The Effects of Husband's Education on Female Migrant Partner's Health and Life Satisfaction

Daesung Choi, University of Texas at San Antonio
Myoungsoon You, Seoul National University
Youngtae Cho, Seoul National University

Background: International marriage process and patriarchal family structure in South Korea result in high foreign brides' dependency on husband in South Korea. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of husband's educational attainment on health and life satisfaction of female migrant partner. Methods: We used a National Survey on Multicultural Families 2009. The participants of the study were marriage migrant women who came from China, Vietnam, Philippines, Japan and Korean-ethnic Chinese(n=59,420). Dependent variables were self-rated health(SRH) and life satisfaction. Sequential multivariate logistic regression modeling was applied. Result: After adjustment of husband's education and other factors, effect of foreign wife's education on their own SRH is considerably decreased, but still women with highly educated husbands are significantly more likely to show better SRH and life satisfaction than counterparts. In contrast, marriage migrant partners in high education tend to report worse life satisfaction than lower educated women.