Moderating Effects of Hope, Couple Intimacy and Utilization of Family Support Service on the Relationships of Stress and Depression or Conflict Response Behavior among the Multicultural Couples

Abstract

This study investigated effects of economic hardship and cultural challenge that multicultural couples experience as stress on their mental health and conflict response behavior (CRB), and explored moderating effects on such stress factors of hope, couple intimacy, and utilization of family support service. Data were drawn from a questionnaire study of 415 female marriage immigrant couples (n=830). Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that economic hardship and cultural challenge contributed to depression among immigrant wives and to an aggressive CRB among Korean husbands, after controlling for age, health, and a length of marriage. For husbands, hope as a psychological resource was associated with both less depression and a more aggressive CRB. Among wives, it was not associated with depression, and, on average, contributed to a less aggressive CRB. Couple intimacy as a relational resource showed overall positive direct effects among the couples. In contrast, the positive effect of economic hardship on depression was moderated by the duration of service utilization among wives. The longer the duration was, the higher the level of depression became. However, levels of both depression and an aggressive CRB among husbands due to cultural challenge were significantly lower among the users of support service, partially confirming the contribution of a social resource like multicultural family support service.