Social Support and Acculturative Stress in Migrant Workers

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to collect basic data on social support and acculturative stress in migrant workers. Methods: Between August, 2007 and January, 2008 171 immigrant workers completed data. collection using a questionnaire. Workers were recruited from 2 churches, one in Seoul and the other in Gyeonggi Province. Mean and standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and Stepwise multiple regression were used to analyze the data. Results: The average score for social support was 3.73 (+/- 0.65) and for acculturative stress, 2.52 (+/- 0.65). There were significant differences acculturative stress according to gender (t=2.152, p=.033), kind of job (t=2.597, p=.040), and have community or not (t=2.899, p=.005). There was a significant negative correlation between social support and acculturative stress (r=-.270, p=.001). Factors influencing acculturative stress were existence of participants having a community of people from their home country or not (R-2=.151, p=.002). Conclusion: More studies are needed to identify the variables that influence acculturative stress in immigrant workers.