• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.33-60
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the life experiences of fifteen marriage immigrant Asian women who went through running away from their home countries, marrying with Korean men, divorcing from their husbands, and coping with many difficulties after their divorce in Korean society. In order to conduct this study grounded theory methods have been employed. The central phenomenon digged out from this study was 'resistance to baffled reality' (i. e. dislocation). The causal conditions which brought about the central phenomenon were 'escaping for survival' and 'experiencing the gap between reality and expectation. 'The intervening conditions included 'getting to know the reality of their husbands,' 'losing hope,' and 'not being able to pull themselves together.' The contextual conditions consisted of 'being treated as maids,' 'becoming victims of family violence,' 'making up their minds to survive,' 'securing future life,' 'being marginalized,' and 'being aware of themselves as strangers.' The action/interaction strategies on the central phenomenon were 'building support systems,' 'building up will for new life,' and 'reconstructing social identity.'The final outcome was 'arranging places of new settlement.' The divorce was classified as four types: 'coping and growth,' 'emancipation and settling down,' 'being overwhelmed by livelihood,' and 'continuous wandering.' Based on these results, this study provided a few political and practice suggestions to prevent family violence and divorces among multi-cultural families, and also to bumper the impacts of divorce.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.165-175
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• 2018

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of self-efficacy of married immigrant women on the quality of life and the moderating effect of family support in the effect relation. For this purpose, the study carried out a questionnaire survey to married immigrant women who attended multi-cultural family support centers in order to take language education and job education. Total 279 were selected as valid samples. The specific analysis results of this study are as follows. Firstly, the self-efficacy of married immigrant women has positive (+) effect on the quality of life. Secondly, the informational support in the family support has negative (-) effect on the quality of life, but evaluative and material support have positive (+) effect. In the interaction with self-efficacy, the emotional support has negative (-) effect, but the interaction with evaluative and material support has positive (+) effect. But, the interaction with informational support has no significant effect on the quality of life. The key factor affecting the quality of life on married immigrant women is the Korean family. Therefore, their quality of life can be enhanced as well as stable settlement in Korea if the families of husbands accept married immigrant women as their family members and support them.

• Journal of Family Relations
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.135-156
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• 2018

Objectives: This study aim to determine adolescent meal time, which provides the important context of parent-child sharing time. We divided mealtime into family meal and alone meal, and analyzed the time/space context of each meal time as well as the social determinations. Method: We employed adolescents age 10-18 who live with married patents and attends school at the present (n=5,128) from the original data of Korean Time Use Survey. Results: More adolescent were engaged in family meal rather than eating alone in daily bases. However, the trend show difference by day of week and academic grade; family meal are more prevalent in weekends rather than weekdays. As adolescent reaches high school age, the proportion of eating alone beats the proportion of family meal time. Most of the meal occur at home. Having meal outside was relatively scares, especially on weekdays. Tobit and logistic analysis reveal that, on weekday meal, less school hours, more time spent at the private academy, having family leisure event, and long mother's housework hours were positively associated with family meal time. In weekend model, father's education gradient was associated with family meal time, showing higher the father's education level, there were higher chance of having weekend family meal. As for the eating alone, relevant factors were similar with family meal but the directions were the opposite; having family leisure were negatively associated with alone meal, both weekdays and weekend. Long academy hours, meal preparing and leisure alone were positively associated eating alone. Overall, weekday meal time was strongly linked with adolescent daily schedules and time use, while for weekends meal, in both family meal and alone meal, the influence of parent factors were discovered. Conclusion: The results indicates that alone meal and the family meal are not exclusively related but seem to be complementary. Families tend to enjoy family meal yet, there are some necessary situation that adolescent need to be on their own. Increase in ready-made food industries, growing independence of children by age seem partly allow adolescent children to eat alone. Careful attentions may require for monitoring weekends meal situation and the family factor of adolescent in future studies.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.179-188
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• 2016

Purpose: This cross-sectional study aimed to document the dietary behaviors, dietary changes, and health status of female marriage immigrants residing in Gwangju, Korea. Methods: The survey included 92 female immigrants attending Korean language class at a multi-cultural family support center. General characteristics, health status, anthropometric data, dietary behaviors, and dietary changes were collected. Results: Mean age of subjects was 31.3 years, and home countries of subjects were Vietnam (50.0%), China (26.0%), Philippines (12.0%), and others (12.0%). Frequently reported chronic diseases were digestive diseases (13.2%), anemia (12.1%), and neuropsychiatry disorder (8.9%). Seventeen percent of the subjects was obese ($BMI{\geq}25kg/m^2$). Dietary score by Mini Dietary Assessment was 3.45 out of 5 points. Dietary scores for dairy foods, meat/fish/egg/bean intake, meal regularity, and food variety were low, and those for fried foods and high fat meat intake were also low. Thirty-three percent of subjects answered that they have changed their diet and increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables after immigration. Length of residence in Korea was positively associated with BMI and waist circumference. Length of residence tends to be positively associated with dietary changes and obesity as well as inversely associated with disease prevalence. Conclusion: The study shows that length of residence is inversely related to disease prevalence. However, this association is thought to be due to the relatively short period of residence in Korea and thus the transitional phase to adapting to dietary practices. As the length of residence increases, disease patterns related to obesity are subject to change. Healthy dietary behaviors and adaptation to dietary practices in Korea in female marriage immigrants will not only benefit individuals but also their families and social structure. Therefore, varied, long-term, and target-specific studies on female marriage immigrants are highly needed.