Abstract Marriage and family are the two main issues that people encounter in modern society. In Taiwan, it is common for women to receive good education in present day. Being treated equally in receiving education as men do, women are getting more independent and are able to support themselves well. In addition, the traditional values of marrying someone with good family background and the responsibility of give birth to a son have increased the difficulty for men of lower level to find a wife in Taiwan. As a result, interracial marriage has been prompted to sharply increase, particularly foreign brides from Southeast Asia. The main purpose of this research is to study the marriage life of foreign brides in Taiwan. The instrument includes: ¡§Questionnaire of Organizing Interview Person to Person.¡¨ The content of the questionnaire includes ¡§the thought of marriage¡¨, ¡§the impression of Taiwan before marriage¡¨, ¡§the present impression of Taiwan as a foreign wife¡¨, ¡§the satisfaction of marriage¡¨, ¡§family life¡¨, ¡§personal background¡¨, ¡§family background¡¨, ¡§the process of getting to know their future husband¡¨, ¡§the part of engagement¡¨, and ¡§foreign brides¡¦ interaction with family back home¡¨. Samples are foreign brides from Eastern Asia (Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Singapore) who also enroll in the Life Counseling Course in Kaohsiung. (Kaohsiung Women¡¦s Club, Min-Chan Elementary School, Shan-Min Elementary School, Shin-Chuan Elementary School, Cheng-Shin Elementary School). 126 questionnaires were collected. 120 out of 126 questionnaires are valuable. The results are as follow: 1. Foreign brides¡¦ ¡§marriage life¡¨ was between normal and satisfaction (M=3.86 on five-point scale). 2. Foreign brides¡¦ ¡§family life¡¨ was between normal and satisfaction (M=3.86 on five-point scale). 3. Foreign brides and their family¡¦s participation in making the marriage decision reflects how much they are in control in the whole marriage process although a marriage is usually greatly decided by the agency and the future husband. 4. Foreign brides¡¦ ¡§marriage life¡¨ is greatly influenced by ¡§their original nationality¡¨, with or without religion belief¡¨, ¡§how they come to Taiwan¡¨. ¡§family income¡¨, ¡§husband¡¦s health¡¨, ¡§the monthly income of the foreign brides.¡¨ 5. Foreign brides¡¦ ¡§family life¡¨ is greatly influenced by ¡§how they come to Taiwan¡¨. ¡§family income¡¨, ¡§husband¡¦s health.¡¨ 6. Foreign brides¡¦ ¡§point of view in marriage¡¨, ¡§their impression about Taiwan before the marriage¡¨, and ¡§their current impression about Taiwan¡¨ are positively correlated with their ¡§marriage life¡¨ and ¡§family life.¡¨ 7. There is a strongly positive correlation between ¡§marriage satisfaction¡¨ and ¡§family life.¡¨ 8. The marriage motivation comes from economic reason. Foreign brides¡¦ poor family background pushes them to marry abroad in order to obtain a better life. The exchange is rational and mutually beneficial to both the foreign brides and the husbands.

ABSTRACT Multinational marriages across borders have been tremendously increased for the past few years. The number of foreign brides, excluding those whom from Mainland China, has been standing at around 120,000 at the end of 2004. Among these brides, most of them take the Penghu as their residential area during the past three years. However, the problems of the culture differences for their life adjustment among the cross-border marriages have been turned out. Taiwanese government, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, has introduced the projects for life-guidance and relevant financial support to get rid of their difficulties of life adjustment. Nonetheless, there is a doubt that the fact is that most of the foreign brides are still faced with difficulties in livings. Given such a scenario, this study tries to review the projects to see the extent in which the foreign brides get accustomed to their community, and fulfill their potentials after joining the classes of life guidance. A documentary analysis and the questionnaire interviews are used to empirically examine the current context. After the pilot study, 265 samples of foreign brides in the Penghu country were collected. Among these respondents selected, 130 joined the life guidance class, while 135 did not. Via the aid of the software of Statistics Package of Social Science, The findings are shown as followings. a. The mature foreign brides were more likely to join the class than the junior. Of the brides, Indonesian brides were the major participants compared with those whom from Vietnam. Also, those who have received more school years attended the class more. The more years the brides stepped into marriage, the less possibility they joined the class. This was the same case in the brides who must spend more time to take care of children. b. The brides who attended the class tended to enjoy more satisfaction of livings than those who neglected the class. c. The foreign brides performed various life adjustments with their different ages, status of marriage, and standard of living and finance. d. The class participants revealed significant differences in life adjustments in terms of their attendance of class, attitude to class, and family support. e. The feelings after the class attendants were shown positive, pleasure, supportive, and satisfied. However, transportation and child care might stop their attendance. All the brides were in the hope of taking the class and learning Mandarin and they wished to develop knowledge through the classes under the family support.

