• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2019

Purpose: To identify needs for pregnancy and postpartum adaptation of Chinese immigrant women and Vietnamese immigrant women in South Korea. Methods: A descriptive research design was employed. Data were collected from 244 Chinese immigrant women and Vietnamese immigrant women from 3 provinces, 20 health care centers, and multi-cultural family support centers. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. Results: An average score for needs perceived by Chinese immigrant women was significantly higher than that perceived by Vietnamese immigrant women. There were significantly differences in physical and emotional adaptation after childbirth, nutrition during pregnancy, cross cultural understanding and personal respect, and adaptation daily activity during pregnancy between the 2 groups. The highest score of needs in Chinese immigrant women was for nutrition during pregnancy and that in Vietnamese immigrant women was for baby rearing and family support. Conclusion: Based on needs of pregnancy and postpartum adaption, nursing intervention program in consideration of cultural characteristics of Chinese immigrant women and Vietnam immigrant women need to be developed for their pregnancy and postpartum health care.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2015

Unlike daily hassles or minor stressors, immigration is an intense life event that may cause excessive stress. In particular, immigrant parents find themselves in a more stressful situation in that they experience stresses caused by immigration and stresses caused by parenting at the same time. The purpose of this study is to develop and validate an Immigrant Parental Stress Inventory (IPSI), that objectively and comprehensively assesses the stress experienced by immigrant parents within the Korean context. Based on the Immigrant Parental Stress Inventory developed within the American context, preliminary items were refined through a literature review and the discussions of experts and immigrant parents and were empirically validated with a sample of 203 immigrant parents residing in Korea. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, six main factors were identified (Factor1 Difficulties in communication, Factor2 Financial difficulties, Factor3 Difficulties in social adjustment, Factor4 Social discrimination, Factor5 Lack of social resources, Factor6 Difficulties in parenting). The IPSI was shown to be a psychometrically sound instrument that is capable of measuring immigrant parental stress within the Korean context. Social service professionals and researchers studying or working with immigrant families could use the IPSI to examine immigrant parental stress.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.415-426
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• 2015

This study examines the employment experience of beauty shop owners with respect to immigrant women. A quantitative analysis was conducted through a survey of beauty shop employers. Total 400 beauty shop owners were given a questionnaire and 380 responses were obtained. IBM SPSS 21.0 was used for frequency analysis, chi-square test, t-test using obtained data. Most of the respondents reported rare immigrant women employment. In addition, they were not likely to have experienced benefits from government support system and had little knowledge of such systems. According to an the employment analysis, there were differences in business areas, locations, regions, business type, and the number of employees according to characteristics of beauty shops. Immigrant women were more likely to be employed in Gyeonggi than in Seoul and Chungcheong Province and in skincareshops than in hairshops, nailshops and make-up shops. Shops with fewer than six employees were more likely to employ immigrant women. Those shop owners has employed immigrant women were more likely to hire immigrant women. Employment intentions of employers included mitigation services for auxiliary and sharing purposes, government benefits, and solutions for employment difficulties. Government support had a positive effect on employment intentions of beauty shop employers. Employers with knowledge of government support programs were more likely to hire immigrant women. The results suggest that the government should make more efforts to promote relevant policies. Future research should identify the reasons why few immigrant women are employed.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.99-107
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• 2015

This study purposed to analyze difference in experience of life in Korea among adolescents whose immigrant backgrounds were different (Korean-born children of multicultural families and foreign-born immigrant children) using the data of the 2012 National Survey of Multicultural Families (adolescent children aged between 9 and 24). According to the results of analysis, first, multicultural adolescents with immigrant backgrounds experienced 'difficulty in using the Korean language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing),' 'school dropout,' and 'school violence' more frequently than Korean-born multicultural adolescents. Second, with regard to social discrimination (friends, teachers, relatives, neighbors, and unknown people), multicultural adolescents with immigrant backgrounds experienced 'discrimination by teachers,' 'discrimination by relatives,' 'discrimination by neighbors,' and 'discrimination by unknown people' more frequently than Korean-born multicultural adolescents. By analyzing these differences, this study suggested directions for differentiated support policies and specific strategies for adjustment to life in Korea by multicultural family adolescents with different backgrounds.

