earticle

영어

Parenting is challenging for parents in the mainstream society, and also particularly complicated and demanding for immigrant parents. Due to linguistic and cultural differences, immigrants must devote more time and energy to take root in new surroundings, leaving children with less attention and affection than they deserve. The purpose of this study is to explore the primary parenting challenges that Korean mothers experience in the United States, particularly in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. For this purpose, semi-structured one-on-one interviews were primarily utilized. Because of Covid-19, they were temporarily staying in Korea and both interviews were able to be conducted in Korea. The participants provided various concepts on parental challenges they faced in the United States. Those concepts related to the following core categories: acculturation, differences in parental practices, language barriers, and working mothers. From these four categories, socio-cultural differences and situational specialties have emerged as the primary themes of this study. From the study with two Korean immigrant mothers, the following hypotheses are proposed: 1) Cultural differences centered upon language barriers deeply affect Korean immigrant mothers’ parenting practices. 2) Korean immigrant mothers grapple with additional burdens because of their instabilities. Based on the data collected and analyzed in this study, the researcher could find that socio-cultural differences deeply affect Korean immigrant mothers’ parental practices. Among the socio-cultural differences between Korea and the United States, language barriers seem to be the most difficult challenges that the participants faced. Furthermore, the participants demonstrated that their parental practices in the United State were significantly influenced by their unstable status. This qualitative study provides the following implications for the Christian educators, church leaders, and many other Korean parents who are still struggling with parental challenges. First, the parental education of immigrant mothers can be an avenue for the improvement of their parental practices. Second, a Christian community can help suffering immigrant parents. Third, churches can provide some educational programs for the 1.5 and 2nd generations.