This study investigated Taiwanese preschool teachers' awareness of cultural diversity of new immigrant children and how this awareness influences their educational practices. In particular, this study focused on the cultural awareness of preschool teachers who work with young Taiwanese children whose mothers are immigrants from Southeast Asia. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods. One hundred seventy-two Taiwanese preschool teachers from the different geographic areas of Taiwan participated in the study. Data were collected through the use of the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (CDAI) survey and participant interviews. Research results of the study revealed: (a) most Taiwanese preschool teachers had an awareness of cultural diversity, but their perceptions of how to create a multicultural environment need to be improved; (b) Taiwanese preschool teachers' personal experiences with children from different cultures were more associated with their cultural awareness than their ages and educational levels; (c) Geographic location was the factor affecting preschool teachers' awareness of cultural diversity and educational practices. This study is informative to the understanding of Taiwanese preschool teachers' awareness of cultural diversity and the implications of this awareness for classroom practice. In addition, multicultural perspectives of the Taiwan society toward immigrant families and children can benefit from the findings of this study. Future research should include the cultural needs of new immigrant children and the implementation of practices for educating new immigrant children.

Background Recently, Taiwan has been faced with the migration of numbers of women from Southeast Asian (SEA) countries. It was estimated that the aggregate number of SEA wives in Taiwan was more than 131,000 in 2007 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2006).These women are often colloquially called, “foreign brides” or “alien brides”; most of them are seen as commodities of the marriage trade, whose marriages are arranged by marriage brokers. Some women can be regarded as being sold for profit by their families. These young Vietnamese immigrant women come to Taiwan alone, often with a single suitcase, and are culturally and geographically distinct from Taiwanese peoples; the changes in culture, interpersonal relationships, personal roles, language, value systems and attitudes exert many negative impacts on their health, so greater levels of acculturation stress can be expected. This particular group of immigrant women are highly susceptible and vulnerable to health problems, due to language barriers, cultural conflicts, social and interpersonal isolation, and lack of support systems. The aims of this study were to examine the relationships between acculturation and immigrantspecific distress and health outcomes among Vietnamese transnational married women in Taiwan. This study focuses on Vietnamese intermarriage immigrants, the largest immigrant group in the period from1994 through to 2007. Methodology The quantitative study was divided into two phases: the first was a pilot study and the second the main study. This study was conducted in a communitybased health centre in the south of Taiwan, targeting Taiwanese households with Vietnamese wives, including the Tanam, Kaohsiung, and Pentong areas. This involved convenience sampling with participants drawn from registration records at the Public Health Centre of Kaohsiung and used the snowball technique to recruit 213 participants. The instruments included the following measures: (1) Socio-demographic information (2) Acculturation Scale (3) Acculturative Distress Scale, and (4) HRQOL. Questions related to immigrant women’s acculturation level and health status were modified. Quantitative data was coded and entered into the SPSS and SAS program for statistical analysis. The data analysis process involved descriptive, bivariate, multivariate multiple regression, and classification and regression trees (CART). Results Six hypotheses of this study were validated. Demographic data was presented and it revealed that there are statically significant differences between levels of acculturation and years of residency in Taiwan, number of children, marital status, education, religion of spouse, employment status of spouse and Chinese ethnic background by Pearson correlation and Kendall’s Tau-b or Spearman test. The correlations of daily activity, language usage, social interaction, ethnic identity, and total of acculturation score with DI tend to be negatively significant. In addition, the result of the one-way ANOVA supported the hypothesis that the different types of acculturation had a differential effect on immigrant distress. The marginalized group showed a greater immigrant distresses in comparison with the integrated group. Furthermore, the comparison t-test revealed that the Vietnamese immigrant women showed a lower score than Taiwanese women in HRQOL. The result showed higher acculturative stress associated with lower score of HRQOL on bodily pain, vitality, social functioning, mental health, and mental component summary. The CART procedure to the conclusion that the predictive variables for the physical component of the SF-36 (PCS) were: alienation, occupation, loss, language, and discrimination (predicted 28.8% of the total variance explained). The predictive variables for the mental component of the SF-36 (MCS) were: alienation, occupation, loss, language, and novelty (predicted 28.4% of the total variance explained). Conclusion As these Vietnamese immigrant women become part of Taiwanese communities and society, the need becomes apparent to understand how they acculturate to Taiwan and to the health status they acquire. The findings have implications for nursing practice, research, and will assist the Taiwanese government to formulate appropriate immigrant health policies for these SEA immigrant women. Finally, the application of this research will positively contribute to the health and well being of thousands of immigrant women and their families.

