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HOME > J Korean Acad Community Health Nurs > Volume 26(4); 2015 > Article
Original Article
Acculturative Stress and Depression of Vietnamese Immigrant Workers in Korea
Hye Jeong Jeon1, Ga Eon Lee2
Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing 2015;26(4):380-389.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2015.26.4.380
Published online: December 12, 2015

1Dong-A University Hospital, Busan, Korea

2Department of Nursing, Dong-A University, Busan, Korea

Corresponding author: Lee, Ga Eon Department of Nursing, Dong-A University, 32 Daesingongwon-ro, Seo-gu, Busan 602-714, Korea. Tel: +82-51-240-2885, Fax: +82-51-240-2920, E-mail: gelee@dau.ac.kr
• Received: September 25, 2015   • Revised: December 4, 2015   • Accepted: December 17, 2015

Copyright © 2015 Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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  • Purpose
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between acculturative stress and depression of Vietnamese immigrant workers in Korea.
  • Methods
    The subjects were 230 Vietnamese immigrant workers residing legally in B or K City. Data were collected from July 12, 2014 to August 3, 2014, and were analyzed using the SPSS PASW 21.0 program.
  • Results
    The average level of acculturative stress was 2.91 and there were significant differences in the score according to whether to have a religion, the number of homeland friends, and Korean language skill. The average depression level of the subjects was 15.3 and the level was different significantly according to whether to have a religion, the number of homeland friends, salary, working hours, and Korean language skill. Acculturative stress and depression showed a significant positive correlation with each other. The influencing factors of depression were acculturative stress and the number of homeland friends. The most significant factor was acculturative stress.
  • Conclusion
    This result shows the necessity of various programs to diminish acculturative stress to control the depression of immigrant workers.
  • Key Words: Immigrants; Acculturation; Depression
Table 1.
General Characteristics of Subjects
(N=230)
Characteristics Categories n (%) M±SD
Gender Male 179 (77.83)  
Female 51 (22.17)  
Age (year) ≤29 113 (49.13) 29.9±4.32
30~34 85 (36.96)  
≥35 32 (13.91)  
Education (year) ≤12 170 (73.91) 12.45±1.61
≥13 60 (26.09)  
Marital status Married 91 (39.57)  
None 139 (60.43)  
Religion Have 159 (69.13)  
None 71 (30.87)  
Length of residence in Korea (months) ≤36 70 (30.43) 48.88±24.79
37~48 75 (32.61)  
≥49 85 (36.96)  
Living status Alone 62 (26.96)  
Foreigners 33 (14.35)  
Vietnamese 109 (47.39)  
Others 26 (11.30)  
Number of homeland friends (n) ≤10 126 (54.78) 16.81±17.47
≥11 104 (45.22)  
Immigrant workers in company (n) ≤10 141 (61.30) 12.13±11.74
11~20 58 (25.22)  
≥21 31 (13.48)  
Type of shift Day 155 (68.28)  
Shift 56 (24.67)  
Others 16 (7.05)  
Frequency of transfer job ≤1 107 (46.52) 2.79±1.44
2 52 (22.61)  
3 40 (17.39)  
≥4 31 (13.48)  
Monthly income (10,000 won) ≤150 62 (26.96) 177.72±31.70
151~200 148 (64.35)  
≥201 20 (8.70)  
Working hours/week ≤60 156 (67.83)  
≥61 74 (32.17)  
Off day/month ≤2 30 (13.04) 4.18±1.50
3~4 156 (67.83)  
5~6 24 (10.43)  
