Intersectional discrimination, bullying/cyberbullying, and suicidal ideation among South Korean youths: a latent profile analysis (LPA)

ABSTRACT This study examined intersectional discrimination using latent profile analysis and assessed the associations between membership in discrimination-prone groups and online/offline bullying and suicidal ideation among South Korean youths. The data of 6,169 middle- and high-school students from the 2018 Korean Children and Youth Human Rights Status Survey were analysed. The latent profile analysis revealed that a four-class; the data were divided into low discrimination (85.2%), moderate intersectional discrimination (2.6%), high intersectional discrimination (1.3%), and gender discrimination (10.9%) groups. In the multinomial logistic regression, compared to the low-discrimination class, all three discrimination classes were more likely to suffer from higher rates of bullying and suicidal ideation. Online/offline bullying and suicidal ideation were linked to the degree of intersectional discrimination experienced, especially gender discrimination. Therefore, it is crucial to guarantee that vulnerable adolescents who have been subjected to intersectional discrimination are not bullied further and put at risk of suicide.


Introduction
The reality of youth complaining of suffering due to perceived discrimination is being taken more seriously nowadays. According to Grollman (2012), at least one in four youths have experienced discrimination, and 60% have reported experiencing two or more types of discrimination. Although some studies have been focused on the effects of discrimination based on single characteristics, such as gender, race, socioeconomic status, academic performance, appearance, and sexual orientation, among adolescents, the intersectionality framework emphasizes the need to consider various discriminatory systems and examine the relationships between them (Browne & Misra, 2003). 'Intersectionality,' as conceptualized by Crenshaw (1989), acknowledges the fact that discrimination based on various characteristics cannot be explained simply by observing their sum. Since the factors contributing to discrimination do not operate independently, the damage to youths with multiple discriminatory identities is bound to be greater than the sum of the factors. Therefore, it is difficult to fully understand discrimination against youths and its impact without understanding how such identities intersect with and reinforce each other.
Researchers who have focused on cross-discrimination have focused on the intersection of various types of discrimination. The negative consequences of intersectional discrimination based on race/ethnicity and sexual orientation have been addressed in the literature (e.g. Baiden et al., 2020;Byrd & Andrews, 2016;Garnett et al., 2014;Shramko et al., 2019). Typically, studies on discrimination have been focused on racism (Garnett et al., 2014). However, the situation in South Korea is slightly different from that of Western countries. The proportion of foreigners residing in South Korea is 3.93% (Ministry of justice republic of Korea, n.d.), making it a nation with great racial, linguistic, and cultural homogeneity (Kim & Kweon, 2022). Recently, attention has been paid to the issue of discrimination based on racial and cultural differences, but it is difficult to view this as a major conflict compared to the situation in Western countries.
At present, the representative discrimination typically recognized by South Korean youths is based on gender, appearance, academic performance, and economic status. Gender-based conflict has emerged as a major issue in Korean society. Korean adolescents experienced gender-based hate speech (76.8% for feminists, 69.2% for young women, and 69.5% for young men) more often than discrimination directed towards sexual minorities (60.4%), immigrants (42.0%), and the disabled (37.2%);National Human Rights Commission of Korea, 2021). Intense gender-based conflict has also appeared online. Hate speech against women is increasing online, as can be seen on SNSs and YouTube, and such hateful expressions are recognized as part of the peer-group culture among boys, which tends to spread offline (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, 2020). As a counterattack against hate speech directed at women, hate speech against men has also begun to appear (M. Kim, 2021).
'Lookism,' which refers to discrimination based on appearance, is a commonly used term in South Korea (Lee et al., 2017). Adolescents who experience dramatic changes to their bodies and appearance may be sensitive to others' evaluations of their looks (Pivnick et al., 2021). Adolescents with a desirable appearance may receive positive attention from their peers (halo effect), whereas adolescents with an undesirable appearance may become marginalized from their peers (horn effect), which can have a significant impact on their development. (Pivnick et al., 2021).
One of the types of discrimination that adolescents experience daily is discrimination based on academic performance. According to data released by the National Youth Policy Institute in Korea (2016), it was found that Korean youth are discriminated against the most (17.9% of the total respondents) based on their academic achievement. For young people, academic performance is one of the most important concerns, especially in South Korea, where enthusiasm for education is high. According to the youth statistics published in 2021, the biggest concern among Korean youths is academic performance (46.5%) because admission to a good university can increase the possibility of advancing in social status.
A few years ago, the 'spoon theory' became a hot topic in South Korea. The origin of the spoon theory can be found in the idiom 'born with a silver spoon in one's mouth' (Pak & Choung, 2020). This phrase divides those who were born in a good environment from those who were not. The richest class is said to have a golden spoon, followed by a silver or copper spoon, and the poorest class is said to have an earth spoon. South Koreans feel that opportunities for mobility between classes are greatly reduced due to growing economic inequality. An adolescent's family's economic situation can affect their life overall, including their physical and mental health (Evans & Cassells, 2014;Schreier & Chen, 2013), and this factor is also known to affect social relationships (D'Urso et al., 2021;Hjalmarsson & Mood, 2015).

