Religiosity/Spirituality and Life Satisfaction in Korean American ...

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Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 2013, Vol. 5, No. 1, 33– 40

© 2012 American Psychological Association 1941-1022/13/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0030628

Religiosity/Spirituality and Life Satisfaction in Korean American Adolescents Sangwon Kim

Eavan Miles-Mason, Choong Yuk Kim, and Giselle B. Esquivel

Ewha Womans University

Fordham University The purpose of this paper was to investigate how multiple dimensions of religiosity/spirituality are related to life satisfaction in Korean American adolescents. The participants were 174 Korean American adolescents (91 boys, 83 girls) attending Korean Catholic churches in the Northeast Coast of the United States. The adolescents completed the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality and the Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale. Hierarchical regression analyses were run to examine the contribution of eight dimensions of religiosity/spirituality (six positive and two negative aspects) to the prediction of life satisfaction, controlling for demographic variables. The results showed that when analyzed individually, all the positive aspects of R/S except the frequency of attending organizational religious activities were significant in predicting life satisfaction, while the negative aspects of R/S were insignificant. Also, when analyzed simultaneously, the three R/S dimensions of Daily Spiritual Experiences, Forgiveness, and Congregational Support remained significant and explained 33.6% of the variance in life satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Keywords: Korean American, adolescents, religiosity, spirituality, life satisfaction

Korean American adolescents may experience a host of stressors. The cultural differences between Korea and the United States in terms of language, school culture and education, and interpersonal styles may serve as barriers for the positive adaptation of Korean American adolescents. The psychological adjustment of Korean American adolescents can, therefore, be a critical issue, not only for the adolescents, but also for their parents and teachers. However, in general, research on immigrant students has paid little attention to their psychological well-being (Suárez-Orozco, Todorova, & Qin, 2006). Among the different indicators of psychological well-being, the present study focused on life satisfaction. A significant body of research indicates that in adults, a high level of life satisfaction serves as a protective factor, contributing to improved physical and mental health, interpersonal relationships, and vocational outcomes (Diener, Lucas, & Oishi, 2002; Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Miller & Thoresen, 2003). As life satisfaction research has expanded to adolescents, a similar trend has emerged. Low levels of life satisfaction are associated with aggression and victimization in middle school aged and older adolescents (Valois, Paxton, Zullig, & Huebner, 2006; Martin, Heubner, & Valois, 2008). Additionally, a longitudinal study demonstrated that adolescents with high levels of life satisfaction developed fewer externalizing behaviors after stressful life events than those with low levels of life satisfaction (Suldo & Huebner, 2004). Moreover, recent research suggests that life satisfaction facilitates optimal functioning in adolescents (Suldo & Shaffer, 2008). Suldo and Shaffer’s study revealed that, even when adolescents did not exhibit any significant symptoms of psychopathology, having low levels of life satisfaction was associated with poor social functioning, physical health, and school achievement; conversely, adolescents with high levels of life satisfaction and low levels of psychopathology exhibited the most adaptive functioning,

Demographics in the United States are rapidly changing with the influx of immigrants. In the past decade, there has been a steady increase of Asian immigrants. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2010a), there were approximately 10 million Asian Americans in 2000, comprising 3.6% of the U.S. population, and about 13 million Asian Americans in 2007, making up 4.4% of the U.S. population. Similarly, the number of Asian American children and adolescents (under 18 years of age) steadily increased from 2.4 million in 2000 to 2.9 million in 2007. Regarding Korean Americans only, the U.S. Census Bureau (2010b) estimated that the number of Korean Americans grew from 1.08 million in 2000 to 1.34 million in 2007. The population increase for Korean American children and adolescents in recent years has been particularly dramatic: The number of Korean Americans under 18 years of age increased from 192,737 in 2000 to 283,710 in 2007, indicating a 47% rise between 2000 and 2007 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010b). Research on this population has been sparse; however, given the growing number of Korean American children and adolescents in the United States today, it is important that research begins to focus on these youths. In the long run, this kind of research will have implications for a well-adjusted society.

