• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.317-327
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• 2014

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate Chinese female marriage immigrants' dietary life after immigration to Korea, focusing on comparison between Han-Chinese (traditional Chinese) and Korean-Chinese (Chinese of Korean descent). Methods: An in-person survey was conducted with women married to Korean men, having one child or more aged 1-6 years old, and having resided in Korea for at least one year before the survey. The data were collected from the 309 respondents comprising 151 Han-Chinese and 158 Korean-Chinese in the summer of 2013. Results: Overall, there was no significant difference in dietary practice, dietary acculturation, dietary behavior, dietary habits, and food intake between the Han-Chinese and the Korean-Chinese respondents. Over 50% of the respondents ate Korean food every day. The overall level of dietary acculturation was about 3.5 out of 5 points. The average score of healthy dietary behavior was a little bit higher than 3 out of 5 points. Approximately 3/4 of the respondents showed increasing frequency of eating out. The respondents reporting increase food diversity were over 70%. Decreased frequency of skipping meal was about 60% of the respondents. Over 50% of the respondents showed increasing consumption of Kimchi, vegetables, fruit, and meat. Conclusions: Dietary life of Korean-Chinese female marriage immigrants was similar to that of Han-Chinese female marriage immigrants after immigration to Korea. The results from this study suggest that not only Han-Chinese but also Korean-Chinese should be targeted in various diet-related acculturation support programs as important multicultural populations in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2016

Objectives: Nowadays, the multicultural families make up significant portion of Korean population and communities. Successful re-settling in a new country can be difficult, particularly when there are disparities in dietary behavior compared to home country. The objective of the study was to investigate the dietary behavior of marriage migrant women according to their nationality in multicultural families. Methods: The primary research was conducted targeting 94 marriage migrant women who came from China (40.4%), Vietnam (26.6%), and other countries except for Japan (33.0%). We investigated their dietary behavior, such as eating attitude and food choice behavior for Korea acculturation. We also studied dietary behavior among 14 selected subjects who had high level of integration and assimilation acculturation patterns by administering the Focus Group Interview (FGI). Results: The multicultural families had more integration acculturation patterns, which could have been influenced by their nationality. Vietnamese origin has the highest cultural adaptation as marginalization pattern. The common types of Korea acculturation were integration ($3.03{\pm}1.08$), separation ($3.10{\pm}0.59$), marginalization ($3.10{\pm}0.58$), followed by assimilation ($2.84{\pm}0.51$). There were significant differences in the four types of acculturation by marriage immigrant women's country of origin (p<0.05). According to dietary behavior, 'eliminating hunger' was the most important value in a meal. Chinese marriage migrant women, who had higher level of food intake attitude significantly, also considered 'being healthy' an important value. Regarding food choice behavior, Vietnamese had lowest frequency of homeland food intake. Most of marriage immigrant women were satisfied with the Korean food, and need for education was very high with interest for cooking, good nutrition, and managing their children's dietary life. Conclusions: Coping with a change in dietary behavior is one of the biggest transitional difficulties, and family members may need support to find their familiar food items and to continue their cultural food choice behavior in the local areas. Further researches with quantitative and qualitative analysis are needed to understand the effect of dietary behavior for acculturation in multicultural families.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.305-320
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• 2021

