• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.153-172
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to find out cultural differences and types of adjustments made in response to the differences between married female immigrants and Korean men of multicultural families. The data were collected by in-depth interviews with 15 female immigrants and 5 Korean men. The major findings of this study were as follows : The female participants experienced cultural differences between Korea and their country in the areas of living culture, stereotyped gender role, and family's cultural traits. The male participants reported cultural differences in terms of the economic supports provided to the wife's family. The types and strategies of acculturation were as follows : adjusting themselves to the spouse's cultural type, the couple's mutual acceptance of the other's cultural type, and female participants resignation to accept help from their husband. The types of acculturation to the cultural differences based on couples' personal efforts and hard work invested into acculturation and the support from their family and society. The results of the study supported that multicultural families' perception of cultural differences and types of adjustment originited from their own experiences and cultural background.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.174-186
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• 2011

Purpose: The study examined the correlation of perceived health status, health behaviors, and marital satisfaction in women who have immigrated to Korea through marriage. Method: Data were collected via questionnaires that investigated health status, health behaviors, Korean language ability, characteristics of couple, and marital satisfaction. Three hundred four subjects were selected for a 4-month period. The data of 300 subjects were analyzed using descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, and correlation, after four questionnaires were excluded due to incomplete data. Results: Perceived health status varied significantly according to nationality, existence of religion, and period of immigration. The scores for perceived health status among women who had lived in Korea for more than 5 years were lower than for women who had resided for 1-3 years. There was a significant positive correlation between health status and health behavior, and health status and Korean language ability, but a negative correlation between health status and age. Conclusion: A program for the improvement of health in immigrant women should include communication assistance as their mother language and should provide periodic health screening.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.17-33
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to find out the features of the Korean family change since 2,000 and to interpret the meaning of the change on the basis of the critical review of both the positive perspective and the negative perspective of the family change in Korea. Through the method of the literature review and the analysis of the various statistics by KOSTAT, it is drawn that explaining the change only by "diversity of family compositions" is not enough to figure out the meaning of the family change in Korea today and that it is needed to go further to approach the change as disintegration of the 'nuclear' composed of the married couple and their children. It is also drawn that the disintegration has led to weakening of the long term functions by the family, i. e., the function of life and of the virtues, which shakes the way of human life and the order of our society. Therefore, the present family change in Korea is to be understood as crisis, not as progress. And it is recommended that the family politics in Korea is to be focused on the ways for the healthy functioning and rebuilding the nuclear of the family.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.49-62
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• 2010

As people get aged, we need to pay more attention to the elderly living condition with respect to welfare policy. The present study focuses on housing condition of elderly people living in rural area, and analyzes its determinants, periodical difference, and regional disparities, incorporating an index of minimum housing standard. This study applies multi-level logit model that has a strong statistical advantage that can take random aspects of household and regional context into account. We found that married couple household, presence of economically-active family members, higher education, specialized profession, migration and higher level of land price tend to lower the probability of residing in substandard housings. We also found that housing conditions for elderly people prove to be different by regions and it is particularly noticeable in mountainous rural areas in Gyeongsangnam-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do with the poorest elderly housing conditions. Results also implies that housing welfare policies should be implemented differently considering the target groups based on regional differences. We conclude with some additional policy implications for the elderly living in rural areas.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.171-179
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the actor and partner effects of the parental sex-role attitude on the parent-child relationship by using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). Specifically, this study focused on the examination of the actor and partner effects of the parental sex-role attitude in married couples with immigrant women who have children under 5 years old. For the analyses, a total of 5,531 couples who participated in the National Survey on Multi-cultural Families were included and the major findings are as follows. First, the couple's sex-role attitude had a statistically significant actor effect on the parent-child relationship. Parents who were more conscious of gender equality displayed a better parent-child relationship and this effect was greater in the case of the father's attitude than the mother's. Second, the father's sex-role attitude had a statistically significant partner effect on the mother-child relationship, whereas the mother's attitude did not. Third, the couple's actor effects were greater than their partner effects and this means that the personal sex-role attitude has a greater impact on the parent-child relationship than the partners' attitude. The implication and limitations derived from these empirical-scientific database results and related studies in educational program of gender equality attitude for multi-cultural families.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.127-150
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of parenting stress on marital conflict in dual earner couples with children in early childhood. Actor and Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was conducted in order to identify how parenting stress affect husband and wife, respectively and how this make the actor effect as well as the partner effect regarding the marital conflict. The research was conducted with 629 married couples from the forth wave of the Panel Study of Korean Children (PSKC) data. In order to examine the relationships between the variables and to evaluate the appropriateness of the research model, structural equation model was used. The results showed that the parenting stress had significant positive effect on the marital conflict. The partner effect of parenting stress was significantly positive. This result implies that the mutual dependence in dual earner couple's marital conflict and parenting stress should be considered in the process of intervention. In other words, to improve the effectiveness of intervention, practitioners should treat couples together rather than being focused on individuals.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.104-142
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• 1989