This article was published Online First December 31, 2012. Sangwon Kim, Department of Child Development, College of Social Sciences, Ewha Womans University; Eavan Miles-Mason, Choong Yuk Kim, and Giselle B. Esquivel, Division of Psychological and Educational Services, Fordham University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sangwon Kim, Department of Child Development, College of Social Sciences, Ewha Womans University, 11-1 Daehyun-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-750, Korea. E-mail: [email protected] 33


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KIM, MILES-MASON, KIM, AND ESQUIVEL

including better academic self-perceptions, self-perceived physical health and social support, and fewer social problems. Cross-cultural studies demonstrated that Korean adolescents reported lower levels of life satisfaction, both global and domain specific (e.g., school, family, living environment, self) than their American counterparts (Park & Huebner, 2005; Park, Huebner, Laughlin, Valois, & Gilman, 2004). Similarly, an international study conducted with college students found that individuals from collectivistic societies such as Korea reported lower levels of life satisfaction than those from individualistic societies like the United States (Diener & Diener, 1995). These differences appear to be attributed to differences in cultural values. Diener and Diener found that only high levels of individualism predicted life satisfaction when other variables were controlled. Additionally, Park and Huebner (2005) showed that the discrepancy in levels of life satisfaction was highest in the self domain; as members of an individualistic society, American adolescents place greater emphasis on their internal needs, interests, and feelings than their Korean counterparts. Given the benefits of bolstering life satisfaction, it is important to know what variables contribute to life satisfaction in adolescents, especially Korean Americans. There is growing evidence suggesting that religiosity and spirituality promote psychological well being in adolescents. However, there is a lack of consensus regarding what constitutes religiosity and spirituality, with some conceptualizing the two terms as related rather than independent constructs (Hill & Pargament, 2003). The combined term, religiosity/spirituality (R/S) is used in the present study, and the joint construct is defined in terms of one of the measures employed in the study. A positive relation between R/S and life satisfaction has been well established in research using adult populations (Argyle, 1999; Diener & Clifton, 2002; Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Ferriss, 2002; Levin & Chatters, 1998; Myers, 2000). Although few empirical studies were conducted with adolescents, they produced consistent results indicating that individuals who are more religious (e.g., attend religious services, pray frequently, feel a spiritual connection to a god) are happier than those less religious. For example, Francis, Jones, and Wilcox (2000) showed that religiosity is positively correlated with happiness in British Christian adolescents. Similarly, Abdel-Khalek (2007) demonstrated that higher religiosity was associated with greater happiness for Muslim Kuwaiti adolescents. While the influence of R/S has been consistently demonstrated, many of the early studies used R/S measures which consist of only one item (e.g., the frequency of church attendance). Thus, prior studies often did not adequately assess the multidimensionality of R/S, and it is difficult to know which aspects of R/S are linked to happiness in adolescents. A recent study in the United States addressed this issue by examining how various dimensions of R/S are related to life satisfaction in ethnically diverse urban adolescents (Kelley & Miller, 2007). Kelley and Miller found that four dimensions comprising daily spiritual experiences, forgiveness, positive religious coping, and congregational support significantly predicted life satisfaction, with daily spiritual experiences accounting for the largest proportion of the variance. Although Kelley and Miller (2007) contributed to a deeper understanding of the relation between R/S and life satisfaction, the impact of cultural differences was not discernable, as all ethnic

