School Adjustment Difficulties, Coping, and Help Seeking Needs: :among Newly Arrived Korean Junior High Students in American Schools

In school social work perspective, newly arrived Korean junior high students' school adjustment difficulties, coping, and help seeking needs were examined. According to this qualitative study, the results revealed that the participants have not gone through extremely hard time adjusting, but there were times embarrassed, frustrated, or not-understandable, due to different culture, norms, rules, and systems. Things unclearly recognized by new students made them just copied other peers' behavior, did things without knowing exactly, or just accepted passively. They expressed some systematical or social work side needs, though they did not know exactly what school social workers do. They wanted some individual care in classes, organized orientation for the different school rules and system from Korean schools they were used to, and also some group activities in order to learn American peers' culture to share and make friends easily. Clinical, research and policy implication were suggested based on this research findings. This book shows student's real experience and opinions in their initial American school adjustment in a very rich way.