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INTRODUCTION
1. Background
Looking into mother's nationality of multi-cultural families, it is the order of Korean-Chinese 32.1%, Chinese 21.2% and Vietnamese 18.3% [1]. However, most of spouses of Korean men from China are 'Chosunjok' who are Koreans living in China. Considering this fact, the biggest marriage immigrants are Vietnamese women [2].
When looking into marital status of marriage migrant women, it is found that ratio of bereavement, divorce or separation increases comparing to 2009 [1]. Divorce rate by nationality is in the order of China, Vietnam and Philippines from the highest. Divorce ratio of Chinese women decreased but that of Vietnamese and Filipina increased comparing to the previous year [3]. Thus social supports and attention are needed for the Vietnamese women who became the multi-cultural family members.
The main reason why Vietnamese women, who have taken big ratio of international marriage of Korean men since 2003, came to marry Korean men are vague favor for Koreans who have similar emotion and family life image through Korean dramas, similarity in appearance and historical intimacy related with Vietnamese War as well as financial reasons [2]. However, the marriage life was different from that in Korean dramas which was happy and gorgeous, and there were many difficulties. Especially, Vietnamese women, who rarely perceive parents of the spouse as family, have sense of gender equal support responsibility rather than paternal line support responsibility and prefer financial supports rather than supports living together, experience value conflicts because of conservative family value orientation in Korea. The value conflicts that they experience may cause family conflicts and family dissolution [4]. Additionally, communication capabilities including Korean language proficiency of Vietnamese marriage immigrants are far behind of marriage immigrants from other countries. Thus, it is reported that their participation in self-help groups is very low and their social adaptability is also very low [5].
Difficulties that marriage migrant women experience such as language issues, difficulties in using various agencies including banks and courts, financial difficulties, preoccupation and discrimination, parenting and child education issues [1] become major reasons of their psychological tension and stress [6]. Besides, mental disease issues of marriage migrant women such as depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder and schizophrenia [8] have increased because of deficiency of confidence and sense of belonging, cultural shock, feeling of separation and alienation, anxiety about future life [7]. Especially, as it is reported that the incidence of depression among marriage migrant women is 4 times higher than among general Korean women [9], social interventions to help them to cope stress and adapt themselves to the society are needed.
Recent studies on stress which is physical, chemical and emotional status threatening well-being of individuals pay more attention to life stress from everyday life rather than stress from major life events. It is because general life stress is far more dangerous as it can be accumulated unlike other general stresses, has stronger power of influence and can cause physical and psychological injuries or damages according to its expression [10].
When stress event occurs, people will respond to it in different ways. A similar stress event can be an opportunity for a person to make experience and knowledge higher, while it can cause mental and physical damages on some other individual., Coping is a core mechanism to mediate effects that a stress event makes effects on adaptation. It means all cognitive and behavioral efforts to handle interior and exterior demands which are evaluated as threatening individuals' accommodating capacity. Murphy [11] reported that it is more effective in stress management to combine various coping strategies into one. In this process, culture specific characteristics requiring appropriate responses can make major influence [12], and a certain patter can be more universal than others because of shared cultural response styles [13]. Additionally, it is addressed that situational characteristic specific stress coping method is resulted from originality of each culture, and that a desirable coping method in a culture is the coping method that members of that culture use most frequently [14]. Such study results suggest that stress can be perceived differently and its coping method can be different according to personal situations and cultural backgrounds.
Previous studies on stress of marriage migrant women in Korea have focused on the level of stress and causes of the stress [6101516], identification of mental health status such as quality of life, depression and anxiety resulted from stress [1718]. On the other hand, there are few studies on their stress coping styles when they face stresses in Korea by their nationality. Shin et al. [19] analyzed stress coping methods of North Korean refugees from the perspective of adaptation to South Korean culture. They found that North Korean refugees had partially different stress coping methods from those of South Koreans and addressed that stress coping methods could be varied according to situational characteristics. However, this study was neither performed to have marriage migrant women as target group nor used actual life stress (used a virtual stress scenario), it is difficult to generalize the study results to multi- cultural family members from many different nations.