groups were combined in one sample. This can be a particularly critical issue because R/S is a culture-laden phenomenon (Kehoe, 1998). However, the majority of research has been conducted only with European Americans, ignoring ethnic minority groups. Along with the overall lack of research on ethnic minority adolescents, researchers commonly combine several Asian adolescent groups into a single group in their research designs. This approach is not sensitive enough to reflect both known and potential differences among different Asian cultures, which include 29 different ethnic groups (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1993). In responding to the great need for ethno-specific research, the present study focused on Korean American adolescents, especially the first and second generations, which have not been studied in the area of R/S and life satisfaction. Religion is a particularly relevant topic for studying the adjustment of Korean American adolescents. The Korean ethnic church plays a significant role in the lives of Korean immigrants (Min, 1992) and provides a wide range of services to facilitate the successful adjustment of Korean immigrants (Hurh & Kim, 1990). For the newly arrived immigrant, the Korean ethnic church assists in the settlement process by serving as a reception center. For the extant immigrant, the church functions as an established social, cultural, and educational center where Korean Americans participate in activities and socialize with others on a regular basis, feel a sense of belonging and emotional support, reinforce their ethnic identity, and educate the younger generations in their culture. In addition, evidence shows that religion has positive effects on the mental health of Asian immigrants, adults and adolescents alike (Hurh & Kim, 1990; Bankston & Zhou, 1995). The literature also suggests that Asian Americans use religion as one of their main coping strategies (Bjorck, Cuthbertson, Thurman, & Lee, 2001; Vaughn & Roesch, 2003). However, Korean American adolescents are more likely to use religious coping strategies in times of distress than their Chinese and Japanese counterparts (Yeh & Inose, 2002). Although details of religious coping strategies were not addressed, the finding of this study suggests that religion has a particular significance in the lives of Korean American adolescents.

Research Questions Building upon the research literature, the present study was intended to answer the following questions: Are the multiple dimensions of R/S significantly associated with Korean American adolescents’ life satisfaction, and what is the strength of these relations?

Method Participants and Procedure The participants were recruited from various Korean Catholic churches in the Northeast Coast of the United States, after the research proposal was approved by the University IRB. The study was advertised in the weekly church bulletin and announced by pastors after Sunday Mass. Parental consent was obtained through pastors, youth group teachers, and parents, and resulted in a response rate of 38%. Adolescent assent was also obtained prior to survey completion. The surveys were conducted in group settings


KOREAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS

in each church by a two-person research team. This team consisted of a Korean female and a Caucasian American female, or a Korean female and a Korean male, all of whom were in their thirties. Adolescents were provided both oral and written explanations about the purpose of this study, the protection of their privacy, and their right to discontinue completing the survey at any time without any penalty or excuse. Those who agreed to participate in the survey were then asked to respond to a set of self-report questionnaires, which took less than 30 minutes. From 196 respondents, 11 were excluded due to random responding (n ⫽ 4) or a lack of English proficiency based on their report of attending ESL classes (n ⫽ 7). Another 11 cases with incomplete data on important demographic variables were dropped from the analysis. The final sample of 174 Korean American adolescents ranged in age from 11.6 to 19.2 years (M ⫽ 15.30, SD ⫽ 1.82), and 91 (52.3%) were male. One hundred and six adolescents (60.9%) were born in the United States, and the remaining immigrated to the United States at the mean age of 8 years. Only 25 (14.4%) were receiving free lunches at school, which is an indicator of their family’s low income status. In terms of their mother’s level of education, only two (1.1%) adolescents reported that their mothers dropped out of high school: 28 (16.1%) of the mothers completed high school or obtained GED, 113 (64.9%) graduated from college, and 31 (17.8%) had a graduate degree. Based on the information about free lunches and the mothers’ levels of education, over 80% of our sample appeared to come from middle or high SES families. As for religious affiliation, all except two participants reported themselves to be Roman Catholics; the remaining two indicated No Religion.

