본 연구는 국내에 거주하고 있는 국제결혼부부의 적응과정에서 결혼이주여성이 어떠한 경험을 하였는지를 탐색하고 성공적인 상호적응의 과정을 이해하기 위해서 수행되었다. 이를 위해 한국남성과 결혼하여 충남북부지역에 살고 있는 결혼이주여성과 그 배우자 4쌍을 대상으로 심층면접을 실시하고 근거이론방법을 적용하여 자료를 분석하였으며, 연구 결과는 다음과 같다. 결혼이주여성의 적응은 ‘갈등 후 적응’과 ‘초기 적응’의 두 가지 유형으로 나눌 수 있으며, 상호적응의 과정은 문화차이와 갈등 단계, 이해와 배려단계, 서로 맞추어 가는 단계, 안정된 적응단계의 4단계로 나타났다. 국제결혼부부의 성공적인 상호적응에서 중요한 핵심 범주는 ‘서로의 차이를 이해하고 맞추어 감’으로 나타났으며, ‘사전정보’ 와 ‘문화적 동질성’이 상호적응에 영향을 미치는 맥락적 조건으로 작용하였다. ‘배우자의 지지’와 ‘가족의 지지’, ‘사회적 지지’가 안정된 적응을 위한 중재적 조건으로 나타났다. 연구 결과를 토대로 후속 연구를 위한 제언을 하였다.

The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth understanding of the successful adjusting process of the immigrant wives and their spouses. The authors have followed the procedure of the ``Grounded Theory`` suggested by Strauss & Corbin (1998) with four couples who were introduced by the Multi Cultural Family Center staffs as couples ``successfully settled`` into the community. In-depth interviews with semi-structured questionnaires were conducted and the collected data rendered 164 concepts and 27 sub-categories which was deduced to 11 categories. The followings are the key categories resulted by the paradigm axial coding. International marriage was suggested as the casual condition, ``cultural difference`` and ``conflict`` as the central phenomena. Contextural conditions that influenced the result were ``advance information`` and ``cultural similarity.`` Mediating conditions were ``spouse support``, ``family support`` and ``community support.`` the Action/Interaction strategies were ‘multi-cultural understanding`` and ``adjusting to each other.`` The end result ``adaptation with stability``, and the key category ``adjusting with understanding each others`` difference`` were also deduced from the data. The authors have induced the four stages to successful adjust of immigrant wives which follows: the stage of cultural differences and conflict; the stage of understanding and trying, the stage of adjusting to each other, and the stage of adjustment with stability. We also found two types of adjustment, ``early adjusting group`` and ‘adjusting after some conflicts group.`` The result has shown that ``cultural differences`` and ``conflict`` was influenced by ``advance information`` and ``cultural similarity.`` The ``multi-cultural understanding`` which is respecting each other`s culture, understanding and accepting each other as is was the key factor of the couple for the wives to adapt into the society.