The Lived Experience of Japanese Marriage-Immigrants' Caring for Parents-in-law with Chronic Illness / 한국간호교육학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The study was done to explore lived experience of Japanese women taking care of chronically ill parents-in-law at home under the Korean family culture emphasizing filial piety. METHOD: van Manen's Hermeneutic Phenomenology research method was applied to conduct in-depth analysis on the meaning and nature of those experiences. This method derives the universal and fundamental aspect of human being. RESULTS: There were 8 essential themes derived from the Japanese marriage-immigrants' experiences taking care of parents-in-law with chronic diseases as followings 'stuck in a situation in which I am obligated to take care of the parent-in-law', 'hard to be the only person responsible to take care of the parent-in-law', 'unaccustomed to the Korean filial duty culture', 'the adverse effect of Korean-Japan history on taking care of the parent-in-law', 'refusing to let the taking care of the parent-in-law to be a shackle of my life', 'starting to be willing to take care of the parent-in-law', 'following through with my own way of taking care of the parent-in-law without being swayed by what others say', 'growing in the process of taking care of the parent-in-law'. CONCLUSION: The study results broadened ground to understand the experiences taking care of chronically ill parent-in-law from Japanese marriage-immigrants' social and cultural perspectives.