From Peer Victimization to Depressive Symptoms Through Acculturative Stress in South Korean Multicultural Adolescents: The Complex Moderating Roles of Family Support

Background/Objectives: Adolescents from multicultural families in South Korea, most with foreign-born mothers and Korean fathers, may be vulnerable to peer victimization due to cultural, linguistic, or appearance-related differences. Grounded in minority stress theory, this study examined whether acculturative stress mediated the prospective association between peer victimization and depressive symptoms and whether family support, perceived across T1 (Year 1 of middle school) and T2 (Year 2 of middle school), moderated these pathways among adolescents from multicultural families. Methods: The analytic sample comprised 1218 adolescents (50.8% girls) drawn from the Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study, a national longitudinal dataset from South Korea. Mediation and moderated mediation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro. Results: Peer victimization at T1 was associated with higher depressive symptoms at T2 through acculturative stress assessed concurrently at T2, warranting caution in interpreting the indirect association as causal. Family support moderated the peer victimization–acculturative stress and acculturative stress–depressive symptoms paths, but not the direct peer victimization–depressive symptoms path. Specifically, family support weakened the association between peer victimization and acculturative stress, whereas it strengthened the association between acculturative stress and depressive symptoms. No overall moderated mediation pattern was evident because the two path-specific moderation effects operated in opposing directions and offset each other. Conclusions: These findings suggest that family support may operate differently across stress pathways. This study underscores the importance of culturally responsive school–family collaboration to reduce peer victimization, address acculturative stress and depressive symptoms, and equip families to support adolescents’ constructive coping.