• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.63-78
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• 2006

This study is planned to help women in international marriages to develop their sense of self-esteem and their family life and to adapt to Korean society, The findings are as follows: First, the women in international marriage tend to have low self-esteem and difficulty to adapt themselves to the society due to language barrier, cultural conflicts, sense of alienation, isolation and so on. however, now they seem to have the strength of mind by themselves, to accept other people and to adapt to the society better than before the education program by having had communications with the program members and their allied mothers in the program. Second, the cohesion among the program members per session has improved over the sessions, and the members' interest in the education program has increased. moreover, the members have opened up themselves over time. Third, the alliances with Korean teachers as their allied mothers not only helped their Korean but also taught the members about family life. It helped the members to adjust to their family life and became a mental support.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.17-31
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• 2015

Objectives: This paper aims to identify the health related behaviors patterns and its associated factors among marriage immigrant women in Korea, and discusses their application to health promotion strategies. Methods: The study participants were 7,591 immigrant wives in Gyeonggi province who participated in health examinations conducted by the Korea Association of Health Promotion in 2011-2013. The participants completed self-administered questionnaires on sociodemographics, psychological characteristics, health status and health care factors, and health related behaviors. Results: A 3-latent-class model of health behaviors was identified related to 'lack of physical activity', 'abnormal diet', and 'not experienced medical check-up': 'high risk class', 'middle risk class', and 'low risk class'. Most of the participants belong to 'middle risk class'. Country of origin, age, length of stay, number of children, work status, health insurance status, and unmet health care needs were associated with problematic health behaviors in middle risk health behavior class. Conclusions: Health promotion and intervention programs for marriage immigrant women and their family members need to consider the health behavior patterns of physical inactivity, abnormal diet and no medical check-up and develop multiple behavior intervention with pre-existing program modification.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.325-343
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was conducted in order to identify and describe the experiences of health care during pregnancy, birthing, and postpartum period for Vietnamese marriage immigrants. Methods: The participants were 15 Vietnamese married immigrant women who became pregnant and gave birth within the last five years. Data were collected by in-depth interview with Vietnamese women. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi's method of phenomenology. Results: Six theme clusters were extracted as follows: 'being left with no other option in loneliness and longing filled in a limited life', 'continued trials and errors amidst frustration and fear', 'silently following orders despite the quality of medical services that change with each medical care provider', 'compromise by selecting amidst confusion between the Korean way and the way at home', 'depending on family, who is the communication channel, but becoming disappointed', and 'finding the reason for existence and struggling by herself to become a mother amidst doubled confusion'. Conclusion: A program for effective empowerment of Vietnamese immigrant women should be developed. In addition multicultural family centered programs should be developed with emphasis on acceptance of women's culture, respect for her culture, and supports. Medical staffs and nurses should also improve culturally sensitive competence in order to provide care for immigrant women.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.47-65
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• 2017

Objectives: This paper aims to identify depressive or stress related symptoms and its associated risk and protective factors among marriage immigrant women in Korea. Methods: The study participants were 490 immigrant wives from '2012 Survey of Foreign Residents in Korea'. The participants completed self-administered questionnaires on socio-demographics, health status, family members' related factors, and other environmental factors. Results: Difficulties on child nursing, finance, family conflict, and experience of physical or verbal violence were significant risk variables to the depressive stress related symptoms. Family life satisfaction, discussion about troubles with Koreans, healthy status, social trust, and discussion about troubles with people from home country were the significant protective variables to mental health. However economic activities were not protective factors but risk factors. Conclusions: Mental Health promotion programs for marriage immigrant women and their family members need to consider the family and community related protective mental health factors and develop supportive system with pre-existing programs and policy modification.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.36-45
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the correlation coefficient cultural competence, health promotion behavior, and quality of life of married immigrant women in Korea. Methods: The participants included 88 married immigrant women who applied to educational programs for medical tour coordinators and agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires that were constructed to include scales to measure cultural competence, health promotion behavior, and quality of life. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients with SPSS/WIN 19.0. Results: Both cultural competence and health promotion behavior were different according to the husband's occupation. There was a positive correlation between cultural competence and quality of life, a positive correlation between health promotion behavior and quality of life, and a positive correlation between health promotion behavior and cultural competence. Conclusion: From a long-term point of view, various programs for married immigrant women should greatly strengthen their cultural competence and help them become genuine members of our society and live an independent life. Developing detailed and active programs for nursing intervention to constitute a healthy lifestyle and improve the quality of life is recommended.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.5-11
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand spousal support, demand for health education, and quality of life for married female immigrants. Methods: A total of 120 subjects with adequate communication skills participated in this study from March 1, 2006 until January 30, 2007. Participants were female visitors at the Immigrant Consultation Center in "M City", "Y County" and "M County" in South Jeolla Province. The questionnaire used in this study consisted of a total of 42 items. Data were analyzed using SPSS/win 10.2 to describe subjects' characteristics by frequency, and descriptive statistics, and to test group differences by t-test and ANOVA. Results: The highest demand for health education was exercise, and followed by stress management and diet. The level of spousal support for subjects was below average, and the level of quality of life was above the medium. The most difficult thing in their life was the difficulty in language. There was a significant difference in quality of life by level of education, level of life satisfaction, number of childbirths, and age. There was also a significant difference in spousal support by level of life satisfaction. Conclusion: There is a need for a multidimensional strategy to improve the quality of life and spousal support for immigrant females in international marriages.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.248-256
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• 2008