Instruments Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS). The BMMRS (Fetzer Institute & The National Institute on Aging Working Group, 1999) was developed as a health research tool for exploring the relation between multiple religiousness/spirituality dimensions and health. In addition to the popular use of the BMMRS in adult research, its use with younger populations including adolescents and college students has been supported (Harris et al., 2008; Masters et al., 2009) and has increased in recent years (Desrosiers & Miller, 2007; Dew, Daniel, Goldston, & Koenig, 2008). The instrument consists of 40 items and asks respondents to rate their level of agreement to statements related to various aspects of religiosity/spirituality, using a 4-, 6-, or 8-point Likert scale. For the purpose of this study, we selected the eight subscales (31 items) from the original BMMRS, which appeared appropriate for our sample: Daily Spiritual Experiences (e.g., feeling God’s presence), Forgiveness (e.g., having forgiven oneself and others), Private Religious Practices (e.g., praying in private), Positive Religious Coping (e.g., thinking about one’s life as part of a larger spiritual force), Negative Religious Coping (e.g., feeling punished by God), Congregational Support (e.g., people in one’s congregation helping one), Congregational Problems (e.g., people in one’s congregation making too many demands), and Organizational Religiousness (e.g., frequency of religious service attendance). The reliabilities of these subscales, measured using Cronbach’s alpha, were somewhat varied for the current sample. Although two subscales showed low internal consistency (Forgiveness: ␣ ⫽ .52; Negative Religious Coping: ␣ ⫽ 47), most of the

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subscales showed acceptable to good internal consistency with reliabilities ranging between .64 and .86. The BMMRS manual reports similar patterns with reliability coefficients a little higher, ranging from .54 for Negative Religious Coping to .91 for Daily Spiritual Experiences. Although some subscales seem to need psychometric improvements, the BMMRS is one of the most widely accepted and used measures in the field of religion and spirituality research at the present time. For the analyses, a mean score was calculated for each of the subscales after reverse coding for some of the subscales when necessary. A high mean score indicates a high level on the scale. For example, a higher score on Private Religious Practices means engaging in more private prayer and meditation, whereas a higher score on Congregational Problems means having more problems in a congregation. Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS). The BMSLSS (Seligson, Huebner, & Valois, 2003) is derived from the Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1994) and was developed to meet the need for a developmentally appropriate and practically brief instrument in a large scale study. The measure asks the respondent to rate his or her level of life satisfaction on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from (1) Terrible to (7) Delighted. There are six items in the BMSLSS: Five items assess the level of satisfaction in five domains (family, friends, self, school, and living environment), and one global item assesses the overall life satisfaction level. In the present study, the internal consistency of this measure was .84.

Statistical Analyses Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations between all the variables were calculated. A series of regression analyses was then performed to examine how each of the separate R/S variables is related to Life Satisfaction, controlling for the demographic variables of sex, grade in school, and mother’s level of education. Based on the results of the regression analyses, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, again controlling for the demographic variables, was conducted to investigate the relative contributions of the R/S variables to life satisfaction. All the analyses were conducted using SPSS 17.

Results The means and standard deviations for all R/S variables and Life Satisfaction are shown in Table 1, and the intercorrelations be-

Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations for All Religiosity/Spirituality Subscales on the BMMRS and Life Satisfaction (N ⫽ 174) Variable

M

SD

Range

Daily Spiritual Experiences Forgiveness Private Religious Practices Positive Religious Coping Negative Religious Coping Congregational Support Congregational Problems Organizational Religiousness Life Satisfaction

