Ethnic Identity, Acculturative Stress, News Uses, and Two Domains of Civic Engagement: A Case of Korean Immigrants in the United States

Abstract

This study examines the roles of ethnic identity, acculturative stress, and news media use in explaining Korean immigrants’ civic engagement. An online survey of 1,135 Korean immigrants revealed that a strong Korean identity facilitated their engagement in the U.S. Korean community. However, this coethnic civic engagement was not mirrored by a corresponding civic engagement in their host society. Acculturative stress influenced a particular pattern of news media use: Immigrant Koreans who felt acculturative stress tended to consume more ethnic news media and less U.S. news media than those who did not suffer from acculturative stress. This particular media use pattern held them back from engaging in the civic activities related to mainstream U.S. society.

Notes

¹We advertised our study through a media outlet to recruit study participants. It is certainly possible that there might be some noises associated with this method. But we also argue that this method was one of our very limited ways through which to approach our specific sample and that it is also possible the advertisement was spread by word of mouth, too. Of course, the best way to sample study participants is to utilize the methods such as Random Digit Dialing (RDD). However, we want to suggest that when researchers recruit their ethnic sample through media outlets (because of the budgetary limitations, etc.), they might include a question about how the participants heard about the study, which might clarify some of the unique features of those who participated in the study through direct contact with a media outlet.

²Given the clear limitation of the convenience sample, we compared our study sample with data from the 2008 American Community Survey (ACS). There were some differences between our study sample and the 2008 ACS sample. For instance, the median age of Koreans in the United States from the 2008 ACS data was 37 years old, whereas the median age of our study sample was 44 years old. ACS data include a nonadult sample and the proportion of the sample younger than 18 years old was about 20% of the overall sample. On the other hand, our study sample included only adults (18 years old and older). Considering this difference in the ACS data and our sample, we projected that the average (or median) age would be higher if the ACS sample only included adults older than 18, which would reduce the age gap between our study sample and the 2008 ACS sample. The average household sizes were quite comparable (ACS sample = 2.68; our study sample = 3.00). In terms of household income, the median for Koreans in the ACS data were $55,183, whereas the median income in our study ranged from $50,000 to $74,999. Education breakdowns were also compared. In general, our study sample was better educated than the 2008 ACS sample. Given that education is usually a strong predictor of civic engagement, this difference should be recognized as a limitation of our study sample. Last, there was a very clear difference in terms of gender distribution between our study sample and the 2008 ACS sample. The ACS sample was almost evenly divided between male participants (45.80%) and female (54.20%), whereas male participants were oversampled in our study (male = 70%, female = 30%). Different from other characteristics (e.g., household income and education), gender was the one factor that diverged most from the ACS data and had directly comparable categories with our sample so that we could generate the weight to adjust this known difference. We calculated the poststratification weights using 2008 ACS data and applied to our data. However, this poststratification weight did not make any meaningful difference to any of our study's findings.

Note. N = 1,129. Korean ID = Korean identity; Korean news = Korean news use; U.S. news = U.S. news use; Acculstress = acculturative stress; Coethnic eng = coethnic civic engagement; General eng = general civic engagement.

^# p < .10. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

³Although the effects of SES variables were not the main foci of the study, it might be useful for readers to understand the general impacts of the SES variables (as well as the immigration-related variables) on our focal variables. In terms of acculturative stress, all the control variables turned out be significant factors in explaining how much stress the sample experience from acculturation. More specifically, older people (b = .012, p < .001), women (b = −.098, p < .05), those with lower household income (b = − .052, p < .01), and less education (b = −.048, p < .05) reported suffering more from the acculturation process than their peers did. At the same time, those who had lived in the United States for a shorter period (b = −.029, p < .001) and/or were members of the first generation (b = − .255, p < .001) felt more acculturation stress than did those who had lived in the United States for a longer period and/or were members of later generations. With respect to Korean identity, age (b = .006, p < .05), household income (b = .035, p < .05), years spent living in the United States (b = .015, p < .001) were three factors that explained Korean identity. Age (b = .013, p < .01) and education (b = − .124, p < .001) were two significant factors in accounting for Korean news use. More specifically, the older and less educated consumed more Korean news than the younger and more educated Koreans did. Gender, household income, and immigrant generation were not associated with Korean news use. On the other hand, household income (b = .075, p < .001), education (b = .098, p < .01), years spent living in the United States (b = .032, p < .001) and generation (b = .174, p < .05) explained their U.S. media use. In terms of general civic engagement, gender and household income, education, and years spent living in the United States turned out to be significant factors in explaining general civic engagement. Those who earn more (b = .060, p < .01), are better educated (b = .151, p < .01) and have lived in the United States for a longer period (b = .013, p < .01) tended to be more actively engaged in mainstream society. On the other hand, age (b = .011, p < .01) and income (b = .037, p < .05) meaningfully explain their engagement in their own ethnic community, none of the other control variables (gender, education, years spent living in the United States, and immigration generation) turned out to be significant.

⁴As reported previously, three paths in hypothesized model emerged as significant. These nonsignificant paths were dropped to improve model fit and parsimony. This parsimonious model produced good fit statistics: χ²(8) = 7.218, p = .51, incremental fit index = 1.01, comparative fit index = 1.00, standardized root mean square residual = .00. A chi-square difference test did show a statistically significant difference between the two nested models (Δχ² = 3.298, Δdf = 3, p > .05). Hence, the revised parsimonious model was favored over the hypothesized model.

Note. Relative newcomers in the United States and longer term residents in the United States were divided by median-split (Mdn = 15 year). Longer residents represent those who have lived in the United States for more than 15 years. Entries are standardized path coefficients. Bold text represents statistically significant differences (at p < .05 level) between parameters (between two subgroups).

^# p < .10. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mihye Seo

Mihye Seo (Ph.D., The Ohio State University, 2007) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at University at Albany, SUNY. Her research interests include mass media effects, persuasion, and political communication.

Seong-Gin Moon

Seong-Gin Moon (Ph.D., University of Colorado at Denver, 2005) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Public Administration and Graduate School of Public Policy at Inha University in South Korea. His research focuses on public policy and nonprofit management, philanthropy, and voluntary environmental behavior.