Intersectional discrimination experiences and bullying/cyberbullying
The groups occupying a poor position within the hierarchy of relationships and social structures of adolescents, such as those subjected to intersectional discrimination, are susceptible to bullying and tend to suffer from poor health. Prejudice-based bullying is a global social problem (Hong et al., 2018). Bullying can occur even if youths do not have discriminatory attributes or identities, but youths with such attributes may be more vulnerable. Jones et al. (2018) found that bias-based harassment is more likely to involve a greater number of perpetrators, multiple incidents, and longer durations than non-biased harassment.
Recently, researchers' interest in not only traditional bullying but also cyberbullying has increased. Since cyberbullying's damage is not limited by time or place, the victims' suffering may be greater than in cases of traditional bullying (Bauman & Yoon, 2014). Predicting which adolescents are at high risk of being bullied and cyberbullied helps to prevent and identify damage early. Although both bullying and discrimination occur because of a social power imbalance, the difference is that bullying is intentional, whereas discrimination can appear unintentionally, and bullying is predominantly concentrated in adolescence (Earnshaw et al., 2018). Weinstein et al. (2021) emphasized that adolescents can experience harm in various ways when examining the relationship between perceived discrimination and online and offline bullying.

Intersectional discrimination experiences and suicide
Compared with their privileged counterparts, multiple-disadvantaged individuals have a relatively large health disparity and experience a double disadvantage (double disadvantage hypothesis); (Cummings & Braboy Jackson, 2008;Meyer et al., 2008). Suicide can be considered an extreme manifestation of the double disadvantage. Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents. In South Korea, the most common cause of death among adolescents has been suicide for nine years. It accounted for 41.1% of adolescent deaths in 2020 (Statistics Korea, 2021a). Discrimination is a risk factor for suicidal ideation (Assari et al., 2017). However, there have been limited studies on the effects of discrimination experienced by adolescents on suicide rates (Standley, 2020). The recent studies examining how intersectional discrimination affects adolescents' suicide risk include ones on race/ethnicity and sexual orientation (e.g. Baiden et al., 2020); disability and sexual orientation (e.g. Tejera et al., 2019); and race/ethnicity, immigration status, perceived sexual orientation, and weight (e.g. Garnett et al., 2014). However, there are limitations in revealing the relationship between the intersection of the various types of discrimination mentioned above and suicide rates because the previous studies were mainly focused on race and sexual orientation.

The current study
According to Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children (under the age of 18) have the right not to be discriminated against on the basis of gender, race, culture, economic status, etc. (UNICEF, 1989). However, numerous forms of discrimination continue to endanger the human rights of children and adolescents. The intersection and overlap of these discriminations create a new crossdiscrimination situation. This study aimed to enhance the understanding of the bullying and suicide risk of adolescents who experience multiple types of discrimination by focusing on the intersection of discriminatory factors. When examining such issues, LPA is conducted to confirm the combined and overlapping effects of discrimination on victims of bullying and sufferers of suicidal ideation. LPA is a useful analysis method that can be used to classify how various types of discrimination co-occur (Chung et al., 2006), and it has already been actively used in studies on the classification of discrimination and harm (Garnett et al., 2014;Nylund et al., 2007). Therefore, based on the intersectionality framework, we used LPA to (1) categorize the cross-discrimination of various South Korean adolescents to capture intersections and (2) evaluate the association between online/offline bullying and suicide in each group. The results of this study will facilitate the early identification of adolescents at a high risk of bullying and suicide and will help in establishing prevention and intervention strategies.
Research questions can be summarized as follows.
Research Question # 1: How are types of intersectional discrimination based on the discrimination experienced by youth in Korean society?
Research Question #2: What is the difference between the demographic and human rights factors of the classified intersectional discrimination groups?
Research Question #3: How are bullying and suicidal ideation related to each intersectional discrimination group?

