The Relations between Abuse Experiences in Multi-cultural Family Couples and Social-Demographic Factors

Abstract

This survey research purposed to build a relation model between abuse experiences occurring in multi?cultural family couples and social-demographic factors such as differences between husband and wife based on the relative resource theory and the frustration?aggression theory, and to test the validity of the model. The subjects of this study were multi?cultural family husbands and wives living in 16 areas of Chungcheongnam?do in 2009. Statistical analyses used data collected from 589 people (415 husbands, 174 wives) who replied all the questions on the basic characteristics of husband and wife, family type, marriage path, and abuse experience. When the goodness?of?fit of the research model for data was tested, CFI and RMSEA of the model were 0.968 and 0.043, respectively, for husband data, and 0.993 and 0.046, respectively, for wife data, satisfying statistically acceptable standards. Husbands' abuse experience was statistically significantly affected by economic difference from wife, language difference, marriage through an international matchmaking agency, and extended family. Wives' abuse experience was statistically significantly affected by age difference from husband, language difference, and marriage through an international matchmaking agency. The path coefficients between these factors and abuse experience were not so high except that for marriage through international matchmaking agency. These results suggest that, in order to prevent abuses in multi?cultural family couples, supervision should be strengthened over marriages arranged in a short time and based on wrong information by international matchmaking agencies.