Purpose: This study analyzed the dietary patterns of Central Asian immigrant workers (Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan) living in South Korea to determine the food acculturation and how their dietary practices have changed after immigration. Methods: Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 186 Central Asian immigrant workers living in South Korea. A food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to obtain information on the consumption frequency of 22 food items before and after their immigration to Korea. Results: Central Asians switched to Korean meat consumption patterns, which consume mainly pork, chicken, and beef, showing a decrease in the intake of beef and lamb and an increase in that of pork. Their consumption of Namul (cooked vegetable), Kimchi, rice, and marine products increased while that of potatoes decreased during acculturation to Korean food culture. Positive changes were observed in Mongolians' eating habits. Their meat-based diet turned into a healthy one in which nutritional balance was achieved by consuming the various food groups. Negative dietary changes were also observed; intake of instant foods and coffee increased while black and green tea consumption decreased. Intake of Namul (p < 0.01), Kimchi (p < 0.01), rice (p < 0.001), ramen (p < 0.001), pork, chicken (p < 0.01), fish (p < 0.01), seafood (p < 0.001), and coffee (p < 0.001) increased significantly in the group that responded and their health improved after moving to Korea. This result suggests that health improved among those who were well settled in Korea and ate the various food groups. Conclusion: These findings can help understand the acculturation process to Korean food culture and provide a basis for developing policies to help them adjust to Korean food culture.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.123-134
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• 2004

A convenience samples of Korean-Canadian/American adults who lived in Vancouver, San Hose and Los Angeles areas for over 10 years, were studied in 2000. Total of 130 adults were analyzed by immigration age. The age of immigration age was divided into 3 groups: the young group immigrated at 25 or before, the middle group immigrated at 26 to 40, and the old group immigrated at over 40. Their average length of residence in Canada and the U.S. was a little longer than 20 years. The dietary behavior patterns were similar among 3 groups, except co-eaters and dining-out frequency, and the Korean-Canadians/Americans seemed to be more home-based, family-tightened and traditional patterns than Koreans in Korea. They liked Korean traditional basic dishes, but their children liked a-la-carte ones and immigrants at early 20's showed similar food preferences as young generations. The attitudes of dietary acculturation for themselves and for their children were high. Since immigrating at age 26 to 40 years old rather than 20's or over 40's, showed stronger acculturation attitudes even with no significance and revealed significantly differences in some dietary behaviors and food preferences, it is recommended that immigration age should be considered when planning dietary foodservices at nursing care systems for Korean Canadians/Americans.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.76-83
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to analyze meal management behaviors for Korea dietary acculturation among multicultural families in Korea. The study compared differences in meal management behaviors among 90 multicultural families. Results of the study were as follows: cultural adaptation to Korea got higher with increasing age; marriage immigrants with longer marriage duration and with children showed higher cultural adaptation to Korea. Regarding food value of marriage immigrant women, 'eating favorite food' was the highest in the 20s, while 'satisfaction with Korean dietary lifestyle' was high in Chinese and in those with longer residency. Most of them replied 'myself' for the meal manager of their multicultural family. When surveyed on major difficulties in Korean meal management, existence of children showed significant difference for 'cooking', and period of residency and existence of children made significant difference for 'taste'. In conclusion, meal management behavior of multicultural families was influenced by socioeconomic factors. Further research is needed for more quantitative analysis and understanding of the effect of dietary patterns on nutritional status and quality of life in multicultural families.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.161-167
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• 2002

Research on diet, acculturation, and ethnicity has suggested that immigrants dietary patterns differ from people who do not have immigration experience. The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary descriptive findings concerning consumption of foods that are common in Korean and American diets, by people of Korean descent residing in California. Adults (18 years of age or older, N=1334) of Korean descent who could be reached by listed residential telephone number in California were randomly selected and telephone-interviewed by closely supervised bilingual (Korean-English) interviewers who were specially trained for this task. This study found that dietary patterns of Koreans living in California differed according to age and gender; also, the frequency of consumption of foods differed according to number of years of residence and acculturation. Koreans who reported higher levels of acculturation to American society ate less of traditional Korean foods such as Kimchi and ate significantly more higher-fat foods common in the American diet. Increased acculturation was also related to an increased frequency of alcohol drinking. Older Koreans tended to eat slightly more of traditional foods such as rice, Kimchi, fruits, and fish, compared to younger Koreans. Women tended to eat healthier foods than men, consuming green vegetables, Kimchi, milk, cheese/yogurt, fruits, and bread more frequently. Koreans reporting longer residences in the United States reported a greater consumption of pork, bread, and soda.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.173-189
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• 2015

