PURPOSE: This qualitative study aimed to develop a substantive theory of the process of adaptation to motherhood in Central Asian-Korean immigrants to Korea.METHODS: Individual, in-depth interviews were conducted from July to September 2017, with 18 women who emigrated of Korean ethnicity from Central Asia to Korea, and took care of their baby for at least a year after their first delivery in Korea. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data from the transcriptions were analyzed through Strauss and Corbin's grounded theory method, and data analysis was conducted simultaneously with data collection.RESULTS: As a result of categorizing the interview data through the process of open coding, 10 categories, with 31 subcategories and 102 concepts were drawn, and “growth as a Central Asian-Korean mother in an unfamiliar, historical hometown” was found to be the core category of the process of adaptation to motherhood in Central Asian-Korean immigrants to Korea.CONCLUSION: A characteristic of the process of adaptation to motherhood in Central Asian-Korean immigrants to Korea, drawn from this study, is that it differs according to the level of initiative to carry out interaction strategies, and the use of various supportive social resources. The findings indicate the need for Medicare eligibility adjustment for antenatal care, the extension of the visa renewal period during childbirth, the development of web- or mobile application-based educational programs in Russian language, and the establishment of integrated visiting healthcare services, community service resources, and policy support to enable these women to utilize various supportive social resources.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Asia ; Clinical Coding ; Data Collection ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Female ; Grounded Theory ; Humans ; Korea ; Medicare ; Methods ; Mothers ; Parturition ; Qualitative Research ; Social Welfare ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the mothers' native country on influenza vaccinations in adolescents in multicultural families. METHODS: Data were gathered from the 13th (2017) Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey. Logistic regression analyses were conducted using a complex sample data analysis method. The participants in this study had a father who was born in Korea and a mother born outside of Korea. The sample included 481 adolescents. RESULTS: The analysis of non-adjusted confounding variables showed that influenza vaccination was higher in multicultural adolescents whose mother's native country had an annual minimum temperature less than 21℃ (odds ratio [OR]: 1.81, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.20~2.74). Furthermore, when the analysis was adjusted for confounding variables, an annual minimum temperature less than 21℃ in the mother's native country had a statistically significant association with influenza vaccination (OR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.36~3.29). CONCLUSION: Multicultural adolescents belong to a socioeconomically vulnerable class, and their health promotion behaviors are influenced by their mothers' culture. Thus, healthcare providers and school nurses should provide adolescents with appropriate information related to influenza vaccination depending on their mothers' culture and their family's cultural background.
Adolescent* ; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) ; Cultural Diversity ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Fathers ; Health Personnel ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Influenza Vaccines ; Influenza, Human* ; Korea* ; Logistic Models ; Methods ; Mothers ; Risk-Taking* ; Seasons* ; Statistics as Topic ; Vaccination*

PURPOSE: Following legal reform in 2013, the annual number of asylum seekers entering South Korea has increased from 1,143 in 2012 to 5,711 in 2015. We interviewed six African refugee mothers of young children regarding their health needs and barriers to access maternal child health services. METHODS: We recruited mothers who had visited a clinic for immigrants between July 2013 and August 2015. Participants were African refugee women, aged over 18 years, who had given birth in Korea within the previous 5 years and had come to Korea over a year before recruitment. Interview questions examined participants' experiences in pregnancy and childbirth and concerns regarding their child's health status. Initial data analysis involved all researchers' immersion in the entire collection of transcripts. We then noted recurrent topics and themes and identified similar issues. RESULTS: At the time of giving birth, 5 participants were asylum seekers and one had undocumented status. The following barriers impeded their access to maternal child healthcare: socioeconomic factors (unstable social identity, low economic status, difficulty obtaining health insurance), language barriers (lack of linguistically appropriate health information, limited access to translation services), and cultural barriers (religious and cultural differences). Weak social support also hindered access to healthcare soon after migration; however, social links with the community emerged as a key coping strategy following settlement. CONCLUSION: We identified barriers to maternal and child healthcare and coping strategies among African refugee mothers in Korea. Future research should assess refugees' health status and improve health access and literacy among refugee mothers.
