Acculturation and spousal support for foreign wives: A qualitative analysis of the Internet blogs of Taiwanese women

Abstract

This study, a phenomenological inquiry of spousal support for foreign wives living in their husbands' country, examined the blogs of Taiwanese women in Japan. Eleven blogs written by 10 Taiwanese wives were purposefully selected from 235 blogs yielded by the initial search, all of which were available in the public domain. Three core categories with eight themes in total emerged from triangulation: support with identifying as a foreign spouse in Japan; support with maintaining Taiwanese ethnic identity; and support with identifying with the marital roles of wife, homemaker, and mother. The first category included help connecting with Japan, help connecting with Japanese people, and empathy and patience regarding homesickness and acculturative stress. The second involved support of contact with Taiwanese friends and support for relationships with families of origin. Finally, the third included expressions of love, care, and acceptance; participation in housework and/or childrearing; and financial support. Future research is needed to further explore foreign wives' strategies of acculturation and their relationships to spousal support and adaptation outcomes.