We Don’t Belong Here: Adolescents of North Korean Refugee Families and Their Suicidal Behaviors

Despite the increasing number of studies that examine the link between immigration and suicide in Korean youths, most have focused on self‐harming behaviours among adolescents in multicultural families, while much less attention has been directed towards those in North Korean (NK) refugee families....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational migration Vol. 58; no. 6; pp. 232 - 246
Main Authors Choi, Sungjoo, Kim, Keuntae
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.12.2020
Subjects
Adolescents
Asian cultural groups
Assimilation
Behavior
Families & family life
Immigrants
Immigration
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Peers
Refugees
Schools
Secondary school students
Secondary schools
Suicidal behavior
Suicidal ideation
Suicide
Suicides & suicide attempts
Teenagers
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Summary:Despite the increasing number of studies that examine the link between immigration and suicide in Korean youths, most have focused on self‐harming behaviours among adolescents in multicultural families, while much less attention has been directed towards those in North Korean (NK) refugee families. This paper addresses this gap by comparing three determinants of suicidal behaviours across three groups of Korean adolescents. Data are drawn from the KYRBS, a nationally representative sample of students in middle and high schools, and the results indicate that NK youths were 87.2 per cent more likely to have suicidal ideation than their South Korean peers, that they are 3.7 times more likely to experience suicidal plans and 4.1 times more likely to attempt suicide. These results clearly suggest that immigrant youths, including NK refugees, are confronting significant difficulties with assimilation, and those disadvantages lead to a higher propensity of self‐threatening behaviours.
ISSN:0020-7985
1468-2435
DOI:10.1111/imig.12709