Fathers' alcohol use and spousal abuse and mothers' child abuse in multicultural families in South Korea: The mediating role of acculturation and parenting stress

• We examined child abuse in multicultural families in South Korea.
• Fathers' alcohol use was associated with foreign-born mothers' child abuse through fathers' spousal abuse.
• Fathers' spousal abuse was associated with foreign-born mothers' parenting stress through foreign-born mothers' acculturation stress.
• Foreign-born mothers' acculturation stress was associated with their child abuse through their parenting stress.

There is a potential high risk for child abuse by foreign-born mothers in multicultural families in Korea, particularly given that they experience acculturation and parenting stress at the same time. Further, the risk for child abuse by foreign-born mothers may be aggravated through the high rate of alcohol abuse among Korean husbands that may increase their spousal abuse and in turn the mothers' acculturation and parenting stress. Therefore, this study examined the associations between Korean fathers' alcohol use and spousal abuse and foreign-born mothers' child abuse in multicultural families, with particular attention to investigating whether foreign-born mothers' acculturation and parenting stress mediated the associations. This study overall found that fathers' alcohol use was directly associated with their spousal abuse, and that fathers' spousal abuse was directly associated with mothers' acculturation stress and child abuse. Further, this study found a full mediation path in which fathers' alcohol use was associated with mothers' child abuse through fathers' spousal abuse. Fathers' spousal abuse was also associated with mothers' parenting stress through mothers' acculturation stress, and mothers' acculturation stress was associated with their child abuse through their parenting stress. The findings of this study provide social work implications for child abuse in multicultural families in Korea.