Understanding the dynamics among acculturative stress, coping, and growth: A grounded theory of the Korean immigrant adolescent experience

The purpose of the present study is two-fold. First, it aims to develop a theoretical model of the acculturative process of immigrant adolescents based on the understanding of the relationships among acculturative stress, coping, and growth. Second, it aims to propose a typology that offers distinct patterns in the process of acculturation and the resulting outcomes. Using the grounded theory method, the study identified stress related to communication problems, ethnic prejudice, academic pressure, homesickness, and interpersonal conflict. The lack of social support and the school climate were identified as contextual factors of perceived stress. Peer mediation and motivation were identified as intervention factors of coping behaviors. The immigrant adolescent coping behaviors included media use for emotional release, focus on a goal, connectedness to the home country, and the creation of social capital in the host country. The typology of different acculturative patterns classified immigrant adolescents into three types: adaptive, academic, and competent. Based on the findings, the significance of family functioning, peer mediation, self-expansion motivation, and coping behaviors to create social capital for immigrant adolescents' normal development was discussed.