• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.312-325
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate dietary behaviors and nutritional knowledge among immigrant women in multicultural families. In addition, this study reveals a necessity for nutrition education, which is apparent to both immigrant women living in multicultural families as well as nutrition education experts. The survey was conducted with 30 immigrant women within multicultural families in Seoul. The dietary behaviors of the women were significantly different by their period of residence. The longer they had resided in Korea, the higher their dietary behavior score. However, there was no significant difference in nutrition knowledge by their period of residence. This study also conducted in-depth personal interviews with 8 immigrant women who lived in Seoul, and with 4 nutrition education experts. These interviews were performed to provide profound insights regarding the content and means of nutrition education for immigrant women. Nutrition education for immigrant women living in multicultural families should proceed at a basic level in terms of language and content, using bilingual (Korean and their native language) education materials. Education topics and content need to be developed differently according to the level of Korean comprehension and period of residence in Korea. Also, this multicultural approach should be adapted when planning nutrition education since immigrant women have various acculturation levels, and the content and means of education should be adjusted to these acculturation levels. Management after nutrition education is necessary for immigrant women who do not have sufficient understanding of the Korean language. Practical educational methods such as real cooking practices and food purchasing simulations must be developed. Finally, the results suggest that the government needs to establish a systematic plan for nutrition education among immigrant women living in multicultural families. Policy support such as training nutrition educators on multicultural individuals residing in Korea is necessary for active and effective nutritional education.

• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.105-122
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• 2013

The relationship between an adolescent and his/her parents is one of the most important relationships that can have a significant effect on adolescents' well-being and functioning. While there has been an increase in research on Asian American families in recent years, still much less is known about adolescent-parent relationships in these families. Asian American adolescents face some of the challenges that mainstream European American adolescents face, but their experiences are complicated by the cultural and immigration-related factors that have unique contribution to their relationships with their parents. As such, there is urgent need for research that identifies and provides a comprehensive understanding of factors that contribute to the experiences of Asian American immigrant families. The current paper provides a systematic look at adolescent-parent relationships in Asian American immigrant families using the Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. More specifically, this paper provides a succinct review of the literature on developmental issues, immigration, and culture-related factors that affect Asian American adolescent-parent relationships, and guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory, an ecological framework of Asian American adolescent-parent relationships is proposed.

• 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 Child Studies
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.115-136
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• 2007

In South Korea, some interethnic families result from prearranged marriages where 1 spouse is an immigrant. In this study, traits of children in families of interethnic immigrant marriages were studied by individual interviews of ten kindergarten teachers responsible for them and 8 observations of their preschool classes. Subjects were 21(13 male, 8 female) 3- to 5-year-old children. Results showed the diverse traits of these children : they adapted to the environment by changing and getting along, but some of them exhibited problematic behavior such as delayed language development, confused identity, and aggression. The attitude of their peers included passive reaction, discord and receptivity regarding their difference. The attitude of the teachers was a sense of responsibility and worry.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.41-51
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• 2013

This study investigated how family capital was associated with the working memory of young school-aged children from immigrant families in the United States using the New Immigrant Survey. Family capital was identified as economic, human, cultural, and social capital, and children's working memory was measured by the Digit Span scores. Poisson regression analysis was used for examining the sample of 428 children from the New Immigrant Survey. Results indicated that cultural capital within the home was positively associated with the working memory of young school-aged children whereas economic, human, and social capital was not. Implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.337-349
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• 2011

The purpose of this research is to elucidate the analysis on leisure viewpoint of immigrant female of multi-cultural families. This survey research have been performed with 140 of immigrant females who participate to the program of multi-cultural families support center located in Kyungki-do, Taejeon city, Chungnam-do and Chungbuk-do in 2010 by purposive sampling method. The final analysis was obtained from the survey results of total 89 immigrant females and the credibility of this survey represented Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ value above .613. The apparent results were the follows: First, the major leisure time of immigrant females of multi-cultural families on week days as well as weekend represented to be 1~2 hours. Second, the satisfaction on leisure activity of immigrant females was average level. Third, the best preference as leisure activity was travel. Fourth, their husbands were the favor partner for leisure activity of immigrant females. Fifth, the restriction on leisure activity of immigrant females showed some differences based on age, academic background, nationality and residence period. That is, personal restriction of age was below 25 years old, the highest personal and relative restriction of academic background represented in immigrant females below middle school graduator. Furthemore, the structural restriction and personal restriction on nationality showed the highest in the china and phillippine females, relatively. Personal restriction on residence period was mainly represented in immigrant females residing during 2.1~4 years.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.145-153
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• 2017

