Mediating Effects of Acculturative Stress in the Relationship between Satisfaction with Life, Career Identity and Depression among Vietnamese Students

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effect of acculturative stress on the impact of satisfaction with life and career identity on depression among the Vietnamese students enrolled in a language course in Korea. @*Methods@#A questionnaire survey was conducted to get answers of 225 Vietnamese students enrolled in the language course in a college in Busan. Data were collected from November to December 2018. The Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficients and path analysis using SPSS/WIN 20.0 and Amos 18.0 program. @*Results@#Acculturative stress was affected by satisfaction with life (β=−.43, p<.001) and career identity (β=−.45, p<.001). Furthermore, depression was affected by acculturative stress (β=.49, p<.001) and career identity (β=−.25, p<.001), but depression was not affected by the satisfaction with life (β=−.15, p=.029). The mediating effect of acculturative stress between two exogenous variables(satisfaction with life and career identity) and depression was proved. @*Conclusion@#The result of this study suggests that it is necessary to develop an intervention program to reduce the acculturative stress and depression of Vietnamese students enrolled in the language course.