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the level of stress of Vietnamese marriage migrant women who took big share of multi-cultural families in Korea and their coping style for stress. The study results may be used for the foundation to develop customized consulting program with theoretical foundation by identifying effective or ineffective stress coping style of Vietnamese marriage migrant women who face life stress in Korea.
2. Purpose
The purpose of this study was to identify the level of life stress that Vietnamese marriage migrant women feel, to analyze factors influencing on the stress level, to analyze coping styles for stress and to provide basic materials to establish strategies to help them with adapting themselves to marriage and the life in Korea by reducing stresses. Concrete goals are as follows;
It is to identify life stress according to socio-demographic characteristics.
It is to identify the level of life stress and the coping style for stress.
It is to analyze the correlation between socio-demographic characteristics and life stress.
It is to analyze the correlation between life stress and its coping style.
It is to analyze the factors influencing life stress.
METHODS
1. Research Design
This study is a descriptive correlation study to identify the life stress level of Vietnamese marriage migrant women, to identify their stress coping style and to analyze the correlation of variables and factors influencing stresses.
2. Participants
The subjects of this study are 182 Vietnamese marriage migrant women in 'A' city in Chungcheongnam-do. Because of limitation of subject recruitment and difficulties in access we used nonprobability sampling method. We explained the study purpose to Vietnamese marriage migrant women who visit Multicultural Family Support Center in A city and recruited participants who made informed consent. Number of samples were calculated using G* Power program 3.1.7. When calculating the number of samples necessary for multi regression analysis to analyze factors influencing stresses of the subjects and χ2 analysis by setting significance level .05, effect size .35 and test power .85, the number of samples necessary for those tests was 160. It was calculated as 180 for ANOVA analysis. Considering elimination rate, 190 surveys were distributed. Excluding surveys with insincere or missing answers, 182 copies were used for the final analysis.
3. Measurements
This study used a structured survey including questions asking variables such as socio-demographic characteristics, life stress and stress coping style. The survey in Korean was translated into Vietnamese and used after securing validity. Translation and reverse translation was done by an expert who majored Vietnamese and had good knowledge and the translated survey was reviewed by a professor majoring in Vietnamese Language. A pre-scanning was made on 5 Vietnamese women to secure validity by reconfirming there is no problem in understanding questions and in answering them.
Socio-demographic characteristics include age, education, religion, economic level, employment, health status, marriage duration, number of children, Korean proficiency. Economic level was classified as 'Very insufficient (L),' 'Manageable although not sufficient (M),' 'No economic difficulties (H).' Regarding employment, they were asked if they made economic activities. If they made economic activities producing an income they would answer 'Yes' otherwise 'No'. For the health status, they were asked to answer the subjective health status. For the item of Korean proficiency, they were asked to choose from 'Not at all,' 'Minimum communication' and 'Smooth communication in everyday life'. The followings are the detailed explanation of the tool to measure life stress and its coping style.
1) Life stress
To measure the life stress of marriage migrant women in Korea the tool, which Kim [6] developed using Q methodology to have 36 stress statements and 5 types, was modified. Kim [6] classified those 36 statements into 5 categories such as stress from ignorance by family, helplessness, absence of public supports, financial deficiency and emotional maladaptation such as missing and loneliness. Although Kim duplicated the same statement in different style stress, this study abstracted 10 statements excluding duplicated statements and the statements with strong Korean cultural characteristics that Vietnamese women cannot understand easily according to experts' opinions. 10 questions include ignorance by family, helplessness, absence of public supports, emotional maladaptation such as loneliness and distress and stress from poverty such as 'It is difficult to endure conflicts with in-laws and their verbal violence,' 'I feel bad when they browbeat and scold while I am talking,' 'I feel bad when I cannot find an organization, an agency or a person to help my children's study,' 'My heart is aching that I cannot rear up my children like other Korean children,' 'I miss my family and friends in my hometown,' 'It is difficult to get a job or to have social life in Korea,' 'It seemed as if my world caved in when I found the reality was different from what I expected,' 'Husband's forcible sex demand is painful,' 'It is difficult to live because of financial deficiency,' 'I am upset because I cannot study and earn money.' They were measured by 5 points scale from 1 'Never' to 'Very Much.' The higher the point is, the higher the stress is. The reliability of the tool in this study is Cronbach's α=.84.