The Korean society has been dramatically changed in its population, with rapidly increasing number of multicultural families through international marriages. The objective is to investigate the dietary patterns as an acculturation for multicultural families in urban area. The research target was 89 marriage immigrant females in Daejeon, in whom 50.6 % was in their twenties and 49.4 % was in their thirties to forties. 39.3% of the subjects was from China and 28.1 % from Vietnam, which showed similar pattern to the ratio of marriage immigrants' homeland in Korea. As age goes higher, cultural adaptation in Korea was the integration pattern. Marriage immigrant females from Vietnam showed the highest rates of marginalization pattern as cultural adaptation. Moreover, those with longer marriage duration and with children tend to show higher rates of integration pattern. 'Food attitude', 'food diversity', and 'balance life' as eating behaviors are related with acculturation. In conclusion, the multicultural families in urban area showed integration acculturation patterns, which could be influenced by their socioeconomic factors, such as residence period and Korean language ability and food diversity as dietary patterns factors. Further study with a quantitative analysis is needed in order to understand the effect of dietary patterns on acculturation in the multicultural families.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.545-551
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• 2015

This study was carried out in order to investigate Korean food acculturation by married immigrant women and how it affects their children's eating habits. Using an in-depth interview method, 26 domestically residing married immigrant Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian women in Korea were surveyed to investigate adaption to Korean food at the time of their immigration, their current dietary life, their preferred Korean food, major factors in managing their children's eating habits, etc. The results reveal that depending on the married immigrant women's country of birth, which plays an important role in a family's dietary life and health, acculturation phenomena occurred in which the specific eating habits of each country were grafted into Korean food. Furthermore, due to their school-age children's display of acceptance of both their homeland's and Korea's food culture, we believe that this can become a pivot point for non-governmental diplomacy where Korean food can be understood along with the mothers' countries.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.304-312
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: International students face dissimilar food environments, which could lead to changes in dietary behaviors and anthropometric characteristics between before and after migration. We sought to examine the risk factors, including dietary behaviors, acculturation, and demographic characteristics, related to overweight subjects residing in South Korea. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study, collecting data from 142 Chinese international students (63 males, 79 females) in 2013. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 25.4 years, and almost half of them immigrated to South Korea to earn a master's degree or doctoral degree (n = 70, 49.3%). Chinese international students showed an increase in skipping meals and eating speed, but a decrease in the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption in South Korea compared to when they lived in China. We found a statistically significant increase in weight (69.4 ${\rightarrow}$ 73.9 kg) and BMI (22.4 ${\rightarrow}$ $23.8kg/m^2$) for male subjects (P < 0.001) but no change for female subjects. We also found that overweight subjects were more likely to be highly acculturated and male compared with normal-weight subjects. CONCLUSION: Among Chinese international students living in South Korea, male and more highly acculturated subjects are more vulnerable to weight gain. This study provides useful information to design tailored nutrition intervention programs for Chinese international students.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2005

A convenience samples of Korean-Canadian/American adults who lived in Pacific coast areas, were studied in 2000. Total of 130 adults of 37 ($29\%$) from Vancouver, 45 ($35\%$) from San Jose and 47 ($36\%$) from Los Angeles were analyzed by length of residence, as the shorter residence group resided for less than 20 years and the longer residence group resided for 20 years or more. It was observed that the Korean-Canadians/Americans, who resided there for almost two decades, still kept Korean foods and food-patterns very strongly, even though parents' generation showed less acculturated food patterns than children's generation. In spite of those practices, they gave high values mostly on their dietary acculturation and on educating their children about diets. However the longer residence group showed slightly less positive acculturation attitudes than the shorter one. Therefore the longer abroad seemed to make immigrants more for their children to keep dietary traditions. It is recommended that length of residence should be considered when planning dietary foodservices at nursing care systems for Korean Canadians/Americans.