The influence of bullying victimization on acculturation and life satisfaction among children from multicultural families in South Korea

This study investigates the relationship between bullying victimization and both acculturation and life satisfaction among children from multicultural families, while differentiating between the effects of transitions into and out of bullying victimization. This study used data from the Multicultural Adolescent Panel Survey, a nationally representative sample of children from multicultural families in South Korea. A novel asymmetric fixed effects model was employed to estimate the effects of transitions into and out of bullying victimization. Conventional symmetric fixed effects models found no significant association between bullying victimization and acculturation. However, asymmetric fixed effects models revealed that transitions into bullying victimization was linked to a decrease in affective acculturation (b = -0.118, p < 0.001), while transitions out of bullying victimization had no significant association with acculturation. On the other hand, both transitions into and out of bullying victimization were associated with life satisfaction (b = -0.223 and b = 0.179, p < 0.001, respectively), with no significant difference in the magnitude of the coefficients. Our findings regarding the asymmetric effects of bullying victimization offer valuable insights for policymakers seeking to effectively promote the acculturative well-being of children from multicultural families.