The purpose of this study is to understand the family life experience Korean-Chinese young children's living separately from or living with their parents in Yan-Bian, China. Qualitative case study methods were used including participant observations, ...
The purpose of this study is to understand the family life experience Korean-Chinese young children's living separately from or living with their parents in Yan-Bian, China. Qualitative case study methods were used including participant observations, in-depth interviews, and analyses of documents.
The research questions are as follows: (1) How are Korean-Chinese young children's daily lives when separated from or living with their parents? (2) How are the Korean-Chinese young children's family relationships when separated from or living with their parents?
The participants for this study were 6 families : 3 young children (2 boys and 1 girl) who were separated from their parents living biological grandparents and 3 young children (3 boys) who were living with their parents. All of the children were sampled from two five-year-old kindergarten classes in Yan Bian.
The findings of this study are summarized as follows:
First, the young children who were separated from their parents had a daily life that included themes such as 'play at home alone', 'I like a teacher from Korea', 'dressing in Korean brand clothes that my mother sent', 'missing my mother but hating having a call from mother', and 'thinking of parents'. The young children who were living with their parents had a daily life that included 'learning to play the piano', 'falling asleep with mother and father', 'I want to play with my father', and 'visiting my grandfather's home'. The different grounded factors between the separated and living together children's daily lives included 'play experience', 'routines', and 'emotional experience'. The common grounded factors of young children's daily lives included 'the roles of students', 'sibling's absence', 'emphasis on responsibility', and 'effects of Korean culture.'
Second, the young children's family relationship when separated from their family included 'listening to my mother and father', 'this house is mine' 'thanking grandma for taking care of me,' 'grandma is worried about me,' and 'grandma is concerned about my studies'. The young children's family relationship when they lived with their parents included 'my mother and father are familial,' 'fearing getting scolded from my father', 'mother doesn't think of me as a baby', 'mother wants me to express myself', and 'maid taking care of me during infancy'. The different grounded factors between young children's family relationships when separated from or living with their parents were 'young children's perception about the main caregiver', 'messages from the main caregiver', and 'main caregiver's caregiving object'. The common grounded factors between young children's family relationships when separated from or living with their parent was 'obedient attitude', 'one-child policy', 'negative trouble solution', and 'changeable family members'.
The discussions of this study are summarized as follows:
First, young children who are separated from their parents had a strong perception of their parents' existence and regard grandparents as vicarious the caregivers. It affected the young children's daily life and the interaction with caregiver that served them to adaption's power changed family structure, but made trouble in the child-caregiver relationship.
Second, young children's family life when they lived with their parents showed the father's participation as a caregiver and vicarious care during infancy. It showed that Chinese contemporary family life stresses the father's role and infancy care's difficulty toward nuclear family.
Third, the different grounded factors between the young children's family life when separated from or living with their parents were psycho-social ground. They were the present caregivier's perception of the child's agency, play and friendship importance. They affected child-caregiver interactions and child's self-esteem and friendships.
Forth, The common grounded factors between the young children's family life when separated from or living with the parents were social-culture ground. They were academic achievement focused on early childhood, the role of responsibility and obedience, the limit of opportunity for social development, developable society of wide family concept. They was affected by China's Confucianism and Chinese-Korean social culture.
The limitations of this study are as follows:
First, the data collection depended more on the caregiver' interviews than on the child's own voice. Second, the present caregiver of the families where the child is separated from the parents, was a grandparent, despite there being many types of separated family structures. Third, participants' socioeconomic status (SES) was middle-high class. Forth, the researcher's respect for the families' privacy led to limited observation, affected child-caregiver interaction, and researcher-caregiver relationship. Five, the questions in this research were made before field research and this led to limited observation.
In spite of some limitations, this study was significant in that the special qualities and diversity of the Chinese-Korean young children's family lives can be understood through six cases. In addition, this study showed young children's family processes through the bidirectional model of child-caregiver relations, young children's equal agency, postmodernism family discourse, and the Chinese social-culture context.
This study expanded the understanding of the family life of Korean-Chinese young children who have different family structures. Therefore, this study commented about contemporary young children's experience of family life in diverse family structures and culture background.