The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationship among family values, marital relationship, and life satisfaction for the multiculture family in rural areas, and to provide some insights on the life of foreign women to Korean society thro...
The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationship among family values, marital relationship, and life satisfaction for the multiculture family in rural areas, and to provide some insights on the life of foreign women to Korean society through their marriages.
The subjects were the 103 immigrant women living in rural areas. The data were gathered by using an interview method based on a structured questinnaires. The data were analyzed by SPSS WIN 12.0 for the frequency, t-test, ANOVA, and correlation techniques.
The main results of this research are as follows:
First, with regard to the socio-economic characteristics, the age of the wives was found to be much younger than the age of the husbands, showing that most of the wives were in their twenties, whereas the husbands were in forties. The education level was higher for the wives than for the husbands. The distribution of the religion showed that 'no religion' was highest, followed by Buddhism and Tongilgyo. The average monthly income was turned out to be less than 3,000,000 won which indicated the low economic situation. Most of the respondents lived in an extended family, having one or two children. The period of marriage was various from under 2 years to more than 10 years. Most of the marriage arrangements were done through their friends or relatives, and in some cases by religious organization or professional marriage company. Although most of the respondents were not working before their marriage in their country, some of them had working experiences in their country. Those who had working experiences showed a high language understanding ability.
Second, with regard to the family values, the respondents showed both traditional and modern values. The patriarchal thinking was shown more to women living in an expanded family than in a nuclear family. As for the sex-role attitudes, women in expanded family with 3-4 years of marriage period showed more conservative attitudes. For the housework sharing, the higher a woman's economic level is, the more modern her attitude is. For the common responsibility of children rearing, farming women showed more traditional attitudes than any other women.
Third, in the area of marital relationship of the subject, farming women were suffering more from domestic violence than any other women. The indirect violence of husband was shown to be the highest in women with high school graduated and the average monthly income under 1,000,000won and more than 2,000,000won. For the frequency on the complaints on spending money from the husband, the women from Philippine and Thailand were shown to be the highest, with the average language understanding ability and having farming work. For parents-in-law and house working, high school graduated women with 5-9 years of marital period showed great interests. The loneliness of the respondents was found to be the highest in women with no working experience in their country and high school graduated women more.
Fourth, the life satisfaction showed no significant difference in terms of the relationship with spouses, children, parents in law, relatives in law and neighbors. For the satisfaction with friends, women from an expanded family member and with 3-4 years of marital experience showed the highest score. For the overall satisfaction, women who has monthly average income 1,000,000-1,990,000won and more than 2,000,000won showed the highest score.
Finally, the correlation among family values, marital relationship and life satisfaction was analyzed. The spouse satisfaction rate was high the more they had positive marital concept, the more they have conversation with husband, the better they have sex life. However, The more they are scolded , the more husband cares about the parents in law and house work and when they feel lonely even with husband , they showed low satisfaction rate on their husband. The more they were convinced husband's love, the higher their satisfaction with the spouse was. The less they were convinced on the love of husband, they showed higher satisfaction score on their children. The more positive in having children, the more having conversation with husband and the more husband care about the parents in law and house work, the satisfaction rate of the parents in law was high. The more positive in marriage, the more they have conversation with husband, the better managing sex life, the less domestic violence happens, the less husband scolded them, the less husband cares about parents in law and house working and the less they convince on husband's love, they showed high satisfaction rate on their relatives. The more positive about marrying, the less husband care about parents-in-law and house working, the satisfaction score with the neighbors tended to be high. The stronger their patriarchal thinking was. the more positive in role assigning, the satisfaction rate of friend was high. The more positive in the necessity of marriage and children, the satisfaction rate of friend was low. The overall family value showed negative relationship with the overall marital relationship and the family value did not show any sign of correlation with satisfaction rate of life. The family value, although showed a negative relationship with life satisfaction. Multiculture family in rural areas is rapidly increasing and this trend would continue. Therefore, in order to enhance the life satisfaction of multi culture family, the continuous supports and attentions from the community and the government are needed.