2) Coping style for stress
To measure coping style for stress, the tool developed by Lazarus and Folkman [13] and translated and localized by Park and Lee [20] was used after modification. It is originally made up of 39 questions under 5 sub categories. In this study it was modified to have 24 questions under 5 sub categories. According to experts' opinions, the questions were reduced to be 24 which Vietnamese women feel sympathy. The sub categories of stress coping style are problem solving style, emotion relieving style, assistance pursuit style, problem avoidance style and hopeful thinking style. Seven statements such as 'I make a plan and abide by it,' 'I endure it with pride,' 'I try to change something to solve the problem' and 'I make a few countermeasures to solve the problem' are under the subcategory of problem solving style. Emotion relieving style has 5 statements including 'I try not to show my emotion to any one,' 'I wreak my wrath on others,' 'I refresh myself by eating, drinking or smoking.' Assistance pursuit style has 4 statements including 'I discuss the matter with someone,' 'I discuss the matter with someone who can make it concrete,' 'I talk about my feeling to someone.' Problem avoidance style includes 4 statements such as 'I do other work or activities to forget the problem,' 'I console myself that it will be changed in the course of time' and 'I try to see good sides of the problem.' Hopeful thinking style has 4 statements such as 'I hope that the problem will disappear or end' and 'I build castles in the air how the problem will be solved.' They were measured by 4 points scale from 4 points 'Always' to 1 point 'Never.' Higher points in a coping style mean that they use the coping style more often. At the time of localization, the reliability in Park and Lee's [20] study was Cronbach's α=.92, and total reliability in this study is Cronbach's α=.88. By subcategory, Cronbach's α is .85 at problem solving type, .74 at emotion relieving type, .76 at assistance pursuit type, .89 at problem avoidance type and hopeful thinking type respectively.
4. Data Collection
This study was performed after being approved (SM-2015-010-1) by Sunmoon University Institutional Review Board (IRB). Data were collected from May 1 to August 31 in 2015. Subjects were recruited among Vietnamese marriage migrant women using Multicultural Family Support Center in A city using Vietnamese translated survey. After getting permission of director of Multicultural Family Support Center, we explained the purpose of the study and its ethical aspects to Vietnamese marriage migrant women. During the survey, we got aid from a research assistant. Research assistant was a Vietnamese woman who graduated from University, has lived in Korea for 13 years and could speak fluent Korean. All the explanations were given in Vietnamese by the research assistant.
Considering ethical aspect, the purpose of study, process of the study, anonymity and confidentiality were explained to them. It was also explained that the survey would be destroyed after the study. They participated in the study voluntarily with the explanation that they could drop off at any time without any unfavorable dispositions. Subjects who gave informed consents were asked to answer the survey. It took approximately 30 minutes for them to answer the survey, and return presents were given after the survey. Completed surveys were collected immediately. 190 copies were collected and 182 copies with complete answers were used for final analysis. Collected surveys were statistically processed anonymously.
5. Data Analysis
For data analysis, SPSS/WIN 21 statistics program was used. Socio-demographic characteristics, percentage, average and standard deviation were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Difference in stress according to socio-demographic characteristics was analyzed by t-test, ANOVA and Scheffé post verification. Correlation between sociodemographic characteristics and life stress was analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient or Spearman's correlation analysis, while factors influencing stress were verified through multiple regression analysis. Statistical significance level was set as .05.
