Adaptation Experience to Family of Immigrant Women in Multicultural Families

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was to explore adaptation experience to family among women who immigrated for marriage. Specific aims were to identify problems immigrant women face as family members and how they interact with other family members. METHODS: Grounded theory methodology was utilized. Data were collected from iterative fieldwork with individual in-depth interviews from 6 immigrant women as key informants, and 2 of their husbands and 2 of their mothers-in-law as general informants. RESULTS: Through constant comparative analysis, a core category emerged as "tearing down the wall in communicating". Causal conditions were feeling frustrated in one's expectations, differences in language and life style, differences in recognition, and perceptions of discrimination and prejudice. Strategies were learning the Korean language, learning Korean culture, managing stress, mediating differences between family members, and introspecting. Intervening factors were support systems, burdens of child-rearing, and the condition of one's health. Consequences were rooting oneself in one's family and accepting one's life as it is. CONCLUSION: Results of the study indicate that there is a need for nurses to understand differences in communication with family members among immigrant women and to provide information and emotional support to improve the adaptation of these women to their Korean families.