Cognitive and Affective Adaptation of Korean American School Children in Chicago: Service and Research Priorities.

The purposes of this paper are to: (1) identify learning and adaptive behavior problems that Korean-American students encounter in schools by reviewing psychological evaluation data collected from them; (2) evaluate the extent to which these problems are addressed; and (3) recommend service and research needs in relation to these problems. One hundred seventy-nine Korean-American children from Chicago and surrounding suburban schools were psychologically evaluated between 1978 and 1986. The data indicate that learning problems were well identified, and that children were provided appropriate educational services to remediate these problems, but psychological and emotional problems were unidentified by teachers and were not treated by the schools or community health agencies. Training teachers and counselors to identify psychological problems and instituting primary mental health activities in the schools need to be given high priority, and valid, reliable, and sensitive cognitive and personality assessment techniques for future research should be developed. Tables and 18 references are included. (JHP)