RESULTS
1. Difference in Life Stress according to Sociodemographic Characteristics of the Subjects
The difference in life stress according to Socio-demographic Characteristics of the subjects is shown in Table 1. Looking at the socio-demographic Characteristics, the average age was 29.43±5.42. By level of education 37.9% (n=69) finished high school, 25.3%(n=46) elementary school graduates, 23.1%(n=42) middle school graduates, 13.7% (n=25) no education. By economic level it was the order of 'Middle' 52.7%(n=96), 'High' 24.7%(n=45), 'Low' 22.5% (n=41). Those who had children were 83.5%(n=152). Those who do not live with in-laws were 68.7%(n=125) and those who thought their health status were not good were 13.2 %(n=24). Those who had jobs were 45.6%(n=83), and average marriage duration was 65.01±34.78 months, so to speak about 5 years. By Korean proficiency, those who could communicate smoothly in Korean were 20.9% (n=38), and those who have difficulties in communication were 5.5%(n=10).
Stress of subjects was significantly different according to their economic level, health status and whether they work or not (Table 1). According to economic level, there was conspicuous difference. The stress of 'Low' group was 3.16, 'Middle' 2.39 and 'High' 1.94. There was difference among three groups and as their economic level was lower, their stress became higher (F=28.18, p<.001). By health status, those who had bad health showed stress as 3.07 while those who had good health 2.36. It shows stress of those who had bad health was significantly higher (t=3.84, p<.001). By employment, those who had job showed stress as 2.29, while those who did not work 2.64. It shows those who did not have a job had significantly higher stress (t=-2.70, p=.008).
2. Life Stress and Coping Style for Stress
Life stress was in average 2.45 which less than the middle (Table 2). Stress from emotional maladaptation and poverty were higher than the average for example 'I miss my family and friends at my home town' as 4.07, 'My heart is aching that I cannot rear up my children like other Korean children' as 2.66, and 'I am upset because I cannot study and earn money' as 3.10. On the other hand, stress out of ignorance by family, helplessness and absence of public supports was rather low for example 'Husband's forcible sex demand' as 1.40, 'Verbal violence' as 1.66, and 'There is no one to help my children's education' as 1.88.
By stress coping style, assistance pursuit type showed 3.08, problem avoidance type 3.08, hopeful thinking type 3.06, problem solving type 3.02, and emotion relieving type showed the lowest point as 1.89.
3. Correlation between Socio-demographic Characteristics, Stress and Its Coping Style
Life stress had correlation with economic level, health status, employment and Korean proficiency (Table 3). There was strong correlation with economic level (r=-.48, p<.001), medium correlation with health status (r=.25, p<.001) and employment (r=.20, p=.007), and low correlation with Korean proficiency (r=-.15, p=.045).
Correlations between stress items and coping styles are provided in Table 4. Stress from absence of public supports and helplessness was low for example 'There are no institution or people to help my children's study'(r=.17, p=.019) and 'Husband's forcible sex demand'(r=.15, p=.040) and had correlation with emotion relieving type. Stresses from emotional maladaptation or poverty such as 'Missing family and friends at home town'(r=.25, p=.001; r=.28, p<.001), 'Difficult to live because of poverty'(r=.18, p=.013; r=.17, p=.019), 'Being upset that I can neither study nor work'(r=.29, p<.001; r=.44, p<.001) showed correlation with problem avoidance type and hopeful thinking type. The items such as 'Conflicts with in-laws and verbal violence'(r=.17, p=.026), 'To browbeat and scold while I am talking'(r=.19, p=.012), 'My heart is aching that I cannot rear up my children like other Korean children' (r=.23, p=.002), 'It is difficult to get a job or to have social life in Korea'(r=.29, p<.001), 'It seemed as if my world caved in when I found the reality was different from what I expected'(r=.24, p=.001) had correlation with hopeful thinking type. To summarize, stress from ignorance by family, absence of public supports and helplessness was not high and emotion relieving type coping style is mainly used, which means they are solved to some extent as we have support system. Stresses from emotional maladaptation and poverty are high and they cope with these stresses using problem avoidance type and hopeful thinking type coping style. It means marriage migrant women consider those stresses that cannot be solved for themselves.
4. Factors affecting Life Stress
To identify factors influencing life stress of subjects, multivariate analysis was made. Economic level, economic activities, health status of the subject and Korean proficiency which showed statistically significant relation with stress were set as independent variables. The results of multiple regression analysis are shown in Table 5.