3.71 3.09 3.83 2.72 2.22 3.05 2.25 4.09 5.16

.95 .54 1.45 .76 .64 .79 .76 1.03 1.03

1–6 1–4 1–8 1–4 1–4 1–4 1–4 1–6 1–7



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tween these variable are displayed in Table 2. Many of the correlations between R/S variables were significant and in the expected direction. For example, Daily Spiritual Experiences showed positive correlations with other “positive” R/S variables such as Forgiveness and Positive Religious Coping. However, there were some interesting correlations which merited closer examination. Positive Religious Coping and Negative Religious Coping were uncorrelated, suggesting that these two religious coping strategies may represent two different dimensions rather than opposites on the same continuum. On the other hand, these two variables showed opposite relations with Forgiveness, which had a positive correlation with Positive Religious Coping and a negative correlation with Negative Religious Coping. Additionally, the positive correlations between Congregational Support, Congregational Problems, and Organizational Religiousness indicate that Korean American adolescents who more often attend religious services and other activities were more likely to perceive their congregations as sources of both support and problems. As expected, Life Satisfaction showed positive correlations with Daily Spiritual Experiences, Forgiveness, Private Religious Practices, Positive Religious Coping, and Congregational Support, but it had no significant relations with Negative Religious Coping, Congregational Problems, and Organizational Religiousness. This suggests that while Korean American adolescents’ satisfaction with life is related to all the positive dimensions of R/S except frequency of attending organizational religious activities, it is not associated with the negative aspects of R/S. The relation between life satisfaction and each individual religiosity/spirituality dimension were explored by conducting a series of hierarchical regression analyses (see Table 3). In the first step of the analyses, we controlled for the demographic variables (sex, grade in school, and mother’s level of education) which were significantly correlated with any of the dependent and independent variables. Each individual R/S scale was then entered as the second step of the analyses. The results indicated that the control step of the regression analyses was significant at the p ⬍ .05 level and accounted for 6.3% of the variance in Life Satisfaction. Among the eight R/S subscales, five dimensions were significantly associated with Life Satisfaction. Daily Spiritual Experiences and Forgiveness were the most robust predictors of life satisfaction, explaining 19% of the variance with a beta coefficient of .44 (p ⬍ .001) and 17% of the

Table 3 Summary of a Series of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Each Religiosity/Spirituality Subscale of the BMMRS Predicting Life Satisfaction in Korean American Adolescents (N ⫽ 174) Variable

⌬R2

B

SE B

␤

Daily Spiritual Experiences Forgiveness Private Religious Practices Positive Religious Coping Negative Religious Coping Congregational Support Congregational Problems Organizational Religiousness

.19ⴱⴱ .17ⴱⴱ .04ⴱ .08ⴱⴱ .02 .09ⴱⴱ .00 .01

.48ⴱⴱ .80ⴱⴱ .15ⴱ .38ⴱⴱ ⫺.23 .39ⴱⴱ ⫺.01 .10

.07 .13 .05 .10 .12 .09 .10 .08

.44ⴱⴱ .42ⴱⴱ .21ⴱ .28ⴱⴱ ⫺.14 .30ⴱⴱ ⫺.01 .10

Note. The demographic variables of gender, grade, and mother’s level of education were controlled for in each regression equation. ⴱ p ⬍ .01. ⴱⴱ p ⬍ .001.

variance with a beta coefficient of .42 (p ⬍ .001), respectively. The other significant predictors were Private Religious Practices (⌬R2 ⫽ .04, ␤ ⫽ .21, p ⬍ .01), Positive Religious Coping (⌬R2 ⫽ .08, ␤ ⫽ .28, p ⬍ .001), and Congregational Support (⌬R2 ⫽ .09, ␤ ⫽ .30, p ⬍ .001). The Negative Religious Coping, Congregational Problems, and Organizational Religiousness subscales had no significant relations with Life Satisfaction. Based on these results, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the relative contributions of those R/S dimensions that were individually found to be significantly related to satisfaction with life (see Table 4). Demographic control variables were entered in Step 1, and Daily Spiritual Experiences, Forgiveness, Private Religious Practices, Positive Religious Coping, and Congregational Support were simultaneously entered in Step 2. The results showed that both steps were significant (Step1: R2 ⫽ .06, p ⬍ .05; Step 2: R2 ⫽ .34, p ⬍ .001), accounting for 34% of the variance in life satisfaction. Daily Spiritual Experiences, Forgiveness, and Congregational Support remained significant (␤ ⫽ .31, p ⬍ .01; ␤ ⫽ .29, p ⬍ .001; and ␤ ⫽ .15, p ⬍ .05, respectively), while Private Religious Practices and Positive Religious Coping became insignificant. In terms of the relative contribution of the significant variables, Daily Spiritual Experiences was the strongest predictor, followed by Forgiveness and Congregational Support.

