J Korean Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry.  2016 Dec;27(4):306-312. 10.5765/jkacap.2016.27.4.306.

Emotional Characteristics of Adolescents in Monocultural and Multicultural Families in Korea

• Ahn IY
• Seo J
• Lee D
• Lee SJ
• Cha B
• Lee CS
• Kim BJ
• Park CS
• Choi JW

• KMID: 2369092
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5765/jkacap.2016.27.4.306

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
We aimed to compare the smoking behaviors in adolescents from monocultural and multicultural families and to evaluate the associations between their smoking behavior and number of suicide attempts.
METHODS
The data used in this study was collected from The Tenth Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. The differences in the sociodemographic characteristics between the adolescents in the multicultural and monocultural families were analyzed through the χ2-test, and a logistic regression was conducted to evaluate the relationships between the smoking behavior and number of suicide attempts of the adolescents in multicultural families. The process involved an analysis using a complex sample design.
RESULTS
There was significant difference in the weighted rates of the current smoking behavior (13.3% vs. 8.4%, p<0.001), experience of violence (6.8% vs. 2.3%, p<0.001), and number of suicide attempts (5.4% vs. 2.7%, p<0.001) between the adolescents from the multicultural and monocultural families. In both groups, the current smoking behavior was associated with the number of suicide attempts (multicultural families OR=6.5, p=0.005; monocultural families OR=1.5, p<0.001).
CONCLUSION
Our results showed that the percentage of current smokers in the adolescents from multicultural families was higher than that in the monocultural families and that current smoking behavior is related to the number of suicide attempts in both groups, after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status, academic achievement, current smoking behavior, depressive mood and experience of violence.

Keyword

Multicultural families; Adolescents; Smoking; Suicidal attempts

MeSH Terms

Adolescent*
Humans
Korea*
Logistic Models
Risk-Taking
Smoke
Smoking
Social Class
Suicide
Violence
Smoke