The Impact of Personality Traits and Acculturation on the Mental Health of Korean American Adolescents

Abstract

Adaptation to a new culture can be highly stressful, especially during challenging developmental stages such as adolescence. The ways in which adolescents adapt to a culture and their resulting well-being may be influenced substantially by their personality traits as well as the degree to which they are aligned with the values of the new culture. Korean Americans are one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in the US, including a burgeoning population of Korean youth. The purpose of this study was to determine whether specific personality traits of Korean American adolescents or their degree of acculturation would be associated with their mental health problems, and whether specific personality traits would moderate the association between acculturation and mental health problems. 138 Korean American adolescents completed a demographic questionnaire, the revised Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory-3, and Achenbach & Rescorla’s Youth Self Report. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that acculturation played a minimal role in predicting mental health problems, while personality traits were strong predictors. Being more reactive to stress and less emotionally stable (greater “neuroticism”) and being less altruistic and cooperative (less “agreeableness”) predicted more mental health problems for Korean American adolescents. In addition, the trait of “openness to experience” played a moderating role. For youth who were more open to experience (curious and independent in their judgments), greater alignment with values of the American culture was a protective factor for their mental health. Findings indicate the need for further research to identify types of mental health problems that may be most affected by specific personality traits and the underlying mechanisms responsible for their effects. It will also be important to examine whether personality traits identified in this research influence mental health similarly across cultures and age groups or whether they are unique to Korean American youth.