NCJ Number
218671
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 22 Issue: 3 Dated: April 2007 Pages: 141-149
Date Published
April 2007
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study describes domestic violence among Korean immigrant women in the United States, including type and frequency of violence and predictive factors of domestic violence experienced by Korean immigrant women.
Abstract
Results demonstrate that religious affiliation and involvement is positively associated with incidence of domestic violence among Korean immigrant women. However, a lower level of acculturation is associated with more psychological assault perpetrated by a male partner. Korean immigrant women in more traditional families experience more violence than Korean immigrant women in less traditional families. The study reveals that life stress is not directly related to the incidence of domestic violence as previously hypothesized. In relation to alcohol, Korean immigrant women report that 23.5 percent of male partners are abstainers, while 70.6 percent of them consumed alcohol in the past year. The study shows that physical assault experienced in childhood is associated with domestic violence in later intimate relationships. These findings contribute to the literature on the incidence of domestic violence in intimate relationships and begin to fill in the gaps in knowledge and information on Korean immigrant society in the United States. The largest increase in immigrants in the United States since the 1970s is from a variety of Asian nations. Korean immigrants comprise one of the fastest growing ethnic minority groups in the United States. Domestic violence became a concern among Korean immigrants in the middle of the 1980s. The study focus was on examining predictive factors such as the life stress, alcohol use by a male partner, violence experienced as a child, and demographics/cultural characteristics. The study recruited 136 Korean immigrant women from Austin or Dallas, Texas areas. Tables, references