• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.123-136
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the marital satisfaction of husbands in multicultural families. This study will provide basic data to develop the policies and services related to multicultural families. Data were collected through the questionnaire method from 99 multicultural couples. Analysis of the data consisted of t-tests to compare the psychological characters of the couple and multiple regression to analyze the independent effects of the related variables. The results can be summarized as follows: First, self-esteem, depression, and multicultural acceptance attitude are significantly higher for the wife than for the husband. Second, regarding the influence of the relevant factors on the husband's marital satisfaction, the most significant factors include the gap in the couple's ages, the husband's self-esteem and sex role attitude, and the wife's sex role attitude, godiness, and marital satisfaction.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.265-297
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• 2013

This study performed quality study to examine cognition and experience as it is about husband role of wife's perception in rural multicultural family. Specifically the results of in-depth interviews with 13 females in rural multicultural family was analyzed through phenomenological method. The results were as followings: first, wife's cognition about husband role in rural multicultural family, they were 'nice and warm man', 'no special thought', 'clean and cool looking man', 'man without straitening wife', 'husband taking care of housekeeping', 'having independent family' and 'strong responsibility to children'. Females in rural multicultural family did not deeply think about husband's role at international marriage, but it could be known that vague longing for rich country, Korea by Korean wave and its expectation continued to expectation on husband. Second, they were 'good-tempered and nice to me', 'adjust to me', 'irresponsibility and apathy', 'cannot lean to him', 'no housekeeping', 'intermediate role between his family', 'more taking care of children, parents and relatives', 'drink, gambling and violence'. The experience of husband role was little different from cognition of husband role by females in rural mulitcultural family.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.149-175
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to find out marital conflicts and coping strategies among married female immigrants and Korean men in multicultural families. The data were collected by in.depth interviews with 12 female immigrants and 5 Korean men. The major findings of this study are as follows: Female participants suffered from marital conflicts with their spouses, conflicts with mothers.in.law, stereotyped gender roles as a wife and a daughter.in.law, economic conflicts, and cultural differences between Korea and their country. In addition, male participants reported conflicts from economic support for their wife's family, gender role differences, and cultural differences. Coping strategies used to deal with the conflicts, such as mutual dedication and understanding their spouse's stance, and developing a compromise for the family's happiness were mentioned. A personal positive nature and attitude helped them to meet the marital conflicts. Supports from their husband, parents.in.law, and society also helped female immigrants to adapt to cultural differences. However, some of them used negative coping strategies which did not reduce conflicts, and resulted in separation and divorce. The coping strategies to deal with the conflicts depended on the participants' personal ability. While female participants who had English language skills took advantage to adapt to Korean society, those who did not have any other natural abilities could develop a definite position in their family and society with their diligence and positive attitude. The results showed that female participants who were supported by their family and society tended to cope successfully with conflicts and also showed that multicultural families' marital adjustment was maintained with their efforts as well as by relationships with their relatives and society.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.31-57
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to determine what factors affect the marital life of multicultural families. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 immigrated females and their husbands living in Yongsan-Gu, Seoul, Korea, by open-ended questionnaire. The interviews took place on September 11, 2008, and October 11, 2008. The major findings can be summarized as follows: Through the content analysis of the informants' responses, three major factors were found to influence the successful adjustment of the married female immigrants: personal factors, familial support, and social support systems. Among the personal factors, the self-esteem of the married couples is relatively high. However, the factor of the economic living conditions of the multicultural families indicates some difficulty. Finally, considering the level of self-development of the female immigrants' husbands, an older husband was viewed more negatively than a younger one. In terms of familial support, the most important factor affecting the adjustment of a foreign wife is the trust of her husband and her relationship with the husband's family. Accordingly, educational programs are necessary to promote multicultural understanding and the couples' relations. In social support systems, the female immigrants experienced neglect, as far as multicultural prejudice in society. Therefore, in order to revitalize the self-esteem of immigrants, we need to reach out to multicultural families. The center for support of multicultural families provides opportunities to find training, upgrade education for employment, and expand their social network. In addition, it is necessary for the national public relations industry to recognize improvements regarding the adjustment of multicultural families.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.101-117
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• 2011

This research is intended to explore the adaptation process for immigrant women and their Korean spouses through a qualitative method. It is aimed at understanding how immigrant women and their Korean spouses have adjusted to their lives in Korea over the last 10 years and how they have dealt with difficulties in the adaptation process. The participants were 15 intermarried couples consisting of a Southeast Asian wife and a Korean husband. They got married through matchmakers and have children between the ages of 8 and 13. The study carried out in-depth interviews. To analyze the interview data, the qualitative software program Nvivo8 was used. The results showed that immigrant women and their Korean spouses experienced confusion at first. They struggled adapting to each other's lifestyles and made efforts to establish harmony. In the end, they made their own family identity as a multicultural family. The study widens the understanding of multicultural families by focusing on both wives and husbands. Also, the use of the Nvivo8 software strengthens the reliability of the data analysis. The results will contribute to providing interracial couples with the adaptive strategies.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.109-126
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• 2013

