Gender-specific problematic behaviors and transnational social ties among multicultural adolescents in South Korea

Background: Although numerous studies have explored problematic behavior among adolescents in Western contexts, there is a notable lack of research in South Korea, a newly emerging migration-accepting country. Objective: This study aimed to address this gap by utilizing the general strain theory to investigate the impact of transnational social ties on problematic behaviors, specifically deviant behaviors and social withdrawal, among multicultural adolescents in Korea. Additionally, we investigated whether self-esteem moderated this relationship. Methods: We analyzed data from waves 7 to 9 of the Multicultural Adolescent Panel Survey (MAPS). We used the number of deviant behaviors and social withdrawal as dependent variables. Our primary independent variable was transnational ties, and self-esteem and sociodemographic characteristics were used as control variables. We applied a hybrid random-effects negative binomial regression for the number of deviant behaviors and a hybrid random-effects regression for social withdrawal. Results: Transnational social ties affect problematic behaviors differently in multicultural male and female adolescents to externalize their problematic behavior through deviant behavior, whereas female adolescents tend to internalize their behavior through social withdrawal. For male adolescents, having inbound transnational ties (such as grandparents’ visits to Korea), especially over time, increases the likelihood of deviance, and higher self-esteem increases this risk. Conversely, female adolescents are more likely to experience social withdrawal over time due to outbound ties (visits to their mothers’ home countries) and both types of transnational ties. Higher self-esteem contributes to increased withdrawal among female adolescents. Conclusions: Collaboration between the home countries of female marriage migrants and the Korean government could facilitate the establishment of positive transnational ties, transforming them into sources of support rather than stress for adolescents. Our findings of gender-specific coping behaviors in relation to transnational ties highlights the necessity of developing and disseminating gender-specific intervention programs, including self-esteem enhancing programs, that equip adolescents with effective stress-coping strategies.