• 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.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.407-414
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare birth outcomes between Korean women and immigrant women. Methods: Medical records were reviewed retrospectively from 201 immigrant women and 201 Korean women who delivered babies at K women's hospital in U city from January 2006 to December 2009. Maternal outcomes related factors included nationality, age, obstetric history, delivery type, indications of cesarean section, and complications of pregnancy and delivery. Principal neonatal outcomes were birth weight, Apgar scores, and complications of newborns. Results: Immigrant women were younger and had fewer pregnancies, abortions, and surviving children than Korean women. The rate of primary cesarean section and its indication in immigrant women were not significantly different from Korean women. However, immigrant women's newborn were more likely to have low birth weight and meconium staining. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate less equity of immigrant women in women's health care, although immigrant women's babies had lower Apgar score and more meconium staining. Nurses should help immigrant women cope with labor process effectively to prevent adverse health outcomes for their newborns.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.47-64
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• 2013

This study aimed to explore the social networks which married immigrant women have in Korea. Special attention was paid to factors such as individual, family, and migrant characteristics contributing to the different patterns of social networks. I drew upon the nationally representative data on 60,719 immigrant women married to Korean men from the '2009 Survey on Korean National Survey on Multicultural Families.' Results showed that the foreign wives tended to maintain a connection with our society through contact with their neighbors and participation in social gatherings. Findings also showed that the types of social networks by the number of trusted neighbors and meetings were diverse among the immigrant women. In addition, the factors differentiating the types were mostly associated with socioeconomic resources or Korean proficiency. More interestingly, the immigrant women's contacts with their family members in their homeland contributed to their maintenance of more active social networks. These results provided a useful outlook on the relationship between patterns of social networks and the characteristics of the married immigrant women, which eventually showed a heterogeneous nature among them. At the societal level, supportive systems for enriching immigrant women's social networks should be developed particularly in terms of not their dependency, but their potential contributions to our society.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.297-307
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the dietary attitudes and meal management of married immigrant women according to residence period in Korea. The study was conducted by administering a questionnaire survey to 220 married immigrant women in Korea. More than one third of the immigrant women who stayed in Korea less than 3 years tended to eat a limited variety of foods. Irregularity of meal time decreased as residence time period increased (P<0.05). As immigrant women stayed longer in Korea, they became more responsible for the diet of their family (P<0.001) and had more time to share breakfast and dinner with all family members (P<0.05). Nearly half of immigrant women in all residence periods indicated their husband's family as the most influential factor in acquiring Korean foods (P<0.05). Immigrant women became more familiar with Korean cooking and recognition of nutritious foods (P<0.001) the longer they lived in Korea and more enjoyable meal times with family (P<0.05). In summary, as the period of residence in Korea increased, the dietary attitudes of immigrant women became more positive towards Korean food and diet culture. Further, immigrant women became more responsible for guiding children's dietary habits and offering healthy foods to their family as residence period increased. Therefore, the government and social programs should conduct constant and organized lessons on Korean culture and cooking according to residence period for immigrant women to build up stable and positive dietary attitudes.

• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-55
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• 2017

This study explored the role of Korean immigrant churches as a social context for Korean American youths, with a specific focus on its role in ethnic socialization. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 23 Korean American young adults. The results show that such churches serve as a salient social context for Korean American youths in which day-to-day lives are deeply integrated. Specifically, they serve as a salient context for coethnic peer relationships and family interactions. Moreover, Korean immigrant churches play a salient role as an agent of enculturation for Korean American youths by engaging them in cultural socialization, constructing and transmitting immigrant discourse, and providing a coethnic community. Taken as whole, findings suggest a distinct and salient role of immigrant churches in the lives of Korean American youths and highlight the importance of studying the social context specific to the children of immigrants.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.495-502
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to explore North Korean immigrant elementary students' cognitive and affective characteristics related to science education. A total of 68 North Korean immigrant students enrolled in 3 to 6 grades and 133 South Korean students in 4 and 6 grades in 3 South Korean elementary schools participated in the study. A short version of Group Assessment of Logical Thinking(GALT) was used to investigate the students' levels of logical thinking, and the Enjoyment of Science Lessons Scale(ESLS) of the Test of Science Related Attitudes(TOSRA) was administrated to examine their attitudes towards science lessons. The statistical analysis of data revealed that the level of logical thinking of the North Korean immigrant elementary students was very low and that this was also the case for the South Korean students. Especially, the mean score of logical thinking of the North Korean immigrant 6 graders was much lower when compared with that of the South Korean counterparts. For both the North Korean immigrant students and South Korean students, the enjoyment of science lessons decreased as they progressed through higher grades. This decreasing trend, however, turned out to be more serious in the South Korean elementary students. Based on these results, suggestions were presented to help successful science learning of North Korean immigrant elementary students.