Immigrant women’s acculturation stress and coping strategies in Korea: A qualitative analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the coping strategies used by migrant women experiencing acculturation stress in Korea. A qualitative content analysis of 20 transcribed individual interviews was used to describe and explore women’s experiences of acculturation into a Korean family and Korean culture. The findings could be summarized by the theme “A life with a family rooted in the 2nd homeland,” consisting of the following coping strategies: agreeing on cultural differences, accepting one’s limitations, respecting one’s own decision, sharing problems, learning about the Korean culture, enjoying one’s homeland culture, caring about identity diffusion, and helping survival. The results showed that the women experienced considerable acculturation stress, and they made tremendous efforts to align themselves with the Korean culture and with women’s lives in a Korean family. The processes and strategies that these women used to manage acculturation stress can be used by professionals to develop empirical guidelines to help other women experiencing acculturation stress. More research on various acculturation conditions and populations is required to generalize the results of this study.