Assumptions of regression analysis for independent variables were diagnosed with multicollinearity, residual and singular value. Correlation coefficient between independent variables was lower than .70, which confirms predictors independent. As tolerance limit was higher than .9 and variance inflation factor (VIF) was 1.02~1.15, which did not exceed 10, it was confirmed that it did not have multicollinearity issue. Therefore, assumptions of the regression equation were fulfilled.
Predictors of subjects' life stress were found to be economic level, employment, subjects' health status and Korean proficiency. The factor which influenced most was economic level (β=-.43) and then in the order of employment (β=.24) and then subjects' health status (β=.17). Those variables could explain life stress with 31.8% explanatory power (F=20.61, p<.001).
DISCUSSION
The purpose of this study was to identify life stress, its coping style and factors influencing stress of Vietnamese marriage migrant women in order to search for an approach to social adaptation issue. It is expected that the results of this study can be used as basic materials to establish strategies required for stable integration of Vietnamese marriage migrant women into members of local communities.
Based on the study results, stresses, stress coping styles, and factors influencing their stresses are discussed as follows.
The life stress of subjects was 2.45 out of 5, which is lower than the middle. Yang et al. [21] study reviewing stresses of international marriage migrant women showed the result of 2.30 out of 5. Kim and Choi's study [22] showed the stress level as 2.62. Although all studies showed the stress level less than middle, the actual stress points were somewhat different. Studies by Yang et al. [21] and by Kim and Choi [22] included not only Vietnamese but also Chinese and Filipina. Yang et al. [21] studied marriage migrant women living in Seoul and Kim and Choi [22] studied marriage migrant women living in rural areas. This study focused on Vietnamese marriage migrant women in urban-rural area. The results of the study imply that stress of women living in countryside is little bit higher than that of women living in city although the stress marriage migrant women experience in Korea is lower than the middle. Nam and Ahn [23] compared the stresses of marriage migrant women according to the area they live in and confirmed that stresses of marriage migrant women in countryside is little bit higher than that of women living in city. Looking into stress level by sub-categories, the stress from missing their family and friends in their home town was found to be very high as 4.07. Kim and Choi' study [22] focusing on marriage migrant women in countryside and Ahn and Cho's [24] study also showed that stresses from homesickness was higher than any other stress. Study by Yang and others [21] focusing on marriage migrant women living in Seoul also showed high level of homesickness stress as 2.86. Nevertheless, homesickness stress of the subjects of this study was much higher than other studies as 4.07. Homesickness stress level of marriage migrant women was different according to marriage duration [24]. The marriage duration of the subjects of this study was much shorter than that of the subjects of above two studies. Probably it may explain why the homesickness stress level was much higher than that of two previous studies.
In this study, stress coping of the subjects was 2.81 out of 5. It was lower than the stress coping of Korean women shown in Chung's [25] study, and furthermore it was lower than the stress coping of marriage migrant women in Kim and Choi's [22] study (3.08) By subcategories, emotion relieving type was very low while assistance pursuit type, problem avoidance type, hopeful thinking type and problem solving type were higher than middle. Stress coping means all the methods used to handle stresses threatening psychological stability [22]. Appropriate coping will help adaptation of individuals by managing stress successfully. Kim and Choi [22] classified coping type as problem centered coping, cognition centered coping and emotion centered coping. Assistance pursuit type and problem solving type fall into problem centered coping, emotion relieving type cognition centered coping, and problem avoidance type and hopeful thinking type emotion centered coping. Problem centered coping is the strategy to select alternative solution and to seek information and supports. Cognition centered coping is the strategy to think empathetically through emotional negotiation. These two can be said as active strategies. Emotion centered coping is a passive strategy using wishing, denying and avoiding [22]. In this study both of active problem centered coping such as assistance pursuit type and problem solving type and passive coping such as problem avoidance type and hopeful thinking type are high. When they love in the countryside in a longer time and are integrated into local community, they usually use active coping [22]. Subjects of this study living in an urban-rural area showed low points in coping and the coping style they used was passive coping. As active coping had positive correlation with quality of life, it can be a way to enhance life quality of marriage migrant women to improve active coping capabilities [25]. Considering such point, we need to establish countermeasures to support these active strategies.