Participants and procedure
The participants in this study were 6,169 middle-and high-school students who participated in the Korean Children and Youth Human Rights Status survey conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute in 2018. The survey aimed to provide a better understanding of the human rights situation of South Korean children and adolescents. The 2015 Educational Statistical Yearbook of Korea was used as the sampling framework, and the subjects were extracted via multi-stage cluster sampling (Kim, Yoo, Lee, & Yoo Kim (2016).

Measures
The measures of the experience of discrimination included gender, academic performance, appearance, and economic status. Discrimination was measured on a five-point scale of '1 = never' to '5 = three or more times a week.' The reliability of the scale in the present study was 0.74. Online bullying was measured using five items: profanity, intimidation, sexual harassment, rumours, and social exclusion. It ranged from '1 = never' to '5 = one-two times a week or more.' The reliability of this study was 0.72. Offline bullying was measured using seven types of negative outcomes: assault, social exclusion, robbery, threats, sexual harassment, and forced errands, which were measured from '1 = never' to '5 = one-two or more times a week.' The reliability of this study was 0.78. Suicidal ideation was measured with a single item on a three-point scale of '0 = never,' '1 = sometimes,' '2 = often.'

Data analysis
We devised a three-step analytical strategy. The initial stage was conducted to determine the best latent profiles with the indices. The log likelihood, Akaike's information criterion (AIC), the Bayesian information criterion (BIC), the sample-size-adjusted Bayesian information criterion (SABIC), entropy, and the Vuong-Lo-Mendell-Rubin likelihood ratio test (LMR-LRT) were employed. Low log likelihood, AIC, BIC, and SABIC values, as well as high entropy values, indicated a good fit among the models. When compared to the k-1 profile, a significant LMR-LRT suggests that the k profile is a more parsimonious alternative (Nylund et al., 2007). The indicators of gender, academic performance, appearance, and economic status for latent profile membership were utilized in this study. The second stage identified demographic differences for each profile using the chi-squared test and one-way ANOVA. In the third stage, we used multinomial regression analysis to determine the predictors that could be used to distinguish between the sociodemographic profile, bullying, and suicidal ideation variables. Table 1 summarizes the fit indices for the 1-5 class solutions for categorizing the intersectionality of the discrimination types experienced by South Korean youths. The fit indices for the 1-5 class solutions used for categorizing the intersectionality of the discrimination types experienced by South Korean youths are summarized in Table 1. However, because the indices worsened from Class 5, we determined that Class 4 was the best solution. Figure 1 presents the features of each profile of the intersectionality of discrimination among South Korean youths. Class 1, with low discrimination scores, was named the 'low-discrimination' group (LD) (85.2% of the sample); Class 2, with moderate discrimination scores, was labelled the 'moderate intersectional discrimination' group (MID) (2.6% of the sample); Class 3, with high discrimination scores, was named the 'high intersectional discrimination' group (HID) (1.3% of the sample); and Class 4, with high gender-based discrimination scores, was labelled the 'gender discrimination' group (GD) (10.9% of the sample). Figure 1 depicts the types of discrimination unique to South Korean society, as well as a surprisingly high level of gender-based discrimination. Table 2 shows the sociodemographic variables for South Korean youths in each of the four classes. Regarding socio-demographic characteristics, the chi-squared test and one-way ANOVA revealed significant differences between the classes in terms of gender, parental situation, economic status, academic performance, age, physical health, self-esteem, human rights at home, human rights in school, human rights in community, online bullying, offline bullying, and suicidal ideation.

