Association of Husbands Educational Attainment with Health Status of Marriage Migrant Women in South Korea : Path Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Over the last decade, Korea have experienced dramatic increase in international marriage. In particular, the proportion of Korean men marrying foreign brides has more than doubled in this periods. In the context of Korea, female marriage migrants have encountered several barriers affecting health status. These health barriers which foreign wives face are to some extent related to marriage migrants husband. Relatively little studies, however, has explicitly explored the effect of husbands characteristics with regard to health of marriage migrant women. This article focused on the effect of husbands educational attainment on their foreign wives self-reported health by focusing on potential mediating variables.

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine the linking mechanisms how husbands educational level affects on self-reported marriage migrant womens health by testing a conceptual model with path analysis techniques. Proposed mediating predictors for self-reported health of female migrant women were three major health barriers which marriage migrant women face in Korea. By applying path analysis, I tested the relationships between husbands educational attainment and the mediating predictors including socio-economic status of family, unmet health care needs and social support, and these variables and self-reported health of female migrant women. Methods: Data are drawn from A National Survey on Multicultural Families 2009. The sample for this analysis was the 6064 Filipino married migrant women in Korea. Educational attainment and mediating variables including social support, socio-economic status of family, unmet healthcare needs were tested in relation to self-reported health of migrant Philippine women. Potential mediating effects of the variables were examined by using path analysis.

Results: Educational attainment of husbands was positively associated with the unmet health care needs of their foreign wives and socio-economic status of family. However effect of husbands education on social support was not statically significant. In a path model, direct effects of language ability of Filipino marriage migrant and educational attainment of husband on health outcome were statistically significant. Indirect effect of educational attainment of husband through the unmet healthcare needs and relationship with husband had positive associations with self-reported health. Levels of education had positive associations with social support of their foreign wives and this variable had positive associations with self-reported health. However there associations were not statically significant.