Child ; Communication Barriers ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Female ; Health Services Accessibility ; Humans ; Immersion ; Infant ; Korea* ; Literacy ; Maternal-Child Health Services ; Mothers* ; Parturition ; Pregnancy ; Refugees* ; Social Identification ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experience of becoming a mother after child-birth of Chinese immigrant women in Korea. METHODS: Ten Chinese immigrant women were recruited from multi-cultural center in the metropolitan area. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth interview from July 2015 to May in 2016. Interview was conducted until the data were theoretically saturated. Data analysis was performed simultaneously with the data collection, and the contents of the interview were analyzed according to the Corbin and Strauss' grounded theory method. RESULTS: In total, 36 concepts were produced through the analysis, and similar concepts were combined to derive 16 categories. Based on the relation between the categories, the core category is analysed as ‘becoming culture integrating mothers’. The attainment process from this procedural approach are described as cultural intimidated stage, cultural conflicting stage, cultural cooperating stage, cultural integrating stage. There are three types of ‘becoming cultural integrating mothers’, integrating type, conflicting type, and intimidated type. CONCLUSION: Based on these results, it is suggested to develop the nursing intervention program including cultural sensitive education and consultation program for helping becoming a mother in each type of the Chinese immigrant women in Korea. In addition, nurse or nursing student education program to enhance the cultural sensitivity is also needed.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Data Collection ; Education ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Female ; Grounded Theory* ; Humans ; Korea* ; Methods ; Mothers* ; Nursing ; Statistics as Topic ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: This study was done to examine the prevalence and associated factors of depressive symptoms among married immigrant women in South Korea. METHODS: Data from the 2015 Living Profiles of Multiculture Family Survey were used in this study. The sample consisted of 1,579 married immigrant women aged 19 to 39 years. Sociodemographic, acculturation, and social support factors were analyzed. Logistic regression was used for the data analysis. RESULTS: Married immigrant women having a poor relationship with their husbands and a culture gap with husbands were more likely to report depressive symptoms. Low socioeconomic status, no satisfaction with mother role, and no satisfaction with father role, and high social support resources were associated with depressive symptoms among married immigrant women in Korea. Having a moderate level of social support resources was more likely to lower the risk of depressive symptoms than high social support resources. CONCLUSION: The findings in this study indicate that prevention of depressive symptoms in married immigrant women in Korea could be aided by acculturation programs that include participation of husbands and social supports for the parenting role.
Acculturation ; Depression* ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Fathers ; Female ; Humans ; Korea* ; Logistic Models ; Mothers ; Parenting ; Parents ; Prevalence ; Social Class ; Spouses ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to assess predictor variables of husbands in multicultural families and examine the relationship among variables after setting up a hypothetical model including influencing factors, so as to provide a framework necessary for developing nursing interventions of domestic violence. METHODS: The participants were 260 husbands in multicultural families in four cities in Korea. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 20.0. RESULTS: Self-control, social support, family of origin violence experience and stress on cultural adaptation directly affected to dysfunctional communication, and the explanatory power of the variables was 64.7%. Family of origin violence experience in domestic stress on cultural adaptation, and dysfunctional communication were directly related to domestic violence in multicultural families, and the explanatory power of the variables was 64.6%. We found out that all variables in the model had mediation effects to domestic violence through dysfunctional communication. In other words, self-control and social support had complete mediation effects, and family of origin violence experience in domestic violence and stress on cultural adaptation had partial mediation effects. CONCLUSIONS: The variables explained in this study should be considered as predictive factors of domestic violence in multicultural families, and used to provide preventive nursing intervention. Our resutls can be taken into account for developing and implementing programs on alleviating dysfunctional communication in multicultural families in Korea.
Acculturation ; Communication ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; *Cultural Diversity ; Domestic Violence/ethnology/*statistics & numerical data ; Emigrants and Immigrants/psychology/statistics & numerical data ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Models, Psychological ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Self-Control/psychology ; Social Support ; Spouses/ethnology/psychology/statistics & numerical data ; Stress, Psychological/ethnology/etiology

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore preserved belief system supporting Korean immigrant women's Taekyo practices and influencing factors while they observe the tradition within US sociocultural context. METHODS: Leininger's exploratory focused ethnographic approach was used. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with purposive sample of sixteen Korean immigrant women who gave birth in the US within last 6 months. Researcher's observation and reflective field notes were also integrated into the interview data. Leininger and McFarland's four phases of ethnographic analysis guided data analysis process. RESULTS: The perceived belief system supporting Taekyo practices included Taekyo as an enculturated Korean tradition, connecting parents with fetus, and positive impacts on fetal development. And Korean immigrant women's Taekyo practices were influenced by resources of information, woman's orientation toward Taekyo, pressure from local Korean community, and child order. CONCLUSION: The findings from this research would serve as an important knowledge base to expand US health care providers' understanding of Korean traditional Taekyo practices observed by Korean immigrant women's as important prenatal self-care practices. The findings could also aid in providing more patient-centered and culturally-tailored prenatal care plan to Korean immigrant by including Korean traditional belief system supporting Taekyo practices.