Predictors of class membership
A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation between class and factor variables. The relation between class and gender was significant, x 2 (3) = 188.9, p =0.000. The proportions of class differed by parental situation, x 2 (6) = 81.0, p =0.000. There was a significant relationship between class and economic status, x 2 (6) = 338.5, p =0.000. The proportions of class differed by academic performance, x 2 (6) = 17.7, p =0.007. In particular, the proportions of class differed by suicidal ideation, x 2 (6) = 449.6, p =0.000. The class with a severe level of intersectional discrimination was more likely to have suicidal ideation than the class with a lower level of intersectional discrimination.
One-way ANOVAs were performed to compare the effect of four different intersectional discrimination classes on continuous variables. A one-way ANOVA revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in mean age between at least two groups, F (3, 6158) = 5.7, p <0.001. The mean value of age was significantly different between MID/ HID and LD. A main effect of physical health was  There were also differences between classes in self-esteem, F (3, 6144) = 16.2, p <0.001. The group that experienced the lowest level of intersectional discrimination [LD] had higher average selfesteem than other groups. There were also differences between groups in the degree of respect for human rights in the main areas of youth life: home, school, community, and online. Regardless of the domain, the average respect for human rights of the group less exposed to various discriminations was found to be equally high. A one-way ANOVA showed that there was a statistically significant difference in cyberbullying, F (3, 6164) = 166.8, p <0.001 and (off-line) bullying, F (3, 6164) = 116.6, p <0.001. In terms of the difference between groups, the average of both cyberbullying and bullying was higher in the group with high intersectional discrimination than in the group with low levels of discrimination.

Multinomial logistic regression analysis
To discover the determinants that distinguish differences between the groups, a multinomial logistic regression analysis was used (see, Table 3). The reference group was the low-discrimination (LD) one, and the predictors of other groups were investigated. In comparison to the LD group, typical members of the other classes were more likely to be male, have a single parent, and have lower socioeconomic status. GD was linked to academic performance and physical health in terms of sociodemographic factors. Note. Values are frequency (percent) or mean (standard deviation); P (chi square test or t-test or ANOVA); *p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001; LD = Low Discrimination; MID = Moderate Intersectional Discrimination; HID = High Intersectional Discrimination; GD = Gender Discrimination; HR = Human Rights Respect for human rights at home is related to MID and HID, and respect for human rights online was involved in GD's prediction. Also, it is interesting to note that the respect for human rights in schools was significantly shown for all types of class types, suggesting that school-based accessibility could be useful. Cyberbullying and traditional offline bullying were related to involvement in all classes. Youths with more intersectional discrimination were more likely to be victims both online and offline. And in the case of GD, cyberbullying was more relevant than offline bullying. Finally, although suicidal ideation was more associated with the more severe intersectional discrimination group, the GD group also had a similar level of suicide risk to the HID group.

Discussion
In this study, LPA was conducted to confirm the combined and overlapping effects of discrimination on the likelihood of experiencing bullying and suicidal ideation. The LPA revealed that a four-class system was the best solution, with four attributes included (gender, academic performance, appearance, and economic status); the subjects were then divided into low-discrimination (85.2%), moderate intersectional discrimination (2.6%), high intersectional discrimination (1.3%), and gender discrimination (10.9%) groups. According to the level of intersectional discrimination experienced, the profiles were categorized as low, moderate, or high. The GD profile, with a high level of genderbased discrimination, stood out against the other types of discrimination.

