School Violence, Depressive Symptoms, and Help-seeking Behavior: A Gender-stratified Analysis of Biethnic Adolescents in South Korea.
OBJECTIVES
In South Korea (hereafter Korea), the number of adolescent offspring of immigrants has rapidly increased since the early 1990s, mainly due to international marriage. This research sought to examine the association between the experience of school violence and mental health outcomes, and the role of help-seeking behaviors in the association, among biethnic adolescents in Korea.


METHODS
We analyzed cross-sectional data of 3627 biethnic adolescents in Korea from the 2012 National Survey of Multicultural Families. Based on the victim's help-seeking behavior, adolescents who experienced school violence were classified into three groups: 'seeking help' group; 'feeling nothing' group; 'not seeking help' group. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to examine the associations between the experience of school violence and depressive symptoms for males and females separately.


RESULTS
In the gender-stratified analysis, school violence was associated with depressive symptoms in the 'not seeking help' (odds ratio [OR], 7.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.76 to 13.23) and the 'seeking help' group (OR, 2.77; 95% CI, 1.73 to 4.44) among male adolescents after adjusting for potential confounders, including the nationality of the immigrant parent and Korean language fluency. Similar associations were observed in the female groups. However, in the 'feeling nothing' group, the association was only significant for males (OR, 8.34; 95% CI, 2.82 to 24.69), but not females (OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.18 to 3.28).


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that experience of school violence is associated with depressive symptoms and that the role of victims' help-seeking behaviors in the association may differ by gender among biethnic adolescents in Korea.
['Kim|Ji-Hwan|JH|', 'Kim|Ja Young|JY|', 'Kim|Seung-Sup|SS|']
D000293:Adolescent D058445:Bullying D002648:Child D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D003863:Depression D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants D005260:Female D000066505:Help-Seeking Behavior D006801:Humans D007407:Interviews as Topic D016015:Logistic Models D008297:Male D054525:Minority Health D016017:Odds Ratio D063505:Racism D056910:Republic of Korea D012307:Risk Factors D012574:Schools D012737:Sex Factors D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D055815:Young Adult
Minority health, Bullying, Depression, Help-seeking behavior, Republic of Korea