, pp.57-62 http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/astl.2015.91.12 Verification of the Structural Model concerning Selfesteem, Social Support, and Quality of Life among Multicultural Immigrant Women Rack In Choi 1 Sungkyul University, Sungkyul University-ro 53, Manan-gu, Anyang-city, Gyenggi-do, Republic of Korea Rack In Choi, zzangchoi@sungkyul.edu Abstract. In this study, first of all, to set the impact on subjective quality of life multicultural immigrant women by antecedent valuables that selt-esteem can improve their quality of life, and then to have any social support to look at effect on them whether relations with self esteem and quality of life. At this point, it provides specific information and policy implications that they are smoothly to overcome the difficulties and to allow a soft landing in Korea for policy-makers related to multicultural immigrant women. The sample size of this study is 210, which makes it possible to do statistical inferences. As statistical methods to analyze this study, SPSS 18.0 and Structure Equation Model with AMOS 18.0 are used. This study suggest that it makes emotional support of immigrant women according to relevant government and local governments and civic groups by various policies and programs related with them, we can get to improve their subjective quality of life. Keywords: Multicultural Immigrant Women, Self-esteem, Social Support, Quality of Life, Emotional Support. 1 Introduction Along with globalization, the number of foreigners entering Korea is increasing. Also as the number of marriages between foreign women and Korean men increase, the number of multicultural families is increasing as well as the number of multicultural immigrant women in the society. Therefore social adaptation of multicultural immigrant women in the Korean society is an essential issue and it is necessary to investigate the psychological variables that have positive influence in their adaptation to the Korean society. This research sets self-esteem as the leading variable that can improve the quality of life among immigrant women, and by investigating what social support affects the relation between self-esteem and quality of life, this paper provides specific information regarding the quality of life among immigrant woman to the government, local authorities and organizations related to multicultural issues. The purpose of this research is, first, to understand the positive self-esteem and the negative self-esteem, ISSN: 2287-1233 ASTL Copyright 2015 SERSC
which are the lower dimensions of self-esteem, among immigrant women; and the effect of these variables on their quality of life. Second, it examines the effect of social support for immigrant women in the Korean society, on their quality of life. Third, it examines how social respect of immigrant women influence the relation between self-esteem and quality of life. Fourth, based on the empirical testing result of the structural equation model using Amos 8.0, this paper suggests political implications for policy-making authorities to develop policies that can help the immigrant women to overcome their obstacles in the Korean society and succeed in making a soft landing. 2 Deduction of Hypothesis 2.1 The Relation between Self-esteem and Social Support This research was designed to understand the effect of self-esteem on quality of life. First, it investigated and established four hypotheses regarding the influence of two lower dimensions of self-esteem, which are positive self-esteem and negative selfesteem, on social support. Hypothesis 1. Positive self-esteem has a positive effect on emotional support. Hypothesis 2. Positive self-esteem has a negative effect on appraisal support. Hypothesis 3. Negative self-esteem has a negative effect on emotional support. Hypothesis 4. Negative self-esteem has a negative effect on appraisal support. 2.2 The Relation between Self-esteem and Social Support In this research, it examines the relation between the two lower dimensions of social support, which are emotional support and appraisal support. The hypothesis is as follows. Hypothesis 5. Emotional support has a positive effect on appraisal support. 2.3 The relation between social support and quality of life In this research, it examines the relation between the two lower dimensions of social support, which are emotional support and appraisal support. The hypothesis is as follows. Hypothesis 6. Emotional support has a positive effect on quality of life. Hypothesis 7. Appraisal support has a negative effect on quality of life. 58 Copyright 2015 SERSC
3 Research Method Questionnaire survey was conducted from August 11 th to October 15 th of 2014 among multicultural centers located in Seoul, Gyeonggi province, and Incheon, which are regions where there are many multicultural immigrant women residents. 250 questionnaires were distributed among multicultural centers and related organizations. 183 questionnaires (return rate, 73.2%) were returned and 210 samples, including the 37 questionnaires collected from ethnic Korean Chinese, were analyzed in the research. To test the validity of measurement scales, for the social science nominal scale, frequency analysis, descriptives and crosstabs analysis, and Cronbach α was analyzed using SPSS 18.0. Using AMOS 18.0, the measurement model and alternative model were analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis, goodness of fit and path coefficient. 4 Analysis Result and Discussion For the measuring variables, partial items were eliminated through the refinement process of scale. First, to verify validity, exploratory factor analysis was conducted. To extract the structuring factors for all measuring variables, principle component analysis was used, and for the simplification of factor loading, varimax method, which is an orthogonal rotation method, was adopted. The selection standards for the items were to have eigen value above 1.0, and factor loading above 0.40. To verify the validity of variable, alpha if item deleted was used when there was an item deleted and repeatedly went through the process of elimination of items to improve validity. Through this process, as shown in Table 1, the results showed that selfesteem is composed of two factors. Four items were deleted and six items were ultimately used for analysis. For quality of life, five items were deleted and two items were used. For social support, seven items were deleted and seven items were analyzed in the end. Table 1. Factor Loading of Measuring Valuables. Self Esteem Concept Positive Self Esteem Negative Self Esteem Measure ment Items Factor Loadage Common ality PSE1.929.839 PSE2.916.862 PSE5.862.743 NSE3.896.726 NSE4.884.802 NSE5.852.781 Eigen Value Varianc e Explana tion Power Reliabili ty(α) 2.444 81.463.770 2.309 76.977.850 Copyright 2015 SERSC 59