本論文的研究目的，是以「老化態度」及「老年準備」之概念架構，探索中年男同志關於老化的生命經驗，希望藉由中年男同志的自身經驗，來理解他們對老化的意義詮釋、老年生活的想像及所從事的老年準備情形。 本研究使用質性取向的研究方法，以半結構式的深度訪談進行資料蒐集，訪談了十二位居住在大台北地區或桃園縣市，年齡介於四十歲至五十三歲的中年男同志，主要的研究結果如下：（一）受訪者談論的老化意義，是由生理、心理及社會文化等多方面所交織而成的概念，在不同的面向上也有不同程度的正、負向評價，整體來說，他們傾向於否定自己是老人、離老尚遠的「老年拒斥觀」；至於對老的界定，最明顯的是，當他們和同年齡層的異性戀者相比時，多半覺得自己保有年輕化的優勢。另外，許多受訪者也提到年輕男同志對中、老年同志的負面態度或刻板印象，某種程度上反映出男同志族群的怕老心態。（二）在受訪者描繪的老年生活圖像中，對「社會支持網絡」的老年想像尤其重視朋友及伴侶關係等非正式網絡，其中幾位已婚男同志也提及對婚姻家庭的老年生活想像（例如「含飴弄孫」）；在「社會參與」方面，他們期待能夠「參與志願服務」、「出錢出力貢獻社會」、「老年的再教育」、「工作者角色的延續」及「從事休閒活動與興趣」等，其共同的目的是為了達到自我成長及自我實現，但也可能因同志身份而面臨參與的障礙；至於「對老年的焦慮、擔心或害怕」，他們談論得最多、最擔心的是「怕重病」、「怕醜」，以及「怕失去外在吸引力」。（三）在受訪者實際從事的老年準備內容中，他們認為最需要準備、且實際準備程度較高的是「經濟準備」（工作收入及其他財務規劃），其次則是「抗老化的準備」（基於身體健康或外在吸引力而進行的保養）、「從事興趣或休閒活動」（偏向動態性、團體式的型態）以及「社會支持網絡維繫」，至於目前積極從事「社會學習與志願服務」及「老年居住安排」的受訪者則較少。總括來說，受訪者提及的準備內容都是屬於非正式的準備，較不重視正式組織（如政府、公司企業或非營利組織）在老年準備中扮演的角色。 再由生命週期觀點來檢視，則發現中年男同志的老化態度、老年生活想像及老年準備情形與中年異性戀者之間具有相似性，但也有差異性，同時，也呈現出一些動態歷程的改變。 值得深思的是，「老年準備」的概念本身有可能隱含著個人本位的意識型態，當政府的老年政策強調老年人的自我照顧責任時，也就忽視了對社經地位較弱勢者應有的保障。此外，本研究也發現，娶外籍新娘的已婚中年男同志，其婚姻關係凸顯出「性傾向弱勢」與「性別弱勢」之間的相互擠壓現象，基於自身利益的考量，弱勢者本身（已婚男同志）也可能會去壓迫比自己更弱勢的人（外籍新娘）。 / With “attitudes toward aging“ and “preparation for old age” as the conceptual framework, this study aims to explore the aging experience of middle-aged gay males, and tries to understand their interpretations, imaginations, and preparation of aging. This study employs qualitative research approach. The participants are twelve middle-aged gay males living in the Taipei metropolitan area and Taoyuan county, aging from forty to fifty-three. The researcher conducted semi-structural interview with them individually, and collected in-depth data. The study findings after data analyzed are listed below: First, the meaning of aging discussed by the twelve participants during the interview is a complicated complex, comprising of physical, psychological and social cultural dimensions, which are evaluated with different positive and negative appraisals separately. As a whole, participants tended to think they were not old and resist to aging. Most obviously, when compared with their heterosexual counterparts, they considered themselves much younger. Besides, many participants mentioned the negative stereotypes and prejudices young gay males tended to have against older ones, which reflects the fear of age widespread in this population, too. Second, The imaginations of later life participants in this study had involved “social support networks”, “social participation”, and “anxiety, worry and fear of old age”. They thought highly of informal support networks particularly, such as their friends and intimate partners, when it came to “social support networks”. Of participants entering traditional heterosexual marriage, some discussed their positive expectations that they hope to enjoy marriage and family life in later life as the heterosexual do. On the topic of “social participation”, they expected themselves to be volunteers, contribute to society with money and effort, pursue further education, keep working, and get engaged in their interests or hobbies. Their common purpose of social participation in old age was self-achievement, but they may encounter some obstacles because of their sexual orientation. In terms of their anxiety, worry, and fear of old age, what they talked and worried about most was getting ill, becoming ugly and unattractive. Third, as for preparation for old age, what the participants in this study considered most important, and thus prepared more was economic security. And other preparations included health maintenance, engagements in interests or hobbies, and connections to their social support networks. By and large, their preparations tended to be informal, and don’t emphasize the importance of formal preparation planning from formal organizations like the government, companies or non-profit organizations. With the life course developmental perspective, when we compare the attitudes toward aging, imaginations of later life, and preparation for old age between these middle-aged gay men and their heterosexual counterparts, we can find that some dimensions are similar and the others are different, and their attitudes, thinking or action about aging may change over time. Furthermore, the concept of “preparation for old age” itself may imply certain ideology of individualism inexplicitly. While aging policies emphasize the obligation of self-care of the elderly, it may ignore the security of those persons in lower social-economic status. Besides, this study also finds that the marriage relationships of middle-aged gay males who married “foreign brides” are some kind of mutual oppression in essential, the disadvantages itself（middle-aged gay males）are likely to oppress the other disadvantages in worse condition（”foreign brides”）.