The impact of the first birth on family and marital life:a comparative study between transnational and domestic marriages
| Autor: | Shu-Ting Liu, 劉淑婷 |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2008 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 96 The target population of this study is couples of transnational marriages, with couples of domestic marriages as a reference group. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the first birth on family and marital life of couples of transnational marriages by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Firstly mailed survey is used to investigate the sense of coherence, family sense of coherence, changes of life and marital satisfaction of the couples, and then try to find out what factors would affect the results. Secondly semi-structured interview is conducted to explore the experience of nurturing the infant, attitude towards motherhood and fatherhood, and conjugal relation of the couples. The study was conducted between September 2006 and November 2007. Questionnaires from 46 transnational couples (effective return rate 69.7%) and 72 domestic couples (return rate 80%) were collected. Eleven out of the 46 transnational couples agreed to participate in the semi-structured interview. Questionnaire showed that the females in the transnational marriages have higher sense of coherence and better changes of life after the first birth than the males, and also better than their native counterparts. Regarding family sense of coherence and marital satisfaction, there is no significant difference among these four groups. There is significant difference in changes of life after the first birth between the couples of transnational marriages, and the females have better changes of life than males. Among the couples of domestic marriages, the females have lower sense of coherence and worse changes of life after the first birth compared to their spouses. However there are no significant differences in sense of coherence, family sense of coherence, changes of life and marital satisfaction between the males of transnational marriages compared to males of domestic marriages. In addition, for both males and females in transnational as well as domestic marriages the family sense of coherence, changes of life after the birth of the baby, and marital satisfaction are positively correlated with their spouses. The family and marital life of the couples of transnational marriages are associated with four factors -- “pregnancy planned by the couple”, “level of education of the male spouse”, “the monthly income of the male spouse”, and “the monthly income of the couple”. The family and marital life of the couples of domestic marriages are associated with three factors -- “pregnancy planned by the couple”, “monthly income of the male spouse”, and “the difference between the couple in the attitude towards parenthood”. The interview revealed that the couples think the first birth can not only make conjugal and family relation more coherent, which more than enough to compensate for the great load of parenthood by bringing more happiness and achievement. The transnational couples have consensus on parenthood, with fathers responsible for the earning and mothers responsible for nurturing the child and housework. Although most interviewees express their intention to build happy families and marriages, some women suffer from domestic violence. The study finds that transnational marriages with greater age disparity, lower social support, lower family economic or lower level of education of the male spouses had greater distress. The author suggests that to these families more assistance should be provided, including health education, marriage counseling, vocational training and welfare allowance, to improve their family and marital life. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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