≥7 20 (8.70)  
Korean ability Poor (4~10) 80 (34.78) 10.63±2.54
Moderate (11~20) 150 (65.22) 　
Table 2.
Degrees of Acculturative Stress and Depression (N=230)
Variables M±SD
Acculturative Stress 2.91±0.41
   Homesickness 3.26±0.69
   The difficulty of communicating 3.10±0.66
   Cultural shock 2.80±0.57
   Prejudice/discrimination 2.79±0.75
   Difficulties in the workplace 2.85±0.45
   Difficulties in interpersonal relationships 2.66±0.50
   Depression 15.33±7.32
Table 3.
Differences of Acculturative Stress and Depression according to General Characteristics of Subjects (N=230)
Characteristics Categories Acculturative stress
 Depression
 Scheffé
M±SD t or F (p) M±SD t or F (p)
Gender Male 2.89±0.41 1.16 14.90±7.04 1.68  
Female 2.97±0.40 (.248) 16.84±8.12 (.095)  
Age (year) ≤29 2.94±0.37 2.44 16.05±7.62 1.53  
30~34 2.93±0.44 (.089) 15.02±7.08 (.218)  
≥35 2.77±0.42   13.59±6.74    
Education (year) ≤12 2.93±0.39 0.87 15.83±7.68 1.75  
≥13 2.87±0.45 (.384) 13.92±6.03 (.082)  
Marital status Married 2.85±0.42 1.84 14.70±6.89 1.05  
None 2.95±0.39 (.067) 15.74±7.59 (.294)  
Religion Have 2.96±0.41 2.63 16.09±7.00 2.39  
None 2.81±0.39 (.009) 13.62±7.77 (.018)  
Length of residence in Korea (month) ≤36 2.97±0.44 1.07 14.91±6.47 0.22  
37~48 2.91±0.36 (.346) 15.31±7.71 (.805)  
≥49 2.87±0.42   15.69±7.69    
Living status Alone 2.95±0.44 1.75 16.94±7.12 1.53  
Foreigners 2.91±0.38 (.157) 14.45±6.79 (.206)  
Vietnamese 2.86±0.41   14.61±7.69    
Others 3.05±0.32   15.65±6.54    
Number of homeland friends (n) ≤10 2.97±0.42 2.38 16.76±7.37 3.33  
≥11 2.84±0.38 (.018) 13.60±6.91 (＜.001)  
Immigrant workers in company (n) ≤10 2.94±0.40 2.00 15.75±7.35 0.79  
11~20 2.91±0.39 (.138) 14.31±7.06 (.453)  
≥21 2.78±0.47   15.32±7.70    
Type of shift Day 2.92±0.39 0.08 15.44±7.28 0.12  
Shift 2.90±0.42 (.922) 15.13±7.08 (.883)  
Others 2.92±0.52   14.56±8.85    
Frequency of transfer job ≤1 2.87±0.41 1.03 14.49±6.81 0.96  
2 2.96±0.42 (.380) 15.96±7.67 (.414)  
3 2.98±0.41   16.48±8.05    
≥4 2.90±0.38   15.71±7.48    
Monthly income (10,000 won) ≤150a 2.98±0.44 1.11 17.39±7.61 5.78 a＞b＞c
151~200b ≥201c 2.89±0.40 2.87±0.33 (.333) 15.01±7.15 11.35±5.77 (.004)  
Working hours/week ≤60 2.93±0.42 0.88 16.10±7.40 2.32  
≥61 2.88±0.37 (.379) 13.72±6.92 (.021)  
Off day/month ≤2 2.85±0.39 1.46 12.70±8.15 2.54  
3~4 2.92±0.41 (.227) 15.90±7.06 (.057)  
5~6 3.04±0.38   16.75±7.15    
≥7 2.81±0.40   13.15±7.38    
Korean ability Poor 3.05±0.35 3.86 16.90±8.77 2.88  
Moderate 2.84±0.42 (＜.001) 13.64±7.82 (.004)  

a, b, c: Scheffé test.

Table 4.
Correlation of Acculturative Stress and Depression (N=230)
Variables Acculturative stress r (p)
Depression .49 (＜.001)
Table 5.
Influencing Factors on Depression of the Subjects (N=230)
Variables Categories B SE β t p
(Constant)   −7.75 4.99   −1.55 .122
Religion Have 1.84 1.02 .10 1.80 .073
None (ref.)          
Number of homeland friends ≤10 2.23 0.97 .13 2.31 .022
≥11 (ref.)          
Monthly income (10,000 won)   −0.26 0.16 −.10 −1.63 .105
Working hours/weeks ≤60 1.45 1.06 .08 1.36 .175
≥61 (ref.)          
Korean ability Moderate (11~20) −1.15 1.02 −.07 −1.13 .258
Poor (4~10) (ref.)          
Acculturative stress   8.39 1.22 .41 6.90 ＜.001
Adj. R2=.28, F=13.53, p＜.001

Ref=Reference group.

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