Date of Award

11-1-2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education

First Advisor

Maria Riva, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Jesse Valdez

Third Advisor

Jennifer Cornish

Fourth Advisor

Duan Zhang

Keywords

Attitudes toward counseling, Korean-American attitudes, Korean-American families, Group therapy

Abstract

The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the relationships between three important cultural factors—acculturation, self-disclosure, and gender— and Korean American adolescents’ attitudes and expectations about group counseling. In addition, the relationships between two of these factors−acculturation and self-disclosure, and Korean parents’ expectations and attitudes about group counseling as a potential treatment modality for their adolescents were examined. Ninety-three Korean high school students who attended 9 private afterschool programs provided by the Korean Institute of Southern California (KISC) in the Los Angeles area and their 93 corresponding Korean parents participated in the present study. For the student sample, the four subscales of the Acculturation Attitudes Scale (Integration, Assimilation, Separation, and Marginalization), the Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, and gender served as predictor variables, and the Group Therapy Survey was used as an outcome variable. The multiple regression results indicated that integration and assimilation significantly contributed to the prediction of Korean adolescents’ attitudes and expectations about group counseling, with the integration being the strongest predictor of the other modes of acculturation. Results also indicated that integration was correlated with Korean adolescents’ positive attitudes and expectations about group counseling, whereas assimilation was correlated with their negative attitudes and expectations about group counseling. The level of comfort with self-disclosure and gender were not significant predictors of group counseling expectations among the Korean adolescents. For the parent sample, five predictor variables (the four modes of acculturation and self-disclosure) were entered into another multiple regression model to investigate the impact of these variables on Korean parents’ expectations about group counseling for their adolescents. The results indicated that integration and self-disclosure were significant predictors of the parents’ expectations about group counseling. Implications and limitations of the present study, and directions for future research are discussed. Additionally, some recommendations for school counselors who work with Korean students and their families are presented in Chapter 5.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Myoung Ah Lee

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

222 p.

Discipline

Counseling psychology, Education

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