In this study, variables showing correlation with subjects' stress are economic level, subjects' health status, employment, and Korean proficiency, and stress explanatory predictors are in the order of economic level, employment and health status. The results of this study confirming the correlation between stress and economic level or employment are similar to the results of the study by Kim and Choi [22] or by Chung and Yoo [26]. Kim and Choi [22] reported that economic stress of marriage migrant women was very high, and Chung and Yoo [26] presented that their stress level got reduced when they had monthly income through job activities in their qualitative study. In this study, level of education did not have correlation with stress level, which was different from the results by Lee [27], where marriage migrant women's stress became different according to their level of education. The subjects of Lee's [27] study were high school graduates and over and there was difference in stress level between high school graduates and university graduates. Comparing to this, most of the subjects of this study had lower educational level such as no schooling, elementary school graduates and middle school graduates, which may be the reason why there was no stress level difference according to level of education.
Marriage migrant women may have psychological difficulties because of social preoccupation and confusion of identity while they live in Korea, and they may have stress against social relation network creation until they get Korean citizenship[28]. Psychological and social stress which exceeds individual's coping capabilities will cause mental problems. Depression and running away from home of marriage migrant women are caused by stress exceeding individual's coping capabilities [2930]. The higher stress marriage migrant women feel, the more difficult it is that they can be integrated into the society [21]. Therefore, it is urgently needed in Korea which enters multi-cultural society to identify stress level and stress coping level of marriage migrant women in advance and to establish strategies. In this study, it was found that stress level of the marriage migrant women could be different according to their residential area such as city or countryside, according to economic level, according to employment, and according to the health status of the marriage migrant women. To reduce their stress, it is needed to establish policies to give financial supports, health management and job activities to marriage migrant women. In order to let them be integrated into our society, an individualistic approach is needed considering their residential area, economic level and employment.
Through the above study results, the followings can be proposed. First, a customized program is proposed that respects culture of marriage migrant women and can reduce longing for their homeland. Although stress level was not very high as middle, they seemed to have high emotional stress to adapt themselves to Korean society. It is needed to have policies to give emotional supports to marriage migrant women. Especially, stresses from longing for homeland and helplessness that they cannot do anything alone can be dangers to social security if there are no active countermeasures and preventive methods. If multi-cultural policies have focused on their adaptation to Korean culture and improvement of Korean proficiency up to now, we may introduce new strategy now such as understanding their culture and grafting their culture into ours. Second, it is proposed to provide a job activity support program. It is necessary to provide programs that can enforce their job competencies so that marriage migrant women can take jobs according to their potential capabilities. Third, health support system should be provided. As they have limitations in using medical institutions because they do not understand our health care system, it is needed to provide a system to help marriage migrant women with using medical resources.
CONCLUSION
This study analyzed stress, coping style for stress, and factors influencing stresses of Vietnamese marriage migrant women and made proposals for policies. As they showed high stress from longing for family and friends and they showed passive coping styles such as problem avoidance style and hopeful thinking style although they have used problem centered active coping such as assistance pursuit style and problem solving style as well, we need to pay attention to them and support them so that they can be integrated into one in our local communities. In order to help them to quench their longing for hometown, it may be necessary to provide homogeneous network where their tradition is respected and their customs may be maintained. Considering the factors influencing stresses most are economic level, health status and employment, we need to secure grounds on which they can maintain health and do the living. We should focus on escaping from economic poverty, supports for children's education and medical supports to maintain and improve health status.
This study is meaningful in that it provided the direction of social supports for Vietnamese marriage migrant women that take the biggest share in marriage migrant women. However, as the subjects are limited to a region in Chungcheongnam-do it may not contain all different opinions. Therefore, there are some limitations to generalize the study results, and the result of this study should be interpreted limiting for marriage migrant women who actively use cultural center out of Vietnamese women in urban-rural area. Additionally, this result is acquired from survey so it could not review their individual experiences. The limitations of this study should be supplemented when a further study is performed by expanding residential areas and including marriage migrant women with other nationalities as subjects.
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