Factors Affecting Scaling Experiences of Adolescent Children from Multicultural and Native Families

Background: Multicultural families are constantly on the rise as marriage migrants and foreign workers increase. Multicultural families appear to record poor health levels compared to native families. As health is a social issue, children of surviving generations of multicultural families are also a growing interest. This study was conducted to confirm the effect of multicultural families and parents’ educational level on the scaling experience of children.Methods: For this study, the 2016∼2018 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey data were used. In order to make the two groups of adolescents belonging to multicultural and native families similar, a total of 5,362 people were included in the survey, consisting of 2,681 individuals each from multicultural and native families using the propensity score matching method. Logistic analysis was performed to identify factors influencing the scaling experience of adolescent children.Results: The results confirm that, even after controlling for factors such as parents’ educational level, household income, and children’s oral health behavior, parents’ nationality appeared to have a statistically significant effect on their children’s scaling experience. In addition, it was confirmed that the experience of oral health education had a significant effect.Conclusion: Cultural heterogeneity and the lack of adequate language ability of immigrants affects health behavior and medical accessibility. Therefore, children from multicultural families are more likely to be exposed to unhealthy environments compared to the children of native Korean families. Based on an understanding of the socioeconomic multicultural background of individuals, education and public policy should be prepared to improve the awareness for the need for preventive oral health and provide unhindered accessibility to dental services.