Implications
The most striking feature of the results of this study was related to gender-based discrimination. Most of the South Korean youths (97.1%) said that they thought that men and women should have equal rights in all respects (Statistics Korea, 2021b). It seems that there is no problem of discrimination based on gender in theory, in that both boys and girls want equality, but the reality is different. The most common reinforcement for gender inequality is for privileged persons to deny their privileges (Flood et al., 2021). Like men in other countries, South Korean men show anxiety about women raising their social status through the gender quota system (Kim & Kweon, 2022). In addition, South Korean men are arguing that the fact that only men are obligated to do military service and hard labour is still regarded as men's work is reverse discrimination (Lee & Park, 2012). On the other hand, women still think that the social structure is unfavourable to them and that they are discriminated against because of the traditional gender stereotypes that remain in South Korean society (Lee & Park, 2012). The challenge of gender equality is not only a problem in Korea but is also becoming an issue in Europe, where the gender equality agenda has been developing for a long time (Hertner, 2021). In addition, as can be seen from the results of this study, it can be confirmed that boys also share these thoughts; therefore, the issue of gender discrimination should be considered when implementing programmes for adolescents. In particular, the gender discrimination group was found to recognize that their human rights are not respected in cyberspace such as the Internet, unlike other intersectional discrimination groups. It is judged that this is because the gender conflict intensified in Korean society continues online. Therefore, programmes for adolescents should educate not only offline behavioural guidelines but also cyberspace behavioural guidelines. This finding was consistent with previous studies showing that the low-discrimination group experienced the least difficulty, whereas the intersectional discrimination group experienced the most (e.g. Byrd & Andrews, 2016;Garnett et al., 2014). Compared to the low-discrimination group, those with a high level of cross-discrimination victimization were significantly more likely to suffer from bullying and cyberbullying. Interestingly, cyberbullying had a higher odds ratio than traditional bullying. Since bullying is limited to face-to-face interactions, it is relatively easy to control (Donegan, 2012). However, the harm of cyberbullying occurs without time or space limitations; the scale of potential perpetrators is enormous, and it can be more brutal because of the anonymity of the perpetrators and the fact that the content produced by the perpetrators does not disappear and remains online indefinitely (Bauman & Yoon, 2014;Donegan, 2012). Thus, there may be more harm in it than in traditional bullying. It is necessary to pay attention to the effect of combining the characteristics of cyberspace, where cyberbullying takes place, and discriminatory factors.
Numerous attempts have been made worldwide to combat bullying and cyberbullying (e.g. Olweus Bullying Prevention programme, KiVa programme), and their effectiveness is being demonstrated (Gaffney et al., 2019b(Gaffney et al., , 2019a. South Korea is also implementing the Eoullim programme in conjunction with a curriculum to prevent bullying and cyberbullying (Oh et al., 2021). One of the main goals of anti-bullying programmes is to enhance empathy (Garandeau et al., 2021). In fact, according to the results of Oh et al. (2021), who analysed the experiences of the students participating in the Eoullim programme, participation in the programme was beneficial in that it not only increased sensitivity to bullying and cyberbullying but also improved empathy among the participants. Therefore, it is necessary to provide opportunities to empathize with the difficulties of youths with multiple vulnerabilities, such as issues with gender, economic status, appearance, academic performance, race/culture, and sexual orientation, in anti-bullying programmes.
Compared to the LD group, the group with high levels of intersectional discrimination victimization was significantly more likely to experience suicidal ideation. This finding mirrors the results of a study by Song et al. (2011), which showed that the greater the experience of discrimination (based on gender, age, appearance, academic performance, and family economic status), the higher the probability of having suicidal thoughts. In addition, this finding echoes the results of Garnett et al. (2014), who found that suicidal ideation was significantly more prevalent in the intersectional discrimination class than in the LD group. In particular, the results of this study showed that suicidal ideation was expressed more frequently by the former. Furthermore, the risk of suicidal ideation of GD was high, comparable to that of the HID group who experienced intersectional discrimination at a high level. In general, men have fewer experiences of suicidal ideation than women, but the actual suicide mortality rate of men is higher. However, in this study, the effect of suicidal ideation was greater in the GD group, in which young men accounted for a greater proportion of the subjects, so additional research on the effect of perceptions of gender-based discrimination on suicidal thoughts among young men is needed.
Since schools are the place where young people spend most of their time outside the home, schools' social workers and counsellors can play an important role in suicide prevention for youths (Miller & Mazza, 2018). According to Joiner's (2005) interpersonal theory of suicide, frustrated belongingness is an important factor influencing the risk of committing suicide. Adolescents seek independence from their parents and tend to depend on peer groups for a sense of belonging (Miller & Mazza, 2018). In other words, belonging to a peer group during adolescence is very important. Adolescents who have been subjected to discrimination may feel that they are not included as members of the peer group. Therefore, schools' social workers and counsellors must pay more attention to adolescents who have difficulties in forming peer relationships due to various discriminatory characteristics, and, if necessary, provide evidence-based interventions.
From home, school, community and cyberspace, various rights of youth should be guaranteed as individuals who should be respected. In particular, a school-based approach can be useful. According to the results of this study, moderate intersectional discrimination, high intersectional discrimination, and gender discrimination recognized that their human rights were not respected at school compared to low-discrimination. For young people, the atmosphere of the school and the interactions with the people they meet at school can have a huge impact (Wang & Degol, 2016). Therefore, the school social worker must play a role in changing the culture and atmosphere of the school so that the human rights of adolescents who are subjected to intersectional discrimination can be respected. School social workers should not only advocate for adolescents who are subjected to multiple discrimination, but also advise teachers and administrators, and conduct education and campaigns to embrace diversity among all students.
A question arises as to whether anti-discrimination laws are an appropriate tool for combating multiple-dimension and intersectional discrimination (Xenidis, 2018). Xenidis (2018) states that the existing EU anti-discrimination law tends to systematically reduce specific types of discrimination; therefore, it is difficult to determine whether it can be used to effectively respond to crossdiscrimination. Moreover, in the case of South Korea, the government and private organizations have been making efforts to enact anti-discrimination laws since 2007, but the legislation was withdrawn due to resistance from groups opposing efforts related to sexual orientation and the like and has not been enacted until now. South Korea stipulates the right not to be discriminated against based on race, religion, gender, age, educational background, physical condition, etc. in the Framework Act on Juveniles, but it is necessary to enact an anti-discrimination act (Equality Act) to prevent discrimination in all areas of life. Non-discrimination can be the minimum mechanism for human rights. Therefore, Countries in which anti-discrimination law enactment is being discussed (e.g. South Korea and Japan) and countries that need to amend their laws will need to devise measures to ensure that the public is protected from complex, multi-layered discrimination as well as discrimination based on single characteristics.