Purpose: The findings of various studies and policy reports on marriage change, international marriage migrant women and its issues are presented in this study. Method: Research objectives were accomplished by conducting a literature review. The main areas of the literature review included married migrant women, its challenges, and current policies for international marriage migrant women. Result: Women migrating through international marriage are known to face various difficulties due to their migration. Some important obstacles women migrants face in the Republic of Korea are cultural differences in daily lifestyle, language, food, health care services, cultural assumptions, gender structure, family relationships, expected roles within family, interpersonal relationships and more. The plights of married migrant women include commercialization of international marriage, false information regarding the spouse, family abuse, insecure nationality, economic difficulty and unemployment, racial prejudice, and cultural maladjustment. Current support policies for migrant women living in Korea are suggested. Conclusion: This study concluded with policy implications and recommendations for future study. In addition, the author suggests the necessity of programs and policies for the improvement of married migrant women's well-being based on women's health and family nursing dimensions.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.222-231
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• 2012

In order determine potential correlations of multicultural family's male spouses' bicultural stress and communication with their marital satisfaction, this study surveyed male spouses of foreign female participants in a variety of multicultural family assistance programs available at national marital immigrants assistance centers and healthy family assistance centers of Korea, The results of this survey can be summed up as follows: First, with regard to subordinate categories of bicultural stress, it was found that cultural shock (M= 4.32) scored the highest mean points in bicultural stress, while perceived hostility scored the lowest mean points in bicultural stress, where the higher points indicate the higher bicultural stress. Secondly, in terms of cultural adaptation stress, it was found that the group exposed to higher cultural adaptation stress felt more satisfied at marital life. Thirdly, with regard to communication with foreign female spouses, it was found that frequently communicating group had higher marital stability. Finally, it was found that communication worked as a mediator in potential effects of bicultural stress on marital satisfaction.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.264-276
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• 2023

Purpose: Food environmental factors related to food insecurity affect household food intake in several socio-ecological aspects. This study explores the relationship between food environment factors and food insecurity in households with married immigrant women. Methods: From November 2018 to February 2020, a survey was conducted enrolling 249 married immigrant women residing in the metropolitan areas of South Korea. In the final analysis, 229 subjects were divided into 2 groups classified as food security (n = 154) and food insecurity (n = 75), as assessed by the score of food security. Three aspects of food environments were measured: built·natural, political·economic, and socio-cultural Results: Food environments were significantly different between food security and food insecurity groups, as follows: the number of foods market and their distance from the home and food status for the last week at home in the built·natural domain; monthly cost of food purchase and experience for food assistance in the political·economic domain; total score of social support, parenting, and cooking skills in the socio-cultural domain. A stepwise multivariate linear regression model showed a negative association between the food insecurity score with social support from family and food inventory status in the last week. After adjusting for confounders, a positive association was obtained between the experience of a food support program. The final regression model explains about 30% of the relationship obtained in the three food environment domains and food insecurity (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Not only economic factors, which are common determinants of household food insecurity, but socio-cultural factors such as social support also affect household food insecurity. Therefore, plans for implementing a food assistance program to improve food insecurity for households with immigrant women should consider financial support as well as other comprehensive aspects, including socio-cultural domain such as social support from family and community.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.197-212
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• 2016

Objectives : This study develops a salutogenic program and examines its effects on the sense of coherence, acculturative stress, and quality of life of married immigrant women. Methods : The salutogenic program was developed based on Antonovsky's Salutogenic Model, and the study design was a nonequivalent control group pre-post test design. The participants were married immigrant Chinese (n=30) and Vietnamese (n=31) women, who were assigned to either an experimental group (n=29) or a control group (n=32). The data were analyzed using the ${\chi}^2$-test, t-test, Fisher's exact test, and repeated measures ANOVA, and the IBM SPSS for Windows (version 20.0) program was used to perform the analysis. Results : Compared to the control group, the sense of coherence (F=52.05, p <.001) and quality of life (F=6.95, p=.002) were significantly improved in the experimental group, and the acculturative stress (F=24.64, p<.001) in this group significantly decreased after implementing salutogenic program. Conclusions : These findings indicate that a salutogenic program is an effective intervention for married immigrant women. The study suggests that such programs can be applied to married immigrant women at public health or multicultural family support centers to improve their sense of coherence and quality of life.