This study seeks to determine how personality patterns on marital adjustment are influenced by interacting with conflict resolution styles. Data for this study were collected from intermarriage couples comprising 293 pairs (586 patients) who lived in Korea for at least 5years. Snowball sampling was carried out from August to October 2011. SPSS 18.0 was used to analyze the collected data. The results of this study are as follows: (a) The conscientiousness and openness of personality patterns turned out to be common personality factors that represent a positive affect on the intermarried couples' effort to adapt. (b) The extroversions, agreeableness, and neuroticism shown significantly increase and decrease the intermarried husband's marital adjustment, but the same did not have a significant influence on the intermarried wife's marital adjustment. (c) Factors that affect marital adjustment, the conflict resolution styles of intermarriage couples showed different results depending on the gender. (d) The Intermarried wife's personality patterns represented a positive affect on her marital adjustment by interacting with her husband's conflict resolution styles, while the intermarried husband's personality patterns represented a positive affect on his marital adjustment by interacting with his wife's conflict resolution styles. The implications of this study will be discussed in the conclusion.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.299-321
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate how marriage migration females understand and adjust to the culture of family life in Korea. The study was the conducted by extensively interviewing one member from each of a total of 16 women's multicultural families at a daycare center area in Seoul between June 16, 2010 and July 28, 2010. The results can be summarized as follows: All interviewees were marriage migration females, in the range 20 to 50 years of age, and with middle educational backgrounds. They all had middle-level incomes. Through the content analysis of the informants' responses, three major factors were found to influence the understanding and adjustment of to the culture of family living: personal factors, familial support, and sociocultural support systems. Among the personal factors, the intimacy of the married couples was trouble major factor. An issue that tended to arise was that Korean husbands' traditional culture in terms of their way of thinking was often different from that of the wife's culture. However, husbands supported their wives' outside activities and friendships in order to help them adjust to the culture of family living. The husbands made an effort to understand their wives' original culture and national food, often visiting restaurants that served their wives' national cuisine. In terms of familial support, the most important factors affecting marriage migration females were orienting the education of children to the mother's native language, cooking their national foods, and visiting the mother's nation with the children. Marriage migration females had the following requires: The teacher in the daycare center needed to be interested in children from multicultural families and encourage self-pride in the marriage migration females' children. In terms of sociocultural support systems, marriage migration females are conscious of the indisposition and lack of consideration in Korean life. However, the Korean government and local provinces are concentrating attention on education for marriage migration females in terms of language, because learning the language can help these women to become accustomed to the rituals of Korean life. Marriage migration females make an effort to understand and adjust to Korean family living culture that involves the food culture for ceremonial occasions, folk plays, and places of historic interest. A matter of importance is Korean people's effort to understand and adjust to multicultural family with their distinctive cultures. Welfare policy related to multicultural families involves adopting supportive laws and actions.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.55
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• pp.91-128
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to develop an effective intervention strategy for marriage migrant woman in family therapy. For this purpose, we collected counseling cases of professional counselors who successfully completed counseling and attempted the qualitative analysis of treatment intervention strategies and effects. The results of the study were obtained by dividing the meaning units in the immigrant woman's statements made during the counseling process composed of a total of 6 sessions. The counselors were analyzed to have tried the following intervention strategies. They attempted the following six strategies: Helping emotional differentiation by searching for unresolved emotional problems, dealing with undifferentiation due to family projection process and love triangle, dealing with multi-generational transfer process of the original family relationship patterns and coping mechanism, shedding lihgt on ineffectiveness of inconsistent communication due to emotional oppression applying a communication model of MRI, switching client's awareness through reorganization, suggesting a way of communication that leads to real self. Such counselors' attempts resulted in positive changes and treatment effects were found to include first, cognitive insights and motivation for change, second, improved communication skills and third, anxiety reduction and self-differentiation. Due to their husbands' refusal to participate in counseling, marriage migrant women often get involved in counseling alone, so they tend to worry that the effectiveness of family therapy may be low but it was found that the proper intervention of the counselor could improve the ability of the wife to resolve conflicts, which would be a great help in solving problems such as family violence and this study is meaningful in that it provided the appropriate therapeutic intervention strategies needed.

• 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.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.95-120
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to find the factors that facilitate married female immigrants' early adjustment in Korea. For this purpose, 14 immigrated female participants living in Daegu were interviewed in-depth by using an open-ended questionnaire. The major findings are as follows: Through content analysis of participants' responses, three major factors were found to influence successful adjustment of married female immigrants personal factors, familial support and the social support system. Among the personal factors, having a conservative marital attitude, optimism and liking the partner rather than economic concern for the reason of marital decision making are contributing factors to the successful marital adjustment. Above all, familial support, a husband's good personality, care, and active support are the important factors in a foreign wife's adjustment and life satisfaction. Parent-in-law's help and tolerance playa role in a foreign daughter-in-law's successful adjustment. In the social support system, joined activities and the support of mends from the homeland make a contribution to decreasing the sense of isolation and to giving mental well-being for married female immigrants. The center for support of multicultural family gives them the opportunity to meet people from their homelands and to expand the social network.