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Background Women who are migrants experience discrimination and face major risks, including sexual exploitation, trafficking, and violence, which affect their health and well-being. This study explored critical health incidents experienced by immigrant Thai women in marriage migration. Methods A qualitative explorative approach with in-depth interviews was used. Forty immigrant Thai women who currently or previously had a Swedish spouse were recruited for the study. An inductive critical incident technique was used to collect and analyze the data as the first step. In a second deductive step, the Newman system model was used to categorize health dilemmas. Results The women reported 438 critical health incidents in five main areas. Psychological health dilemmas included emotional abuse, feeling overwhelmed due to family responsibilities and the stress of leaving family behind. Sociocultural health dilemmas included transnational family duties or not performing family duties. Physiological health dilemmas included experiencing physical violence and environmental, domestic or work accidents. Developmental health dilemmas included failing health, difficulties upholding the duties expected of a spouse in the target culture and caring for an elderly husband. Spiritual health dilemmas included critical incidents in which the women perceived themselves to have failed in their hopes and duties as a wife, which intensified their dependence on faith, particularly the Buddhist concept of karma. Conclusion Professionals in health and welfare practices in Thailand together with professionals in Western countries who work with women in marriage migration situations need to recognize the psychological, sociocultural, physiological, developmental, and spiritual health dilemmas experienced by these women. Furthermore, civil organizations that meet Thai women in foreign countries, such as Buddhist cultural associations, would benefit from the multicultural knowledge revealed by the present study. This knowledge can facilitate healthcare and welfare support for women in marriage migration situations.

Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major global public health problem. Women are the principal victims of IPV, and some special populations have been particularly impacted. The Akha and Lahu women are vulnerable populations for IPV due to the modernization and changes of their culture and norms. This study aimed to understand premarriage factors related to IPV, including associated factors, influencers, patterns and impacts, in Akha and Lahu women in Thailand. Methods A qualitative method was used to gather information among Akha and Lahu women who had experienced IPV in the previous year and were fluent in Thai. Women who had experienced IPV in the previous year and lived in the border area of Thailand and Myanmar were invited to provide information. A thematic analysis was used to extract information from the participants and develop findings. Results A total of fifty-two married women were recruited into the study: 46.2% were Akha and 53.8% were Lahu. Those married Akha and Lahu women younger than 39 years found their partner through social media, had conditions before getting married, had high self-confidence, and tended to marry people from different tribes. While those aged 40 years and over met their husbands in village activities, were highly compliant with the norms of their culture, and married men from the same tribe. Three factors were detected as associated factors of IPV: cultural differences between partners from different tribes, substance use, and personality. Differences in age between partners, living in poor family economic status, and poor education were also detected as influencers of IPV. Four patterns of IPV were observed among Akha and Lahu married women: neglect, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, and physical abuse. Several patterns of the impacts were presented: children were neglected, especially in the preparation of daily food, having stress, having poor family relationships, and having children with unsuccessful lives in terms of education and getting a good job. Almost all married Akha and Lahu women had no particular expectations in their lives. Conclusion Akha and Lahu women face IPV problems with several key influences and impacts. Effective implementations are required to monitor and reduce the problem in the Akha and Lahu families, especially where the women are younger than 40 years old and married to men from different tribes.

Background Intimate partner violence is more common in polygynous couples than monogamous couples, but the extent that this association is modified by the husband’s alcohol consumption is unknown. The objectives of this study are: (1) To describe the extent to which polygyny is associated with self-reported experience of intimate partner violence among women receiving postpartum care; (2) To describe the extent to which the mentioned association is modified by the husband’s alcohol consumption. Methods We conducted a hospital-based cross-sectional study among women age 18 years or older receiving postpartum care at 8 public hospitals in 3 provinces in Northern and Northeastern Thailand using self-administered questionnaires. We analyzed data using descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and stratified analyses. Results A total of 1207 women agreed to participate in the study, 8% of whom reported that their husbands practiced polygyny. Women in a polygynous relationship were more likely than women in monogamous relationships to experience intimate partner violence (11.7% vs. 3.6%, Adjusted OR = 2.23; 95% CI = 0.94, 5.26). The prevalence of intimate partner violence was relatively low in both groups among women whose husbands did not drink (2.9% vs. 0%, Adjusted OR = N/A), and very high in both groups among those whose husbands binge-drank (46.2% vs. 20.8%, Adjusted OR = 9.54; 95% CI = 1.10, 82.54). However, the Breslow-Day Test of Homogeneity suggested that there was no statistically significant effect modification (p-value = 0.259). Conclusion Stakeholders in intimate partner violence should consider both alcohol use (particularly binge-drinking) and polygyny as risk factors for intimate partner violence. However, caveats regarding study design, misclassification and potential information bias, and lack of generalizability should be considered in the interpretation of the study findings.