Child ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Female ; Fetal Development ; Fetus ; Humans ; Knowledge Bases ; Parents ; Parturition ; Pregnancy ; Prenatal Care ; Self Care* ; Statistics as Topic ; United States*

At present, more than 500,000 foreigner workers, most of them from Asian countries with high parasitic infection rates, are working in Korea. Since investigation into the prevalence of parasitic infections in foreigner workers has not yet been conducted in Korea, the present study was performed to determine the parasitic infection status of foreigner workers living in Cheonan City, Chungcheongnam-do (Chungnam Province) and to plan, on that basis, effective control measures. From October to December 2013, the parasitic infection status of 231 foreigner workers employed at selected Cheonan-si small businesses was investigated by both stool examination and ELISA. A total of 60 individuals (26.0%) were found to be infected with parasites. The stool examination detected 14 positive cases (6.1%), and ELISA revealed 50 positive people (21.6%), for at least a kind of parasitic disease. The most common infection was cysticercosis (8.7%), followed by toxocariasis (7.8%) and clonorchiasis (7.4%). Since it was proved that parasitic infections were prevalent among foreigner workers living in Cheonan City, more comprehensive study is urgently needed in order to understand the nationwide status of parasitic infections in foreigner workers.
Adult ; Animals ; Asia ; Emigrants and Immigrants/*statistics & numerical data ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Feces/parasitology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Parasites/classification/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Parasitic Diseases/*diagnosis/epidemiology/parasitology ; Prevalence ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Travel ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of health status and health behaviors on depression in married female immigrants in South Korea. METHODS: Sampling 316 immigrant women from the Philippines, Vietnam, China, and other Asian countries, a cross-sectional research design was used with self-report questionnaires that assessed sociodemographic characteristics, health status, health behaviors, and depression. RESULTS: There were significant differences in stillbirth experience, induced abortion, morbidity, perceived health status, meal skipping, and physical activity between depressed and nondepressed immigrant women. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, stillbirth experience, poorer perceived health status, more meal skipping, and less physical activity were associated with greater depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Both health status and health behaviors had significant impacts on depression, suggesting that development of nursing interventions and educational programs should be targeted towards improving maternal health, healthy lifestyle, and subjective health perception to promote married female immigrants' psychological well-being.
Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/ethnology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Depressive Disorder/*epidemiology ; Emigrants and Immigrants/statistics & numerical data ; Female ; *Health Behavior ; *Health Status ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; *Marriage ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Risk Factors ; Rural Health ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urban Health ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors affecting the unmet healthcare needs of married immigrant women. METHODS: This study was a secondary data analysis using data from the 2009 National Survey of Multicultural Families. Data collected from 58,735 married immigrant women who had spouses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and logistic regression. RESULTS: Overall, 9.9% of married immigrant women have unmet healthcare needs. The significant predictors related to unmet healthcare needs were young age, high level of education, employed, country of origin, long period of residence, low income, uninsured, urban area, low level of subjective health status, and illness experience over past two weeks. In particular, four variables (long period of residence, low income, subjective health status, and illness experience over past two weeks) significantly predicted unmet healthcare needs for women from all countries of origin. CONCLUSION: The results of the study indicate that common predictors related to unmet healthcare needs of married immigrant women are a long period of residence, low income, subjective health status, and illness experience over past two weeks. Therefore intervention strategies to decrease unmet healthcare needs should focus on these significant predictors.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Emigrants and Immigrants/*psychology/*statistics & numerical data ; Female ; *Health Services Needs and Demand ; Health Status ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Middle Aged ; Odds Ratio ; Questionnaires ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Spouses/psychology/*statistics & numerical data ; Women/*psychology ; Young Adult