There were approximately 3,000 international students, scholars and their dependent spouses and children associated with the University of Pittsburgh in 2003-2004. As the accompanying wife of an international student or scholar proceeds to take care of practical home and family tasks in a new and unfamiliar environmentthe U.S.she may experience negative mental health outcomes such as anxiety, frustration, depression, isolation, etc. These adverse outcomes are a significant public health problem for the population of international wives because they decrease quality of life and sense of wellbeing. The symptoms can also have negative affects on the husbands and dependent children of the international wives. Using an ecosystemic approach, the current study contributes to the literature on international student wives by exploring the following research questions at the intersection of the individual and meso-system levels of interaction: (1) What tasks must international wives accomplish in the U.S.? (2) How do international wives access community in order to more successfully accomplish these tasks? (3) What ideas do wives have for how their communities could be enhanced? Using qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven Asian wives of Asian international students and scholars, the current study is an exploration of the tasks that international wives feel they need to accomplish in Pittsburgh and the social systems they access. Three themes emerged from the interviews which described the wives transition from dependency to agency, their strategies for maintaining cultural identity and the use of virtual communities. The study concludes with practical recommendations of population-specific social support interventions which may be implemented by public health practitioners and other interested purveyors of mental and social support.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04062006-112506 |
| Date | 02 June 2006 |
| Creators | Rayman, Jamie Beth |
| Contributors | Robin Grubs, PhD, Patricia Documet, MD, DrPH, Martha Ann Terry, PhD |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04062006-112506/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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