A study of the influence of educational activity and other variables on the acculturation, life satisfaction, and health status of foreign female spouses in Taiwan

This study was conducted to investigate the impact of demographic data and educational activity participation on acculturation, life satisfaction, and health status of foreign female spouses in Taiwan. Additionally, the relationships among the acculturation, life satisfaction, and their physical and mental health were also examined.; The subjects comprised 327 foreign female spouses from Mainland China and Southeast Asian countries now living in Taichung City or Taichung County of Taiwan. They were categorized in three groups---115 subjects who spent 100 or more hours, 109 subjects who spent between 11 to 99 hours, and 103 who spent fewer than 10 hours in educational training. Subjects were selected by purpose and snowball sampling.; The researcher-created questionnaire was based on the Stephenson Multi-group Acculturation Scale (SMAS), the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI), and the Short Form 36-item health questionnaire (SF-36). Demographic data variables in the survey included educational activity participation, acculturation, life satisfaction, and health status to form a four-part, 62-question data basis. Subjects could freely choose English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, or Cambodian versions of the questionnaire.; The analyses revealed that the demographic data partially affected the Dominant Society Immersion (DSI), Ethnic Society Immersion (ESI), and life satisfaction of the foreign female spouses. In the acculturation category, the results revealed that the foreign female spouses with a Buddhist belief system and those who had health insurance were likely to better immerse into dominant society, but subjects who received fewer than 10 hours of educational training tended to document lower levels of dominant society immersion. Subjects who came from Mainland China and did not have full time jobs had immersed at a slower rate into the ethnic society than those with full time work or those of other nationality. In the life satisfaction category, the results indicated that the foreign female spouses who came from Southeast Asia and had a lower educational level, had health insurance, and owned their own house reported higher life satisfaction than the others. In addition, life satisfaction significantly influenced both the physical and mental health of the foreign female spouses. Moreover, nationality and immigration length significantly impacted the mental health of the foreign female spouses, and income's influence also approached conventional levels of significance.; With regard to the correlation between educational activities participation and the health status of subjects, the results revealed that differing numbers of educational training hours made significant differences in their acculturation and life satisfaction but had no significant effect on their physical and mental health. Nevertheless, life satisfaction of the subjects had significant impact on their physical and mental health. Therefore, participation in educational activities may have had indirect influence on the physical and mental health of the subjects through life satisfaction.