How Do International Students Idealize Beauty Standards? A Study of Vietnamese Students Living in Korea

초록

In the last decade, Korean culture has progressively facilitated the assimilation of appearance-related norms established by modern Korean society among young generations in Vietnam. Of note, Vietnamese consumers residing in Korea, under the influence of diverse sociocultural factors, are aligning themselves with an ideal standard of Korean beauty through cultural adaptation. This study explores how Vietnamese students internalize Korean beauty standards and the resultant negative behavioral reactions. We investigated the effects of sociocultural pressures (media, in-group, and out-group pressure) on risky appearance management and irrational purchase behavior by mediating sociocultural internalization toward appearance. We tested how the mechanism underlying these variables differs based on how long one has resided in Korea. A total of 213 female participants were surveyed online. The research model was tested using structural equation modeling through AMOS 22.0. The findings show that media and out-group pressure significantly increased sociocultural internalization, which led to consumer behavior in the form of risky appearance management and irrational purchases. The influence of internalization on consumption behavior was stronger for short-term residents of Korea. This study contributes to the literature on acculturation by investigating how foreign consumers accept the host country's ideal beauty standards.

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