Table 2 Intercorrelations Between Religiosity/Spirituality and Life Satisfaction Variables (N ⫽ 174) Variable 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. ⴱ

Daily Spiritual Experiences Forgiveness Private Religious Practices Positive Religious Coping Negative Religious Coping Congregational Support Congregational Problems Organizational Religiousness Life Satisfaction

p ⬍ .05.

ⴱⴱ

p ⬍ .01.

ⴱⴱⴱ

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

— .42ⴱⴱⴱ .47ⴱⴱⴱ .67ⴱⴱⴱ ⫺.02 .40ⴱⴱⴱ .10 .33ⴱⴱⴱ .47ⴱⴱⴱ

— — .18ⴱ .35ⴱⴱⴱ ⫺.17ⴱ .18ⴱ .04 .13 .41ⴱⴱⴱ

— — — .45ⴱⴱⴱ .02 .33ⴱⴱⴱ .18ⴱ .38ⴱⴱⴱ .22ⴱⴱ

— — — — ⫺.05 .35ⴱⴱⴱ .08 .34ⴱⴱⴱ .29ⴱⴱⴱ

— — — — — .04 .22ⴱⴱ ⫺.03 ⫺.13

— — — — — — .15ⴱ .24ⴱⴱ .31ⴱⴱⴱ

— — — — — — — .23ⴱⴱ ⫺.02

— — — — — — — — .11

—————————-

p ⬍ .001; two-tailed.


KOREAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS

Table 4 Summary of a Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis for Five Religiosity/Spirituality Subscales of the BMMRS Predicting Life Satisfaction in Korean American Adolescents (N ⫽ 174) ⌬R2 F change

Variable

Step 1 .06ⴱ Sex Grade Mother’s education level Step 2 .27ⴱⴱⴱ Daily Spiritual Experiences Forgiveness Private Religious Practices Congregational Support Positive Religious Coping ⴱ

p ⬍ .05.

ⴱⴱ

p ⬍ .01.

ⴱⴱⴱ

3.79ⴱ

13.57ⴱ

B

SE B

␤

⫺.21 ⫺.07 .21

.13 .04 .11

⫺.10 ⫺.12 .12

.34ⴱⴱ .54ⴱⴱⴱ .00 .20ⴱ ⫺.10.

.10 .14 .05 .09 .12

.31ⴱⴱ .29ⴱⴱⴱ .00 .15ⴱ ⫺.08

p ⬍ .001.

Discussion Current Findings The current findings highlight the importance of considering various aspects of R/S in understanding satisfaction with life in Korean American adolescents. This study is the first to investigate the relations between the specific dimensions of R/S and life satisfaction for this underrepresented ethnic minority group. This ethno-specific approach helps to reveal unique characteristics of the group being studied, which may otherwise be obscured. The results indicated that when examined individually after controlling for demographic variables, five out of eight R/S dimensions were significantly correlated with life satisfaction. However, when these five dimensions were entered simultaneously in another regression analysis after controlling for demographic variables, only three dimensions (Daily Spiritual Experiences, Forgiveness, Congregational Support) remained significant. These results are consistent with previous studies and provide support for the universality of R/S across cultural groups. For example, like Kelley and Miller (2007) which used multiethnic groups of adolescents, we found that Daily Spiritual Experiences, Forgiveness, and Congregational Support are significantly associated with life satisfaction in the expected direction, with Daily Spiritual Experiences representing the most salient predictor. However, unlike Kelley and Miller, the predictive contribution of Positive Religious Coping disappeared for Korean American adolescents when other R/S dimensions were taken into account. In the following sections, each of these R/S dimensions is discussed in relation to life satisfaction. As for Daily Spiritual Experiences, the analyses revealed that this subscale had the strongest predictive power, confirming the findings of previous studies (e.g., Cohen, 2002; Kelley & Miller, 2007). Individuals high on Daily Spiritual Experiences view themselves as having a personal, close relationship with God. The importance of such experiences has also been suggested by research on sacred moments, which refer to moments when people feel connected with and supported by the divine. Studies have indicated that fostering a sense of sacredness in daily life leads to improvements in well-being and health (Goldstein, 2007; Pargament & Mahoney, 2002). The fact that among all of the R/S dimensions Daily Spiritual Experiences

