Copyright by Herim Erin Lee 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Herim Erin Lee Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Korean Immigrant Adolescents’ Engagement with the Internet: Understanding the Importance of Cultural Orientations and Bicultural Competence Committee: Joseph Straubhaar, Co-Supervisor Karin Wilkins, Co-Supervisor Sharon Strover S. Craig Watkins René Dailey Korean Immigrant Adolescents’ Engagement with the Internet: Understanding the Importance of Cultural Orientations and Bicultural Competence by HERIM ERIN LEE, B.A.; M.A. DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN MAY 2011 Dedication To my parents, for their infinite love and support. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisors, Drs. Joe Straubhaar and Karin Wilkins. I am tremendously fortunate to have had a team of advisors who expressed infinite confidence and enthusiasm toward my work, especially during times that I lacked such virtues. Their patience and compassion helped me keep my head up during trying times, and their balance of freedom and guidance has enabled me to reach my goals. Joe, the inspiration for this dissertation came from the work you introduced me to during your classes and research projects; I am sincerely grateful. Thank you for challenging me to push further in both my research and teaching. Your generous faith in me opened up a world of unimaginable opportunities and helped me overcome many of my instabilities. Karin, it is through you that I have learned what it is to be a true academic. I am sincerely humbled during each and every meeting I have with you. I have dared to model my work after your rigorous approach to research and dedication toward your students, and I will forever continue to do so. Thank you. I am truly honored to have been able to work with such a respectable team of committee members. To Dr. Sharon Strover: Your expertise and insights have helped me gain a broader understanding of my topic, structure my analysis, and hone my final arguments. I sincerely appreciate your careful reading of my manuscript and your meticulous comments and recommendations. You do not know how much your support of my work means to me. To Dr. Craig Watkins: I am grateful for that fateful TA assignment that led me to so many unthinkable opportunities to learn from and work with you. Thank you for your confidence in my work, and thank you for helping me gain confidence in myself as well. I delightfully look forward to continuing the work we started and expanding our projects for a long time to come. To Dr. René Dailey: I deeply appreciate your willingness to join my committee and for the time and energy you devoted to reviewing my dissertation. Thank you for pushing me to further strengthen my theoretical and methodological base, and thank you for your gracious encouragement throughout all stages of the dissertation. v I send a heartfelt thank you to other RTF faculty members for their gracious support and practical wisdom throughout the years, especially Susan McLeland, Kathleen Tyner, Madhavi Mallapragada, and Wenhong Chen. I also would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the past and present RTF staff, Bert Herigstad, Susan Dirks, Stephanie Crouch, Debbie Carney, Lee Sparks, and Char Burke, who has helped me navigate this complex process of graduate school and has made my work in the department ever more pleasant. To my dear RTF friends and colleagues, Sook-Jung Lee, Young-Gil Chae, Seung- Hwan Mun, Namsu Park, Assem Nasr, Nikki Willis, Brett Caraway, Carolyn Cunningham, Holly Custard, Wei-Ching Wang, Sharon Shahaf, Elissa Nelson, Ali Sengul, Suzanne Schulz, Najin Jun, Ji-Hyun Ahn, Jun-Hyuk Jang, Gwangseok Kim, Stuart Davis, Colin Tait, and William Moner; and my friends of KSA Communications, in particular Borae Jin, Joon Yea Lee, and Jaekwan Jeong: I will forever cherish the laughter and tears we shared. To my fabulous Ewha GFLHS ladies, Jeehyae Chung, Erica Auh, Jean Chung, and Ah-Young Kim: I am blessed and humbled to be surrounded by such strong and compassionate women. To my parents: Thank you for your unwavering faith in me and my endeavors. The completion of my degree is significantly due to the models of commitment and persistence you have provided. To my parents-in-laws: Thank you for your patience, generous support, and unconditional acceptance of my endeavors. I am forever indebted. To my husband, Jaehee: This dissertation and my survival of the doctoral program would not have been possible without your love, selfless support, and intellectual brilliance. I can only hope to repay you for what you have given me during these years. And to my beautiful son, Min-Woong Ethan: You are the love of my life and, quoting your own words, by far ―the best baby in the world.‖ Thank you for the unconditional and undeserved love that you send my way every day. Finally, this dissertation would not have been possible without the support of the Korean-American community of Austin, Killeen, and San Antonio, and of course without the students who graciously granted me their participation in the study. Thank you. vi Korean Immigrant Adolescents’ Engagement with the Internet: Understanding the Importance of Cultural Orientations and Bicultural Competence Publication No._____________ Herim Erin Lee, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisors: Joseph Straubhaar Karin Wilkins The research questions of this study explore, first, the general patterns of Internet access and engagement among Korean immigrant adolescents, and second, the relationships between the adolescents‘ culture-specific online activities and their (a) Korean cultural orientation, (b) American cultural orientation, and (c) bicultural competence. The separate examinations of Korean and American cultural orientations and the consideration of bicultural competence are based on the bicultural model to immigrant‘s cross-cultural adjustment, which asserts that cultural orientations to the host and home countries develop and operate independently. Both types of cultural orientation vii are considered to be multidimensional, involving five distinct processes: cultural identity, knowledge of cultural values and norms, knowledge of popular culture, language proficiency, and cultural social support. Finally, a number of different culture-specific online activities—i.e., email, social networking, entertainment media, and information seeking activities performed on both Korean-language and English-language websites— are considered based on the assumption that different activities will engage different types and levels of cultural orientations and bicultural competence. The research questions are addressed by analyses of data collected through a quantitative survey of 168 Korean immigrant teenagers residing in Texas. The findings of this study demonstrate that these young Korean immigrants are privileged and active users of the Internet. Their online engagement is influenced by common youth-oriented interests as well as by their cultural orientations toward Korean and American cultures. Specifically, different types of culture-specific online activities invoke different aspects of the adolescents‘ Korean and American orientations. In particular, the multiple dimensions of American (vs. Korean) orientation are more commonly associated with culture-specific online activities in general, negatively predicting Korean-website activities while positively predicting English-website activities. Of the multiple dimensions, knowledge of popular culture is most commonly associated with culture-specific online activities, while language proficiency is least associated. Further, levels of engagement with culture-specific online activities differ across groups of differing levels of bicultural competence. Particularly, individuals who are biculturally competent across multiple cultural orientation dimensions experience viii more engaged and diverse online experiences within English-language websites. This study offers theoretical and methodological implications for research on youth and online media and research on immigrants‘ cross-cultural adjustment. ix Table of Contents List of Tables .................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................1 Chapter 2. Literature Review ......................................................................................7 Basic Terminology ......................................................................................................7 Immigrants .........................................................................................................7 Host and Home Societies .................................................................................10 Host, Home and Ethnic Media .........................................................................10 Adolescents and the Internet .....................................................................................12 Adolescents‘ Access to the Internet .................................................................14 Adolescents‘ Activities on the Internet ............................................................16 Limitations to Current Understandings