive Symptoms, Social Withdrawal, Self-Esteem, and School Adaptation in Multicultural Adolescents
title_fullStr Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis Between Depressive Symptoms, Social Withdrawal, Self-Esteem, and School Adaptation in Multicultural Adolescents
title_full_unstemmed Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis Between Depressive Symptoms, Social Withdrawal, Self-Esteem, and School Adaptation in Multicultural Adolescents
title_short Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis Between Depressive Symptoms, Social Withdrawal, Self-Esteem, and School Adaptation in Multicultural Adolescents
title_sort longitudinal cross lagged analysis between depressive symptoms social withdrawal self esteem and school adaptation in multicultural adolescents
topic multicultural adolescents
depressive symptoms
social withdrawal
self-esteem
school adaptation
url https://account.psychologicabelgica.com/index.php/up-j-pb/article/view/1310
work_keys_str_mv AT chungchoe longitudinalcrosslaggedanalysisbetweendepressivesymptomssocialwithdrawalselfesteemandschooladaptationinmulticulturaladolescents
AT seungheeyu longitudinalcrosslaggedanalysisbetweendepressivesymptomssocialwithdrawalselfesteemandschooladaptationinmulticulturaladolescents