Korean Adolescents’ Health Behavior and Psychological Status according to Their Mother’s Nationality

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to compare adolescents’ health behaviors and psychological status according to whether or not their mother was born in Korea. METHODS: This secondary analysis used nationally representative data from the 2015 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. The self-administered questionnaire included computer measured socio-demographic variables, 15 health behaviors, and psychological status. Data from 65,426 middle school and high school students were analyzed. Multiple logistic regression, adjusting for socio-demographic variables, was used to analyze differences in health behaviors and psychological status between adolescents with a foreign-born mother and those with a Korean mother. RESULTS: Adolescents who have foreign-born mothers had a lower level of current drinking and subjective happiness, but a higher stress level. CONCLUSION: The stress levels of the adolescents with foreign-born mothers could be affected by their multicultural background. It is necessary to analyze stress-influencing factors of multicultural adolescents by comparing them to adolescents from Korean parents. Additionally, our society should pay more attention to the mental health of multicultural adolescents. Schools should also make various efforts to protect multicultural adolescents by adopting mental health management programs led by school nurses and counselors.