• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.64-77
• /
• 2017

This study was conducted to develop a nutritional education program based on the health belief model to improve nutritional status among Vietnamese female marriage immigrants in Korea. The education program was developed through literature review, focus group interviews, expert consultation, and pilot tests. Based on theoretical requirements and needs of beneficiaries, the education program was consisted of 16 sessions with nine topics: 'how to evaluate own dietary habits and nutritional status', 'health problems according to dietary habits and nutritional status', 'understanding six food groups', 'healthy eating plan', 'understanding food cultures of Korea and Vietnam', 'traditional and seasonal Korean foods', 'how to cook Korean food', 'nutrition management of family members', and 'practicing of healthy dietary life'. Program contents in each session consisted of activities that could induce outcome and value expectations, self-efficacy, perceived benefits, and barriers and cues to actions regarding dietary behavior. This nutritional education program based on the health belief model would be helpful to implement healthy diet behaviors in Vietnamese marriage immigrants and their families. Extension of these nutritional education programs to health centers and multicultural family support centers would improve the current poor nutrition status of Vietnamese marriage immigrant women. Further studies are needed to validate our program.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.66 no.2
• /
• pp.127-157
• /
• 2014

The multicultural family support project provides support services to female marriage immigrants to promote their settlement in Korea and their adaptation to marital life. This study thus investigated whether utilization of such support services is indeed related to positive changes perceived among these female marriage immigrants, and these changes, in turn, contribute to less marital conflict, marital well-being, and hope. Data were drawn from a self-administered questionnaire study in which 558 female marriage immigrants participated through the 36 centers across the nation that provided multicultural family support services based on cultural relativism and a strengths perspective. Results of structural equation modeling analyses revealed that utilization of support services, as predicted, contributed to positive changes, and such changes, in turn, were directly related to less marital conflict, higher marital well-being, and hope. As expected, marital conflict was negatively associated with marital well-being, which, in turn, promoted hope. Thus, through these paths positive changes also contributed positively to both marital well-being and hope. However, when the effects of length of residence in Korea and an ability to command Korean language were controlled for, a positive significant relationship between service utilization and marital conflict was revealed. Therefore this paper discussed the ways in which positive functions of such service utilization can be strengthened while at the same time actively addressing the dysfunctional components of such support services.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.143-176
• /
• 2014

In this study, the multicultural families female marriage immigrants experience life in Korea to evaluate the difficulty. To this end, a multi-cultural families living in Gyeonggi Province accomplished female marriage immigrants choose eight people to consensual conduct in-depth interviews with qualitative analysis methods(CQR) were analyzed using. The findings in the three categories and therefore the region of 49 to 12 depending on the frequency analysis. Female marriage immigrants living in Korea psychological and emotional difficulties experienced in the relationship with your spouse, in-laws and relations, communication problems, difficulties in expressing emotional difficulties, respectively. Social and economic difficulties experienced discriminatory gaze, economic hardship, as a multicultural families become psychological atrophy, life, customs, and cultural differences, respectively. The process of coping with these experiences self-help meetings, participate in cultural programs, and community systems were used. By the results of this study multicultural families immigrant women to help overcome difficulties in the practical help and social services to the community through the ongoing support system was required to suggestions.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.765-778
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese female marriage immigrants' dietary life and health-related characteristics after immigration to Korea. A survey was conducted with Japanese women married to Korean men and having one child or more aged 7 to 18 years old. Data were collected from 243 women during the summer of 2014. A total of 204 questionnaires were analyzed, after excluding 39 questionnaires with a high percentage of incomplete responses (84% analysis rate). Over 85% of respondents were the members of the Unification Church, and over 92% of respondents had stayed in Korea for longer than 10 years. Based on the overall mean score for dietary adaptation level (3.68 out of 5 points), respondents were classified into two groups: low dietary adaptation group (mean score 3.12) and high dietary adaptation group (mean score 4.19). The collected data were compared between the two groups. The high dietary adaptation group reported higher percentages of decreasing consumption in processed food, confectionary, and bread than the low dietary adaptation group after immigration to Korea. A higher percentage of respondents in the high dietary adaptation group perceived their health status as good and reported changes that led to a healthier dietary life after immigration to Korea compared with those in the low dietary adaptation group. In conclusion, Japanese female marriage immigrants well adapted to Korean dietary life tended to eat healthier and perceive health status better compared with those who were not well adapted. The results of this study could be useful for prospecting dietary life and health-related characteristics of immigrant women in the long term after immigration to Korea.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.63-77
• /
• 2008

This study was performed to develop the basic framework of multicultural art education programs for female foreign immigrants married to Korean males. First, these programs aim to lessen their cultural variance in acculturizing in Korea, and thereafter enhance their emotional stability and improve their creative ability to integrate cultural diversity into family life. The primary objective of this study was to offer a suitable education program and evaluation criteria for the program; the research has been done through person-to person interviews with 53 subjects using a series of questionnaires composed of 8 five-point Likert-Scaled items. As for the process of the interview, the subjects were asked about their satisfaction with each program item twice in order to comparetheir impressions before and after program participation. The satisfaction scores were analyzed using frequency distribution. In addition, the program effects were also evaluated by coordinators and developers from their subjective comments through periodical evaluation meetings. From the results, it is observed that art education programs are beneficial for improving female immigrants' emotionaland cultural integration. In addition, experts determined that the programs were helpful for improving their human relationship and acculturization in Korea. Finally, it is concluded that multicultural education programs are a primary fundamental infra-structural way of integrating diverse cultures and improving communication exchanges, and therefore, improve family stability among the multicultural families in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.200-210
• /
• 2008

Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of an 8-session health education program to promote the health of married immigrant women. Methods: A quasi-experimental research design was employed. The subjects included 36 female marriage immigrant women (17 in the experimental group and 19 in the control group) who agreed to participate in this study. The intervention involved 8 sessions with a partnership strategy and was led by Public Health Nurses and the researcher. Our analysis included descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact test, t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: The results revealed significant mean differences in terms of self-efficacy between the two groups. The mean of their self-efficacy was higher in the experimental group than in the control group, whereas there no mean differences were detected between the two groups in terms of health knowledge and self-esteem. Additionally, the knowledge of the immigrant women was correlated with their self-efficacy. Conclusion: The 8-session health education program was found to have an effect on self-efficacy, even with the limitations to methodological rigors posed by the subject-specific conditions. In the future, health education materials written in the native language of such women will need to be develop. Additionally, repeated studies will be required that involve randomized controlled trials characterized by better methodological strength and strategies to enhance participants’ interests and motives.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.36-44
• /
• 2011

Purpose: This study was conducted to explore foreign immigrant mothers' experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing. Methods: Ten married female migrants were selected by a purposive and snowball sampling method. Data were collected during the period from September to November, 2009 by individual in-depth interviews and all interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Results: Ten categories were induced: In pregnancy and childbirth domain, social support-request help to their own parents, social support-depending on husband and mother's in law, Enduring emesis-gravidarum in strange environment were extracted. In Chid-rearing domain, child-rearing overburden, lack of self-confidence on maternal role, child-rearing difficulties due to language barrier, lack of information and education on child-rearing, lack of accessibility to public health care services, expectation of child's assimilation in Korea, financial strain in child-rearing. Conclusion: This study provides basic knowledge regarding married female migrants' experiences related to pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing. The findings of the study will help health professionals designing effective interventions for married female migrants with difficulties related to child care, parenting, rearing.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.233-243
• /
• 2016

Purpose: This study aims to investigate and explain the influence of personal characteristics on female immigrants' perception and attitude towards the Korean food culture. Methods: Exploratory research was performed by conducting a self-administered survey. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit 289 participants to determine their level of information awareness, perception and familiarity with Korean food culture. Results: Female immigrants' mean FNS score was 3.70. FNS score decreased in women from Northeast Asia, women who received higher education, and in urban women. The level of information awareness of Korean Food culture was 3.47, which was above average. Women from Southeast Asia had a higher level of awareness about cooking methods and table setting. Females living in the countryside and those who had lived for more than 7 years in Korea had higher levels of information awareness than other groups. Women from Southeast Asia perceived that Korean food is spicy; on the other hand, women from Northeast Asia discerned that Korean food is pungent and is prepared scientifically. The neophilic group more positively recognized Korean foods based on taste and nutritional value than did the neophobic group. Subjects living in the countryside were more likely to evaluate nutritional value, scientific aspects and artistry higher. The research also found that the neophilic group and immigrants who had lived for more than 7 years in Korea were significantly correlated with the familiarity with Korean food culture. Conclusion: The findings provide an initial step towards developing a customized education program for female marriage immigrants to adapt and to become familiar with Korean food culture with a comprehensive understanding of personal traits for accepting a new food culture.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.5 no.5
• /
• pp.471-480
• /
• 2011

Our previous studies have demonstrated the inadequate nutritional status of Vietnamese female marriage immigrants in Korea. Major possible reasons include food insecurity due to economic problems as well as a lack of adjustment to unfamiliar Korean foods and limited access to Vietnamese foods; however, no study has investigated food insecurity among such intermarried couples. This study was performed to investigate the prevalence of food insecurity in Korean-husband-Vietnamese-wife couples and to determine whether they exhibit an intrahousehold discrepancy regarding food insecurity. A cross-sectional analysis of the Cohort of Intermarried Women in Korea study was performed with 84 intermarried couples. Among the 84 Vietnamese immigrants, 48.8% and 41.7% had food insecurity due to economic problems and a lack of foods appealing to their appetite, respectively. There was a marked discrepancy in reporting food insecurity between Vietnamese wives (22.6-38.1%) and their Korean husbands (6.0-15.5%). Vietnamese wives were five and two times more food-insecure due to economic problems and no foods appealing to their appetite, respectively, than their Korean spouses. A follow-up study is needed to investigate the causes of this discrepancy and ways of reducing food insecurity among female marriage immigrants living in low-income, rural communities.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.171-194
• /
• 2012

This study focuses on immigrant women who are married to Korean men and who live in a multicultural family situation in Gyeonggi-do. These women experience acculturative stress and marital conflict and this study aims to determine how social support seeks to mediate the effects of those stressors. The women in this study participated in activities and received services from one of Gyeonggi-do Province's civic organizations, religious organizations, or social service organizations, such as the Social Welfare Agency and the Multicultural Family Support Center. In order to verify the study's hypothesis, the researchers used the following statistical analytical methods : t-test, two-way ANOVA and multi-regression analysis. Analysis of the study's results showed that the highest degree of marital conflict was found in the sub-zones and variables that were personal. Those variable were : the difference in mindset and values (personal domain), economic problems (communal living area), a child's upbringing and education issues (third party area), and the participant's sex life (in the marital relationship). The hypothesis was tested using the research model validation and the results are summarized as follows. First, in order to analyze the relationship between the marriage migration females' acculturative stress and the impact of that stress on marriage conflict, the hierarchical regression analysis was used. It identified that a direct correlation existed between acculturative stress and marriage conflict; where a higher degree of acculturative stress was present, a higher degree of marriage conflict was found. Second, the study found a statistical significance in the correlation and relationship (${\beta}$=.208, p<0.05) between the acculturative stress of the marriage migration female and material support. In other words, the material support can be seen as having a moderating effect on the acculturative stress, which is the independent variable, and the marital conflict, which is the dependent variable.