• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.469-488
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• 2012

International marriage is composed over 10% among total marriage in Korea. Korea is changing rapidly to the multi-cultural society. The researches need to inquire into what the state of 'ethnic communities of the immigrant wives as the minorities' is and how the immigrant wives build and develop the ethnic networks longitudinally. At the beginning, this study tried to know what kinds of social networks the immigrant wives use for the process of being married and for the adjusting to marriage and Korean culture. For the purposes of this study FGI and the interviews were applied for the immigrant wives and the specialist groups in metropolitan city DaeGu. 18 interviewees from Vietnam, China, Philippine, etc.. were collected by the snow-ball sampling. The social networks of the immigrant wives in DaeGu were mainly private, but were deterritorialized and reterritorialized actively. They managed the close relationship with their family members of motherland, and had the networks sticky with relatives, friends, and other immigrant wives from the same countries. Even though they acquired the Korean nationality, they have the transnational identities. But the internet environment of Korea can contribute to activate the social networks for the ethnic communities of the immigrant wives.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.421-436
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• 2013

International marriage is composed over 10% among total marriage in Korea. This study tried to know what kinds of social networks, especially transnational networks, the immigrant wives use for the process of being married and for the adjusting to marriage and Korean culture, and how their Korean families also are affected by the transnational networks. For the purposes of this study FGI and the interviews were applied for the immigrant wives, the multicultural husbands and the specialist groups in metropolitan city DaeGu. 18 migrant interviewees from Vietnam, China, Philippine, etc. were collected by the snow-ball sampling. 5 husbands were collected from the self-help meeting in multicultural families support center. The transnational networks of the immigrant wives in DaeGu were deterritorialized and reterritorialized actively. Migrant wives managed the close relationship with their family members of motherland, and had the networks sticky with relatives, friends, and other fore-immigrant wives from the same countries. Their migrations are characterized as 'chain migration'. Even though they acquired the Korean nationality, they have the transnational identities. They and their Korean families are interrelated and internetworked in exchanging economic resources as goods and money, human beings, love, child caring, foods and culture over local boundaries.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.47-62
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• 2014

This study is focused on increasing of population aging and multicultural families in Korea. This study is conducted to figure out the marital satisfaction of marriage immigrant wives having elderly husband and to verify the effect of the social service and human support. This analysis was used in the '2009 National Multicultural Families Survey' data is at least 65 years of age, married immigrant spouses wife 236 case. Descriptive statistics were performed for statistical analysis and hierarchical regression techniques. The effective variables of the marriage immigrant wives include the experience of discrimination, subjective health condition, education for social adjustment, whether an adviser is Korean when they face difficulties, and whether the frequency of contacts made with their families in homeland is more than once to three times a year. Analysis shows that these things works as the effect variable of marital satisfaction.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.477-487
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore health-related experiences of the foreign wives. Methods: A qualitative research design was used to understand the health-related experiences of foreign wives. Ten informants were interviewed from December 2007 to December 2009. Results: The health related life experiences of foreign wives were analyzed within a self development process; Choice and struggle, Change and opportunity, and Settlement and expectation. The theme of choice and struggle includes physical and emotional stress in the initial stage of marriage. The second process of change and opportunity focused on the coping strategies of the women having power after knowledge acquisition from the multicultural family support center. The last theme was health and happiness from the women' perspectives. Conclusion: This study has emphasized the health condition of the foreign wives. Since foreign wives are members of Korean society, health care professionals need to design health services to meet their needs.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.47-65
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• 2017

Objectives: This paper aims to identify depressive or stress related symptoms and its associated risk and protective factors among marriage immigrant women in Korea. Methods: The study participants were 490 immigrant wives from '2012 Survey of Foreign Residents in Korea'. The participants completed self-administered questionnaires on socio-demographics, health status, family members' related factors, and other environmental factors. Results: Difficulties on child nursing, finance, family conflict, and experience of physical or verbal violence were significant risk variables to the depressive stress related symptoms. Family life satisfaction, discussion about troubles with Koreans, healthy status, social trust, and discussion about troubles with people from home country were the significant protective variables to mental health. However economic activities were not protective factors but risk factors. Conclusions: Mental Health promotion programs for marriage immigrant women and their family members need to consider the family and community related protective mental health factors and develop supportive system with pre-existing programs and policy modification.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.17-31
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• 2015