Hmong women in northern Thailand face unique reproductive health challenges shaped by socio-cultural and gendered expectations. Despite global health disparities, limited research has examined how these factors influence Hmong women's reproductive health experiences in rural Thai settings. This qualitative study draws on participant observation, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with married Hmong women in Ban Mae Sa, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Thematic analysis was guided by socio-ecological, life course, gendered, and grounded theory frameworks to explore how Hmong women navigate reproductive roles, marriage dynamics, and healthcare access. Five key themes emerged: (1) Traditional Hmong Way of Life, (2) Gendered Expectations of Marriage: Pregnancy and Motherhood, (3) Health Care Accessibility, (4) Family Planning, and (5) Economic and Social Support. Findings show that reproductive health among Hmong women is shaped by deeply rooted patriarchal norms and structural barriers. Addressing these challenges require culturally responsive efforts to shift norms, engage Hmong men and women, and improve healthcare access.

The conventional model of a rising divorce rate during the process of modernization is a staple element of the sociological theory of the family. This generalization is challenged, however, by traditional high-divorce societies, primarily in Islamic Southeast Asia, which have experienced a decline in divorce with modernization. In this study, based on micro-level survey data, the authors explore the social roots of marital disruption in Indonesia and Malaysia and in another Southeast Asian society, Thailand, which has not been identified as a high-divorce society. Comparable survey data from the 1970s (from the World Fertility Survey) allow for an in-depth analysis of traditional patterns of divorce before the rapid modernization of recent decades. Two major findings emerge from the multivariate analysis. First, there is a common pattern across all three societies of higher levels of divorce among \"traditional\" women-those who live in rural areas, marry at young ages, and have lower levels of education. Second, the authors find significant sociocultural (ethnic, regional, religious) differentials in divorce within each country that cannot be explained by demographic and socioeconomic composition. They present an interpretation of how moderately high levels of divorce were accommodated in traditional Southeast Asian societies.

This research studies the reproductive contributions of Taiwan’s foreign wives from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, based on applications of the multinomial logit model to the micro data of the 2003 Census of Foreign Spouses. The wives from China are found to have the lowest lifetime fertility of 1.4 children, mainly because they were more prone to marry later, have a very large spousal age gap, be separated or divorced, and have their current marriage as their second marriage. The effect of wife’s educational attainment on lifetime fertility turned out to be either modest or nonexistent.

Using a wide variety of measures of psychological well-being obtained from a representative sample of married men and women in Bangkok, Thailand, we examine gender differences in psychological well-being. We find that, in Bangkok, as in the United States, married men generally enjoy a higher level of psychological well-being than do married women. We find no support for role strain theory, but we do find support for role enhancement theory. We find that social support has little effect on psychological well-being, but that social strain not only has a significant effect on well-being but also largely accounts for gender differences in well-being. The mixed findings suggest the importance of testing theories in different societal contexts, for they may or may not be easily portable from one culture to another.

This first attempt to include women in the pre-1949 history of Chinese immigration to Thailand examines the dialectical relationship between immigration and marital practices through a gender lens. It is argued that labour immigration is not simply an economic endeavour, but rather a complex process of cultural production in which Thai and Chinese regimes compete to produce gendered citizens.

As a result of rapid industrialization in Southeast Asia, the family stands in need of careful attention. This article examines the family in Thailand by focusing on changes in the living arrangements of never-married women aged 30-34 and 40-44 between the years 1970 and 1990. The living arrangements of these women have been rather stable in the wake of the economic transformation in Thailand. A high proportion of these women continue to live in households with relatives or households headed by relatives. This suggests that the norms that govern familial ties continue to be strong and resilient in Thailand.