Factors Affecting between Acculturation and Happiness of Immigrants in US: Mediating Effect of Language Ability

The purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between acculturation and influence of linguistic aspects as a factor influencing the happiness of immigrants in the eastern US.. The participants were immigrants who formed part of the Korean community in New York, US. These were 190 adults ranging in age from their 30s to their 80s who immigrated at various times. SPSS 23.0, and PROCESS Macro were used for data analysis. According to the correlation analysis results, there was a positive correlation between subjective language ability and happiness. Additionally, when examining the correlation between the independent variable and subjective language ability according to acculturation, separation was not significant, while relationship with assimilation, and marginalization was positively significant.As a result of verifying the effect on happiness through mediation of subjective language ability according to the type of acculturation, the indirect effect was statically significant in the type of assimilation, which was the independent variable. A higher level of assimilation, the higher the subjective evaluation of their language ability and the higher the level of happiness.