Living for the Children: immigrant Korean mothers' re-creation of family after marital dissolution

Abstract

This study was a grounded theory research aimed at generating a substantive theory that accounts for the explanatory social processes in which immigrant Korean single-mother families were engaged in the United States. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 immigrant Korean single mothers who were living with children under 18 years of age at the time of the interviews. A total of 21 transcripts of interviews provided data for analysis. Data collection guided by theoretical sampling and concurrent constant comparative analysis of the transcribed data and memos was conducted to identify the core social process. The emerged core social process in which immigrant Korean single mothers were engaged was "living for the children," which represented the driving process by which these women made transition to their new lives as single-mother families. The major task throughout the entire transition was re-creating their families. The women's transition involved practical and psychological transitions, each of which involved stages; each stage involved major tasks and processes through which they were trying to achieve these major tasks. The practical transition involved three stages: assuring family survival, struggling between the father role and the mother role, and doing my best as a mother. The psychological transition involved two parallel transitions: becoming strong and settling in with a new supportive network. Fighting with myself and letting things out were processes that functioned between stages and across transitions that resulted in mothers redirecting themselves toward positive thinking and releasing emotional and psychological burdens. Programs and services to assist these women and their families should consider multiple aspects of their transition processes to effectively help them make transitions; this assistance should be synchronized to the context within which these women were embedded, including their stages in each practical and psychological transition; links between these women and established resources should be established; and collaborative awareness programs and community resources should be designed, modified and implemented to create an empowering environment for these strong but socially vulnerable women and families.