Objectives: This paper aims to identify the health related behaviors patterns and its associated factors among marriage immigrant women in Korea, and discusses their application to health promotion strategies. Methods: The study participants were 7,591 immigrant wives in Gyeonggi province who participated in health examinations conducted by the Korea Association of Health Promotion in 2011-2013. The participants completed self-administered questionnaires on sociodemographics, psychological characteristics, health status and health care factors, and health related behaviors. Results: A 3-latent-class model of health behaviors was identified related to 'lack of physical activity', 'abnormal diet', and 'not experienced medical check-up': 'high risk class', 'middle risk class', and 'low risk class'. Most of the participants belong to 'middle risk class'. Country of origin, age, length of stay, number of children, work status, health insurance status, and unmet health care needs were associated with problematic health behaviors in middle risk health behavior class. Conclusions: Health promotion and intervention programs for marriage immigrant women and their family members need to consider the health behavior patterns of physical inactivity, abnormal diet and no medical check-up and develop multiple behavior intervention with pre-existing program modification.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.451-484
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• 2013

This study investigated the factors that influence subjective well-being of immigrant wives in Korea. We initially grouped the factors into 3 categories: personal, domestic, and social. For personal factors, we included couple's age difference, reason for entry, religion, marital duration, employment status, economical status, acculturation to Korean culture, acquisition of Korean language, and ego-resiliency. For domestic factors we included marriage process, reason for marriage, husbands' understanding of wife's native language, husbands' understanding of wife's culture, marital satisfaction, existence of children, head of the household, and parenting efficacy. Finally for social factors, awareness of welfare services and systems, use of public institutions and civil organizations, and participation in social groups were included. We recruited 256 immigrant wives who live in Asan City, Chungnam Province and the data were analyzed by multiple linear regression. The factors that statistically significant were: ego-resiliency, marital duration, acculturation to Korean culture and economic status among personal factors; parenting efficacy, marital satisfaction and marriage process (married without a matchmaker) among domestic factors; participation in self-help group of women from the same mother country, awareness of welfare services and systems, participation in hobby club, and participation in fraternal/religious society among social factors. It is hoped that this paper will yield general insights into subjective well-being of immigrant wives and may help them to develop inner talent and strength.

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

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.203-236
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• 2015

Given the interdependence of a marital couple, this study examined the effects of both cultural challenge and economic hardship on intention to divorce among the multicultural couple using the actor-partner interdependence model(APIM), and explored dyadic patterns of actor and partner effects. 415 couples(n=830) participated in this self-administered questionnaire study. Results of path analyses based on APIMs revealed that for Korean husbands perceived cultural challenge contributed positively to divorce intention of the couple showing both actor and partner effects, whereas for immigrant wives such perception showed only an actor effect. In contrast, perceived economic hardship among the husbands had little effect on divorce intention of both husbands and wives, whereas such perception by wives had both actor and partner effects on divorce intention. Results of dyadic pattern analyses performed by Bootstrap indicated the actor-only pattern and the couple pattern of perceived cultural challenge on divorce intention of husbands and wives respectively. In case of perceived economic hardship comparison of the effect size suggested the partner-only pattern and the actor-only pattern for divorce intention of husbands and wives respectively. These findings implied that in order to promote conjugal harmony and to prevent the multicultural family from being dissolved, Korean husbands need to develop greater cultural competence so as to tolerate cultural differences between the couple, whereas immigrant wives and their families need to develop greater economic competence so as to foster a hope for economic reliance.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.891-902
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• 2008

Some Korean men choose to marry a foreigner expecting that marriage will solve all their problems. Therefore, this case study is to provide basic information on how to prevent conflicts in the marriage and how to get used to the marriage life. first, it is apparent that these match-makings between Korean men and married Female Immigrants are commercialized and are based on the two parties' convenience. Second, it is more possible that the issues with the role of husband/wife and the allocation of household labor stem from the cultural differences from international racial differences rather than Korean men are authoritative or patriarchal. It seems that the foreign brides from the third world countries choose to many Korean men with only a single purpose to financially help their parents. While neither willing to share household labor nor providing what is expected to be a wife, they demand financial assists for their parents or choose to get a job at a factory to make money. Third, the husbands expect their wives to learn Korean since there is not much opportunity to learn the wives' language and the culture. Also, the textbooks are rare to find for the languages. Moreover, the husbands do not have the enthusiasm or the ability to team due to age Fourth, the Korean men are rather psychological, financial, social victims than domestic abusers.