The role of Asian American values for Korean American undergraduates’ well-being: Emphasizing values within a psychosociocultural approach

Asian American undergraduates are consistently omitted from the educational discourse (Museus, 2013) with psychological, social, and cultural components along with ethnic-specific considerations overlooked (Kiang et al., 2016). Heeding this concern, we examined Korean American undergraduates’ correlates of well-being using a psychosociocultural framework that assessed the dimensions of self-beliefs (psychological), support and others’ expectations (social), and person-context values (cultural; Gloria & Rodriguez, 2000). As an intersection- (i.e., self-identified gender, college generation, student standing) and values-informed exploration, we assessed how Asian American values (emotional self-control, humility, collectivism, conformity to norms, family recognition through achievement; Kim et al., 2005) influenced the well-being of a predominately self-identified female sample of Korean American undergraduates (154 females, 60 males, 7 did not indicate gender). Results revealed interactions of academic standing (lower versus upper) and college generation (first versus continuing) by gender (MANOVA) and relationship patterns (canonical correlations) where cultural values emerged salient.

Tracy C. Guan, M.S., Department of Counseling Psychology, UW–Madison

Alberta M. Gloria, Ph.D., Department of Counseling Psychology, UW–Madison

Jeanett Castellanos, Ph.D., School of Social Sciences, UC Irvine

Kristal Lee, B.A., School of Social Sciences, UC Irvine