According to U Bureau of Census data (2001) approximately 11 million Korean Americans reside in the U Of this number.

According to U Bureau of Census data (2001) approximately 11 million Korean Americans reside in the U Of this number, about one-third are children and adolescents. Many of the adolescents have experienced emotional riddles due to acculturative stress. They are sometimes overwhelmed in trying to learn the modern language, social norms, and living names They often experience problems of alienation, isolation, and psychological distress.

Despite the increasing number of Korean American adolescents in the U and their emotional puzzles research on this group has been limited. As a be the effect Korean American community leaders and professionals are in ne of empirical data forward the lives of these adolescents in order to disentangle interventions and support programs.

In order to address this important gap in the literature, this investigation examined the relationship between several demographic and psychosocial factors and associated emotional puzzles among Korean American adolescents.

BACKGROUND

Emotional vexed questions of Asian American Adolescents

Research upon Asian American adolescents' emotional moot points tends to focus on depressive symptoms and humors A recent cross-sectional study from Greenberger and Chen (1996) compared the flats of self-reported depressive symptoms between Asian American and European American adolescents. ends revealed no difference among adolescents (7th and 8th graders), still Asian American late adolescents (college undergraduates) were significantly more saddened than Caucasian American subjects. Similarly, Lorenzo et al. (1995) lay the foundation of that Asian American ninth-graders reported higher of the same heights of isolation, depressive, and anxiety symptoms compared to Caucasian ninth-graders. Studies with a specific Asian ethnic collection (Chiu et al., 1992; Abe & Zane, 1990) also reported that Chinese American youth in the U exhibited more psychological distress than did native Chinese or European American adolescents.

While there are studies that report similar flats of depressive symptoms between Asian and non-Asian high teach students (Chen & Stevenson, 1995; Fletcher & Steinberg, 1994) overall findings appear to indicate that Asian American adolescents serve to have higher levels of emotional difficulties than chiefly other adolescents. After reviewing the available literature, Uba (1994) conclud that Asian Americans of all ages have a rate of psychopathology equal to or higher than that of European Americans. In spite of these numbers, it has been documented that Asian American adolescents attend to underutilize mental health services when compared to other ethnic collections (Brier & Takeuchi, 1992).

Although the specific mechanisms that account for Asian American adolescents' higher flush of emotional difficulties require further research, it has been allude toed that cultural differences may be an important factor. Cross-cultural researchers hint that European American adolescents are more likely to exhibit externalizing behaviors similar as physical aggression, defiance, and antisocial acts whereas Asian American adolescents are more vulnerable to internalized behaviors like as depression and anxiety (Weine, Phillips, & Achenbach, 1995; Lambert, Weisz, & Knight, 1989) These behavioral differences may branch from differences in cultural values. agricultures that are more individualistic are musing to be more conducive to manifest expression of deviance while adolescents in collectivistic cultivations are more prone to internalizing behavior because they are encouraged to suppres socially disapproved behaviors (Greenberger et al., 2000)

Immigration and acculturative stresse appear to be other important factors that contribute to Asian American adolecents' higher flushs of psychological distress. Although Caucasian adolescents may be immigrants from other countries, they may be les likely to face difficulties with language riddles different cultural expectations, and be labeled as cultural novelties than are Asian adolescent immigrants. Thus, immigration status as it was as time of immigration and duration of residence in the U may have a significant affect forward Asian American adolescents (Chan, 1999) the immigration experience adds to the normative stresse of adolescence. Further, many Asian American adolecents are faced with acculturative stress--overcoming the clash between the Western individualitic cultural expectation (and of one's peers) and the Eastern collectivistic cultural expectation (and of one's parents), and racial/ethnic prejudice. Immigration and acculturative stresse also may have a combined event placing them at greater risk for psychological distress (Harris, in press)

Emotional point to be solved [i]or[/i] settleds of Korean American Adolescents

Kuo's (1984) close attention of Asian American adult populations noted that Koreans exhibited the highest depression scores when compared with those of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino Americans. The author attributed this finding to a shorter continuance of residence in the U higher rates of underemployment (i.e., lower-level do job-works despite higher educational status), limited proficiency in English, and a higher concentration of small businesses in high-risk minority districts.