SOCIAL SUPPORT AND HEALTH OF OLDER KOREAN IMMIGRANT WOMEN.
Contributors: University Of Illinois At Chicago, Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 156
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Social.; Women's Studies.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: The loss of former social ties and the cultural difficulties that immigrants experience in adjusting to a new environment are important factors in explaining the stress of aging for the older Korean immigrant women. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of social support on mental health and the role of self-esteem in social support and mental health relationship. A stress--social support--health model was derived from the literature and provided the conceptual framework for the study. A cross-sectional survey research design was used. Face-to-face structured interviews were conducted in the Korean language with 219 older Korean immigrant women during the summer of 1995 in Chicago. In general, the sample can be characterized as living in senior citizen buildings, Christian, and having severe problems in English usage.

Stresses related to physical health status, acculturation, and life events were measured as stress indicators by the instrument developed for this study. The mental health indicators were anxiety, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction as measured by the SCL-90-R anxiety scale, the CES-D scale, and the Cantril Ladder scale, respectively. Five factors of social support derived from a factor analysis were used for data analysis. Multiple regression was used for the statistical analysis of data.

The major findings of this study were that stresses related to physical health, acculturation and life events had harmful effects on self-esteem, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction. The amount of instrumental support had a positive influence on life satisfaction; and both the quantity and quality of emotional support had a positive effect on depressive symptoms and anxiety level. No stress buffering effects were found for social support on either self-esteem or mental health. However, social support (i.e., network size, contact with children, and quality of emotional support) buffered the harmful impact of life stress indirectly through its effect on self-esteem, and positive self-esteem, in turn, reduced psychological distress. Unexpectedly, older Korean women who had higher levels of contact with friends had higher levels of anxiety with life event stress. This finding suggests a negative impact of contact with friends in the face of life event stress.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-07, Section: B, page: 4301.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1996.

School code: 0806.