Social Support Emotional Support Judgment Support ES1.910.764 ES2.874.827 ES3.840.706 JS3.886.616 JS4.867.751 JS5.814.785 JS6.785.662 2.297 76.576.846 2.815 70.368.859 Quality of Life QOL3.853.728 1.457 72.838.627 QOL7.853.728 Table 2 shows the results regarding the estimations of the structural equation model for the alternative model in Fig. 1. The alternative model overall shows a goodness of fit for an acceptable model. The most important value in goodness of fit is, and the analyzed results of AMOS are shown in CMIN. The research model showed figures of x 2 =198.715, df=85, x 2 /df=2.338, p=.000, GFI=.887, AGFI=.840, CFI=.943, RMR=.068, RMSEA=.080, NFI=.905, IFI=.943. Although the p value seemed to have significance, other goodness of fit values mostly seemed to be acceptable compared to other general standard values. Table 2. AMOS Estimation Results of Alternative Model Hypothesis Hyp.1 Hyp.2 Hyp.3 Hyp.4 Hyp.5 Hyp.6 Hyp.7 Path Positive Self Esteem Emotional Support Positive Self Esteem Judgment Support Negative Self Esteem Emotional Support Negative Self Esteem Judgment Support Emotional Support Judgment Support Emotional Support Quality of Life Judgment Support Quality of Life Alternative Model Fit Standardized Path Path Coefficient Coefficient t-value p-value.518.617 3.676.000*** -.077 -.108 -.550.583 -.141 -.163 -.982.326.140.193 1.057.291.773.919 6.806.000***.728 1.057 7.120.000*** -.181 -.221-1.973.048* x 2 =198.715, df=85, x 2 /df=2.338, p=.000 GFI=.887, AGFI=.840, CFI=.943, RMR=.068, RMSEA=.080, NFI=.905, IFI=.943 The structural equation in Fig. 1 seems to imply that positive self-esteem of selfesteem influences emotional support of social support among multicultural immigrant women, but positive self-esteem does not seem to affect appraisal support. Moreover, negative self-esteem of self-esteem does not seem to have any influence on their 60 Copyright 2015 SERSC
social support. Emotional support of social support seems to affect appraisal support and emotional support seems to have influence on their quality of life as well. Also, appraisal support of social support seems to have a negative effect on quality of life. Fig. 1. Estimation Results of Alternative Model 5 Conclusion To sum up, the conclusions is as follows. First, positive self-esteem, a lower dimension of self-esteem, of multicultural immigrant women statistically show significance in the confidence level of 99.9% and seems to have a positive effect on emotional support of social support. Therefore, in order to establish social support for multicultural immigrant women, it is necessary to develop various education programs for adults that teach them to view themselves as valuable and good members of the society, to be satisfied and to have self-confidence. Secondly, emotional support, a lower dimension of social support, of multicultural immigrant women seemed to have significance in the confidence level 99.9 and have a positive effect on appraisal support. Therefore, to build appraisal support for multicultural immigrant women, it is necessary to love and care for them, to share intimacy, to raise awareness that they are trustworthy and reliable members of the society, and to show attention and consideration for them as a member of the Korean society. Third, emotional support of social support seems to have significance statistically in the confidence level 99.9% and have a positive effect on their quality of life. This implies that to receive attention and recognition from others is important for immigrant women to have a high subjective quality of life. Therefore, it has been discovered that the emotional support acts as a leading variable, which improves the subjective quality of life of immigrant women. Copyright 2015 SERSC 61
Fourth, appraisal support of social support seems to have significance statistically in the confidence level 99.9% and have a negative effect on their quality of life. That is, appraisal support such as making fair appraisal, helping them feel valuable, and giving credit for their work, can have a great influence on their quality of life. Therefore, it is necessary show attention and love for them so that they can be satisfied with their personal relationships and find meaning in their lives. References 1. Caplan, G., Support system and community mental health: Lectures on concept development. N Y :Behavioral Publication. (1974) 2. Caplan G. & Killilea M., Support System and Mutual Help, New York: Grune and stratton. (1976) 3. Cohen, S. & Hoberman, H. M., Positive event and social support as butters of life change stress. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 13: 99-125..(1983) 4. Cohen, S. & Wills, T. A., Stress, social support and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2): 310-357. (1985) 5. House, J.S., Work, stress and social support. MA: Addison. Wesley Publishing Co.(1981) 6. Pinneau, S.R. Effects of social support on psychological and physiologica lstress. In Lin, N. Conceptualizing Social Support, Life Eventsand Depression. Orlando: Academic Press. 17-24. (1986) 7. Reasoner, R. W., Building Self-Esteem, Palo Alto, Consulting Psychologists Press. (1982) 8. Smith, S. & Petty, R., Message framing and persuasion: A message Processing analysis. Personality and social Psychology Bulletin, 22: 257-268.(1996) 9. Rosenberg, M., Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (1965) 10. Rosenberg, M. & Simon, R. G., Black and white self-esteem: The urban school child, washington, Ros-Monograph series: 1-10. (1971) 11. Thoits, P. A., Social Support and Psychological Well-being :Theoretical Possibilities. I. G. Sarason & B. Sarason(Eds.), Social support: Theory, research and applications, 51-72.(1985) 12. White, J. M. & Klein, D. M., "The Social exchange and choice framework," Family Theories(2nd ed.). Thousand Oakes: Sage Publications.(2002) 13. WHO,WHOQOL Study Protocol. WHO(MNH/PSF).WHO, Geneva.(1993) 62 Copyright 2015 SERSC