Purpose: The purpose of the study were (a) to investigate the social support and service utilization and demand for international marriage migrant women, and (b) to examine the association among acculturative stress, social support, language literacy,...
Purpose: The purpose of the study were (a) to investigate the social support and service utilization and demand for international marriage migrant women, and (b) to examine the association among acculturative stress, social support, language literacy, and demand for the welfare service with participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, and (c) to identify the predictors of acculturation stress among international marriage migrant women.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed, using an anonymous, self-ing questionnaire. A total of 173 women residing in the Kyungpook province, South Korea were selected using a convenience sampling method. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze participants' socio-demographic characteristics. Pearson correlation tests were employed to examine the strength of relationships between acculturative stress, social support, language literacy, and demands for welfare service. Bivariate analyses were performed using the t test or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), as appropriate, to assess relationships between acculturative stress, social support, language literacy, and demands for welfare service, and participants’ socio-demographic characteristics (age, length of residence in Korea, acquisition of Korean citizenship, level of education, religious affiliation, monthly household income, and level of recognition of the mother country and its culture by Koreans). The Scheffè test was performed to validate inter-group comparisons. Finally, regression analysis was conducted to define predictors of acculturative stress. Statistical analyses were performed using a Statistical Package for the Social sciences (SPSS/WIN 15.0) and P < .05 was considered to indicate statistical significance.
Results: In this study, the most frequently used welfare services by international marriage migrant women were service for Korean language education, service for Korean traditional culture education (food culture, custom, and manner and so on), and health insurance serve, in that order. The most serious barriers for service access by migrant women were language barrier, difficult of access or visit for various reasons and lack of information, in that order. The most preferred or demanded welfare services by migrant women were service for Korean language education, health insurance service, job education or training service, child care service, child education service, financial service, and housing support, in that order.
Bivariate analyses were performed to examine the relationships between acculturative stress, social support, language literacy, demands for welfare service, and socio-demographic variables (age, length of residence, acquisition of Korean citizenship, educational level, religious affiliation, monthly household income, and level of recognition of the mother country by Koreans). Among socio-demographic variables, significant relationships were found between acculturative stress and level of recognition of the mother country or its culture by Koreans (F = 8.215, P < .001). Social support was significantly associated with educational level (F = 3.596, P = .015) and level of recognition of the mother country or its culture by Koreans (F = 14.387, P < .001). Language literacy showed a statistically significant relationship with age (F = 13.865, P < .001), acquisition of Korean citizenship (F = 3.395, P = .001), and duration of residence (F = 10.479, P < .001). Finally, duration of residence in Korea (F = 3.791, P = .006), religious affiliation (F = 4.852, P = .003), monthly household income (F = 8.124, P < .001), and level of recognition of the mother country or its culture by Koreans (F = 3.456, P = .034) all showed significant relationships with demands of welfare service.
In regression analysis, appraisal support among four dimensions of perceived social support (beta = −.424, P = .008) and demands for welfare service (beta =.155, P = .031) were significantly associated with the level of acculturative stress. This final model was statistically significant and appraisal support and demands for welfare service accounted for 30.1% (adjusted R2) of the variance in acculturative stress (P <.05).
Discussion: In the present study, the mean score for self-ed acculturative stress was 91.28 (SD = 13.56), which is higher than that ed for international college students in the U.S. (81.39 ± 24.66) although acculturative stress in migrant wives and international students can be different. Of 33 items addressing acculturative stress in this study, the three statements associated with the highest levels of agreement were ‘I feel nervous to communicate in Korean.’, ‘I miss the people and country of my origin.’, and ‘I feel sad leaving my relatives behind’, in that order. This finding is consistent with a previous finding in Korean immigrants residing in the U.S. that language literacy was negatively associated with acculturative stress, which may in turn lead to depression. Additionally, home sickness was identified as a prime source of acculturative stress in our population. Although our finding from the correlation analysis indicates that none of acculturation stress or social support showed a statistically significant correlation with language literacy, the absence of language literacy can be considered to be one of the main factors underlying acculturative stress among migrant wives in Korea. This is because the challenges of adapting to a new society include overcoming the language barrier, which can lead to depression. For migrant wives in Korea, language influences how they feel about themselves in a societal context in which Korean is the mainstream language and a requirement for success in educational and career goals, as well as for feeling of a sense of belonging to their new country. In the present work, the level of recognition or respect for the mother country and its culture afforded by Koreans was significantl
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