Depression and the Influencing Factors in Korean American Immigrants

Jeongyee Bae; Hyunjoo Park

doi:10.12934/jkpmhn.2010.19.1.67

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Bae and Park: Depression and the Influencing Factors in Korean American Immigrants

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2010; 19(1): 67-75.

Published online: 31 March 2010

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2010.19.1.67

Depression and the Influencing Factors in Korean American Immigrants

Jeongyee Bae¹, Hyunjoo Park²

¹Associate Professor, Department of Nursing, Inje University, Korea.

²Head Nurse, Center Janglim Hospital, Korea.

Address reprint requests to: Bae, Jeongyee, Department of Nursing, Inje University, 633-165 Kaegum-dong, Busanjin-gu, Busan 614-735, Korea. Tel: 82-51-890-6823, Fax: 82-51-896-9840, jibai@inje.ac.kr

Received 8 December 2009 Revised 16 March 2010 Accepted 16 March 2010

(open-access):

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this study was to investigate the degree of depression in Korean American immigrants according to their characteristics.

Methods

This descriptive correlation study conducted visit-surveys with organized questionnaires and sampled 330 Korean American immigrants living in Houston, Seattle and New York areas. SCL-90 was used to measure the degree of depression. Data was analyzed by t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis using SPSS/WIN 14.0.

Results

Findings revealed that; 1) the degree of depression in Korean American immigrants according to their characteristics were significantly different in age, occupation, immigration life satisfaction, and health status; 2) Pearson's correlation revealed a significant association among depression, immigrant life stress, self esteem, and quality of life; 3) multi regression analysis showed immigrant life stress, self esteem, and quality of life significantly influenced depression in Korean American immigrants.

Conclusion

Based on the findings of this study, health professionals should provide proper management of depression as well as its influencing factors, namely, immigrant life stress, self esteem, and quality of life especially for new immigrant populations.

Keywords: Depression, Immigrants, Life stress, Quality of life, Self-esteem

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Degree of Depression according to General Characteristics of Subjects (N=330)

^†Scheffe's test.

Table 2

Degree of Depression, Stress, Self-esteem, and Quality of Life (N=330)

Table 3

Correlations among Depression, Immigrant Life Stress, Self-esteem, and Quality of Life (N=330)

ILS=immigrant life stress.

Table 4

Influencing Factors on Depression (N=330)

Notes

This study was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. 2009-0059305)

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