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has the strongest association with life satisfaction can be understood within the context of Christianity. In Christian faiths, it is believed that a personal relationship with God leads one to salvation; similarly, Christians are likely to find meaning in life events through their relationship with God. Based on the clear link between experiencing sacred moments and satisfaction with life, it seems important to develop and implement interventions that promote these experiences in daily life to enhance adolescents’ life satisfaction. However, caution is needed with such an approach because an overemphasis on subjective spiritual experiences carries the risk of creating self-centeredness (Goldstein, 2007; Mojzisek, 2002). These interventions should therefore be combined with well-balanced spiritual guidance to ensure the healthy development of young people. Forgiveness is another significant R/S dimension. The existing literature demonstrates that forgiveness is a very powerful spirituality factor, which is closely related to diverse mental health outcomes in both adults and adolescents (Enright, 2001; Van Dyke & Elias, 2007). Intervention studies have demonstrated that the resolution of anger through forgiveness not only decreases clinical symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and aggression, but also increases positive emotionality, hope, life purpose, and selfesteem. While forgiveness is considered to be a potentially critical component for positive youth development (Klatt & Enright, 2009), adolescent research on this topic is scanty and has yielded some inconsistent findings. As in the present study, Kelley and Miller (2007) using American adolescents reported a significant, positive relation between forgiveness and life satisfaction, while Sastre, Vinsonneau, Neto, Girard, and Mullet (2003) using European adolescents found only weak or nonsignificant relations. One possible explanation for such inconsistency is that culture determines whether forgiveness contributes to contentment. In a society that values forgiveness as a collective value, forgiving an offender is likely to increase life satisfaction. However, if a society views nonforgiving as adaptive, the opposite relation is expected (Sastre et al., 2003). In the case of our sample, forgiveness seems to be a central value: The upbringing of first- and second-generation Korean American Catholic adolescents is influenced by traditional Korean culture and Christianity, both of which put an emphasis on forgiveness as a way of creating and maintaining interpersonal harmony. Lastly, the finding that Congregational Support is positively associated with life satisfaction is consistent with previous research studies. Participation in a religious community is consistently found to have a positive, protective impact on child and adolescent well-being by reducing high-risk behaviors such as drug abuse, and by fostering physical and mental health (Cotton, Zebracki, Rosenthal, Tsevat, & Drotar, 2006; Miller & Merav, 2002; Regnerus, 2003; Walker, Ainetter, Wills, & Medoza, 2007). This suggests that the social support that individuals receive from their religious communities serves to enhance their well-being. In one study conducted with adults, Ellison and George (1994) found that individuals who frequently attended religious services reported having larger social networks, more contact with network members, more types of social support, and viewed their social relationships as being of higher quality than those who attended services less frequently or not all. The results also indicated that members of the congregation felt valued and cared for by others and perceived their congregational community as a source of


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support in a time of crisis (e.g., during bereavement, illness). Cohen (2002) linked congregational support to greater levels of life satisfaction in both Christian and Jewish adults. It is worth considering the significance of Congregational Support within the context of immigrant communities especially from collectivistic societies like our sample. For immigrants, it has been argued that the church congregation provides a buffer against the stress of acculturation and racial discrimination, and it serves as a means of preserving an individual’s cultural customs and values (Crawford, Wright, & Masten, 2005). For example, in a study of Korean American adults who were recruited through church congregations, Choi (1997) found that social support moderated the relation between acculturative stress and depression, so that participants with higher levels of social support demonstrated less depressive symptoms. Similarly, Thomas and Choi (2006) reported that lower levels of acculturative stress were associated with greater social support in Korean and Indian American adolescents. The results of the present study provide evidence for the positive effect of congregational support on well-being in Korean American youth, and this represents an important finding.