IndustrialiBation and urbanisation have been known to increase divorce rates through the enhancement of emotional function of flmily, the weakness of extendedfamilial network, the separation of public and private spheres, increase of educationallevel for women, increase of labor participation rate for women, and the pursuit ofegalitarian relationship for the couple. Divorce rates by sex, age, province andeducation in Korea for the period 1970 ~ 1995 were examined using the data ofmarriage and divorce registration and population census. Crude divorce rates, sex-age-specific divorce rates and sex-age-adjusted divorce rates were calculated for thetotal population and the married population respectively, and the characteristics ofvarious divorce indicators were discussed. During 1970~1995, divorce rates increasedthree times, and divorce rate in 1995 was 3.5 per 1,000 married persons. Divorcerate was highest for those under 25 years old, and it was increasing rapidly fDr allages, with the most rapid increase fDr the middle-aged. The relative divorce increaserate was highest fDr females than males. Divorce rates were highest for Seoul, Pusan,Inchon, Taejon, Kyonggi, and Jeju, and for aged 25 ~ 34 years of Chonbuk andKangwon. Divorce rate was highest fDr the male elementary-school graduates andlowest for the male college graduates, it was highest for the female high-schoolgraduates and lowest for the female uneducated.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.33-56
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• 2007

This study explores the pattern of socio-demographic characteristics of divorced couples of international marriage in Korea. This paper focuses on analyzing the effect of dissimilarity between husband and wife on the duration of marriage of divorced couples. It examines whether the differences of socioeconomic characteristics of the married couples are linked to different process within their relationships and duration of marriage. Attention is focused on couple's age and education. Micro-data from divorce registration for the period of 1995-2005 are utilized. Results of analyses reveal the following. First, married couples may have different responses to dissimilarity between the partners according to the combination of nationality of the couples. This indicates that cross-border marriage does not represent the same type of union in different societies or cultures. Second, both dissimilarities of age and education show negative impacts on the marital duration of the couples with foreign wives, but there is a difference in its pattern. Age dissimilarity displays higher impacts on the duration. Third, the result also indicates that the contribution of dissimilarity of age and education on marital duration is relatively small among the couples with foreign husbands.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.33-48
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore factors related to marital satisfaction among immigrant wives compared to Korean wives of Korean men. Participants included 409 immigrant wives married to Korean men and 474 Korean wives married to Korean men, both currently living in Korea. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that there were different sets of variables that predicted marital satisfaction for each group. Egalitarian decision-making was a significant predictor of marital satisfaction for immigrant wives only, whereas for Korean wives, it was the level of their depressive symptoms that was significantly but negatively associated with marital satisfaction. A wife's positive perception of her husband's communication style emerged as the strongest predictor of marital satisfaction for both Korean and immigrant wives. In addition, indicators of the cultural context of immigrant women (i.e., longer stay in Korea and greater frequency of experiencing discrimination in the past year due to their foreign appearance or status) emerged as significant predictors of immigrant wives' marital satisfaction even after taking demographic factors, depressive symptoms, and couple-level factors into account. The findings of this study contribute to existing research by (1) comparing the models of marital satisfaction for Korean wives and immigrant wives, identifying unique predictors for each group, and (2) examining the effect of cultural adaptation on the martial satisfaction of immigrant wives.

• Journal of Family Relations
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.77-98
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• 2016

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore perceived meanings of dating and marriage among well-educated Korean couples who were in optimal marriageable ages. Particularly, an emphasis was placed on finding out where the traditional gender norms and post-modern contexts intersect on the couples' course of dating and marriage. Method: We undertook a qualitative analysis of 8 couples (age: 26-34) dating. Participants were limited to university graduates of upper-middle rank universities in Seoul, South Korea. The rationale for choosing such sample was based on the idea that characteristics of class is inherent in the act of dating and marriage, and that such characteristics lead to different contextual experiences in dating and marriage. This study was based on interviews conducted over a three-month time span. The interviews were first transcribed into research text and then subjects and key categories were drawn from the transcripts for analysis. Results: Participants sought meanings of joy, learning, and self-improvement in dating, and they were free from traditional gender norms in their romantic relationships. They viewed marriage as having a permanent companionship with their partner, becoming independent from their parents, and/or a social norm to be followed. Participants reported mixed perceptions about marriage in such fashion that they described their parents' relationship in terms of a gendered leader-supporter relationship, while viewing their own relationship as being genderless partners. In transition to parenthood, however, they regressed to traditional gender norms dichotomized as women being a homemaker and men being a breadwinner. In sum, participants displayed expectations that were inconsistent with regard to dating and marriage over the study period. That is, during the course of dating and early marriage, they did not hold separated gender norms; however, when transitioning from being a newly married couple to giving their first childbirth, expectations shifted to traditional gender norms and values. Conclusion: This suggests that it is not marriage, but the experience of childbirth and motherhood, which strengthen traditional gendered norms, engendering regeneration of the gender norms in families. The results indicate that there is a need to promote co-parenting behavior among the newly-married couples and to educate gender equality about parent roles or for parents in South Korea so that they can overcome traditional gendered norms in family.