Objectives: This paper aimed to contribute to better oral disease prevention and practice of health behavior for immigrant women in multi-cultural families, to define missing and filled permanent teeth index of immigrant women, data from the 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was used. Methods: For the immigrant women to be subjects, they needed to be born overseas, had acquired Korean citizenship as a married immigrant women, and the estimate of the number of subjects was 133,093 women. For analyzing data, SPSS 21statistical program was used. We used covariance analysis (ANCOVA) andgeneral linear models for finding the relation with the missing and filled permanent teeth index. The significance level was 0.05. Results: DMFT-index of immigrant women was 7.33 points. $R^2$ was 0.416; and increased with age, and $R^2$ was 0.126 points higher (p<0.01). In household income, 'lower' was 5.933 points lower than 'upper' (p<0.05), and in toothbrushing after lunch, 'yes' was 3.598 points lower than 'no' (p<0.01). In preventive treatment, 'yes' was 4.301 points lower than 'no' (p<0.05). Conclusions: The result of this paper is as follows: for maintaining oral health of immigrant women, we think that the government needs to develop an oral health policy and a customized education system suited to immigrant women for preventive management of dental disease in immigrant women. In addition, basic data will be provided for public dental health programs based on the result of the study.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.405-418
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to suggest an educational direction to aid in formulating a dietary life that is suited to Korea's multicultural families. This was achieved by analyzing the dietary life of immigrant women from multicultural families in Daegu. The study was carried out with 94 immigrant women form multicultural families who were served by public health center A (20 women), public health center B (47 women) and public health center C (27 women). Their home countries were China (55.3%), Vietnam (37.2%), Philippines (3.2%), Japan (2.1%), Uzbekistan (1.1%) and Thailand (1.1%). When the scores of their dietary balance were compared on the basis of the time they have been in Korea (Less than 1 year, 1~3 years, more than 3 years), we found that the score of immigrant women who stayed for less than 1 year was higher than those who stayed for more than 3 years (p<0.05) in terms of their intake of meats, fishes, potato, calcium, and carbohydrate. When subjects were asked about Korean food they wanted to learn how to cook, 30 different types of food were selected and 95.5% of the respondents wanted to learn in detail how to cook Korean food. The place most suitable for them to learn cooking was college (30.3%), while the house of their husband (2.2%) was lowest. Therefore, it seems that a college, public health center or welfare center are good places for immigrant women from multicultural families to participate in an education program that is designed to teach them how to cook Korean food.

• 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 Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.121-140
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to guide in providing quality services to meet the needs of married immigrants and their families. The researched agencies in this study were 14 public agencies and local government agencies, 21 married-immigrant family support centers, and 11 community social welfare centers located in the Seoul and Kyung-Gi areas. The program was categorized by the participating researchers, SPSS WIN 12.0 was used to calculate frequency, percentage and average then cross-tabulation was initiated. The results of the study are as follows: 1) The married-immigrant family support centers provide dominant services compared to public agencies and local government agencies, and community social welfare centers are located in the region of Seoul and Kyoung-Gi in the service areas of education, counseling, culture, child care and protect, support group and network. 2) All agencies provide service targeted to married immigrant women and their children 3) Three different types of agencies are mainly focused on providing Korean education programs. Married-immigrant family support centers and community social welfare centers are focused on providing computer skills programs. Public agencies and local government agencies are focused on providing vocation-oriented education. 4) Married-immigrant family support centers were investigated to service to the needs of married-immigrant families through networking with their neighboring communities.