Limitations and Implications for Research Limitations of the present study and implications for future investigations are discussed in this section. While this study helps to elucidate which aspects of R/S are associated with life satisfaction among Korean American adolescents, it is correlational and therefore does not address causality. Whether fostering aspects of R/S results in increases in satisfaction with life or vice versa needs to be investigated through longitudinal research. Along with the examination of causal relations, future research also needs to investigate possible mediators for the association between R/S and life satisfaction. This kind of research will advance our understanding and knowledge of mechanisms through which R/S is related to satisfaction with life. In addition, the fact that the current sample reflects a single religion (i.e., Roman Catholicism) suggests that caution is required in generalizing the findings to adolescents from other religious backgrounds. Research has shown that the relations between aspects of R/S and life satisfaction differ depending on religious affiliation. For example, the Daily Spiritual Experiences dimension, which was the most salient factor for predicting satisfaction with life among Christians, was not predictive among Jews (Cohen, 2002). In Korean culture, there are several popular religions including Christianity and Buddhism. Given that the basic tenets of Buddhism are different from those of Christianity, it is plausible that Korean American adolescents who practice Buddhism perceive the relation between R/S and life satisfaction differently. Moreover, this study did not include racial or ethnic identity as a variable. The literature indicates that racial/ ethnic identity status has a relationship with life satisfaction, with those individuals who demonstrate a stronger sense of racial/ethnic identity having higher levels of well-being (Iwamoto & Liu, 2010), Therefore, this is an important factor to consider in future research on R/S and life satisfaction in Korean American adolescents. Lastly, despite its popularity and strengths, the BMMRS instrument used in this study has some psychometric problems. For example, some of the subscales such as Negative Religious Coping have poor internal consistency, and this limits the predictive sta-

tistical power of these subscales. It is therefore important to improve and refine the instrument for the use of adolescents.

Implications for Practice The present study has implications for practices to enhance the psychological adjustment of Korean American adolescents. The dimensions of R/S significantly associated with life satisfaction in our sample suggest the importance of relational aspects of spirituality rather than institutional religions. Relational spirituality can be understood in terms of a relationship with God, other people and a community. The literature suggests that positive relationships with the divine and a religious community are associated with positive mental health outcomes including well-being (Pargament, 1997). Although relational aspects of R/S are equally important across cultures, it is also possible that they may play more significant roles in certain cultures that emphasize collectivism. Korean American churches may promote collectivistic attitudes for two reasons: to maintain collectivism as one of their traditional cultural heritages; and to meet the needs of the immigrant families such as a sense of belonging and social support. Along with these traditional elements of support, it will be important to provide Korean American adolescents with support in a way that is adaptive in the acculturation process and consistent with their own bicultural identity formation and developmental needs. The adolescents need not only to gain a sense of community among themselves, but to feel part of a “global” community. For example, a youth group may have its own services in English, while still having opportunities to experience traditions and to interact with adult members, and may participate in mission trips and outreach programs, which bring them spiritual meaning. Church and community leaders should consider such holistic approaches for providing a climate that promotes relational development in Korean American adolescents. Research indicates that psychological well-being of immigrant youth declines as the years of stay in the United States increase (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2006). This phenomenon, though not yet fully explained, suggests the importance of bolstering social and personal resources to help maintain and even enhance the wellbeing of immigrant youth. For Korean immigrant adolescents, especially those with a lengthy time of stay in the United States, the active cultivation of relational spirituality and social connectedness can be a promising way of ensuring their psychological well-being.

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Received August 21, 2011 Revision received January 13, 2012 Accepted February 14, 2012 䡲