Limitations and future research
This study is meaningful in that it improves the understanding of bullying and issues affecting suicide risk among adolescents who experience multiple types of discrimination through its focus on the intersection of discriminatory factors. However, this study has a limitation in that it did not examine the negative consequences that intersectional discrimination, such as discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, can have on adolescents. In addition, it is limited in that it does not sufficiently reflect the changes that occur over time because cross-sectional research data were not used for analysis. Therefore, in follow-up work, it will be necessary to conduct a longitudinal study and collect data from foreign immigrants and LGBTQ youths living in South Korea.

Conclusion
This study can provide useful information for the early intervention of Korean adolescents who experience intersectional discrimination. Previous studies have investigated the effects of intersectional discrimination such as race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation on bullying and suicide (e.g. Baiden et al., 2020;Byrd & Andrews, 2016;Garnett et al., 2014;Shramko et al., 2019). However, it is difficult to apply this to the lives of Korean adolescents who are in a different situation from those of Western countries. Therefore, this study focused on gender, appearance, academic performance and economic situation, which are typical discrimination perceived by Korean adolescents. Although making a direct comparison is difficult due to differences in the input variables and statistical methods used, the results of the previous LCA analysis of intersectional discrimination among adolescents showed profiles caused by specific discriminatory factors in addition to low and high discriminatory profiles. However, this study was different from the previous studies in that moderate intersectional discrimination appeared in addition to low and high intersectional discrimination. In addition, the previous studies have shown that just over half of the participants (cf., Byrd & Andrews, 2016;Garnett et al., 2014), or three out of four people, belong to low-discrimination groups (cf., Ghavami et al., 2020); however, it appears that more people (85.2%) belonged to the low discrimination group in this study. In other words, in the case of South Korea, it can be concluded that experiences of discrimination tend to be concentrated among a small number of young people. However, in the middle and high intersectional discrimination groups, all the discrimination indicators (gender, academic performance, appearance, and economic status) appeared evenly rather than as a single type of discrimination. Although there were few victims of discrimination, the combined effect of intersectionality can be exacerbated because the discrimination experienced by young victims is not limited to one factor but is affected by various aspects of life. Therefore, the results of this study can serve as the basis for considering multiple discriminatory factors rather than using a single-discriminatory-factor approach.
Since this study was conducted in South Korea, it may be difficult to apply the results directly to other cultures, but they can be helpful in explaining the intersectional discrimination that takes place between East Asian people and immigrants (Au, 2017), which is based on Confucian principles and family norms. In particular, East Asian immigrants tend to prioritize group discrimination based on ethnicity over personal discrimination (Barry & Grilo, 2003). As the international community expands and the multiethnic state becomes universal, it will become necessary to pay more attention to the intersectional discrimination experienced by East Asian youths and to pre-emptively prevent intersectional discrimination in the process of developing services/programmes designed for them.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors
Hyun Lee, Ph.D., is a research professor at the center for social welfare research at Yonsei University. His research interests include adversity, adaptation, resilience, and growth of marginalized youth and immigration.