EVALUATION OF BUDDY PROGRAMME FOR FOREIGN WIVES IN SINGAPORE: A COMPARISON BETWEEN PARTICIPANTS AND PARTICIPANTS-TO-BE

Abstract

There is agreement that foreign wives face considerable challenges including finding employment, acculturating, facing discrimination, and having frail social support. Despite the benefits associated with higher levels of social support, the effectiveness of social support interventions in Singapore is replete with mixed results. As such, the present study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the Buddy Programme, a social support intervention for foreign wives in Singapore in which each foreign wife is paired with a Buddy who supports her over the span of the year-long programme. A one-shot posttest quasi-experimental design on intervention group and non-intervention group participants was employed to examine the programme’s influence on foreign wives’ social support, acculturation, and social integration in Singapore, and to identify service gaps and potential improvements from the foreign wives’ perspectives. Results indicated that there was a significant difference in overall friend social support especially in the area of informational support. Other key findings include relatively high levels of support from the family, and high levels of acculturation even without the intervention. However, social support from the Buddy was generally low, and there was no significant difference in the levels of social integration between the two groups. On the other hand, open-ended questions and the qualitative interviews found that participants wanted two main areas of support from formal sources of support namely, information and tips regarding specific issues that affect binational families, and assistance to help them enhance their skills and economic situation. The findings suggest that the Buddy Programme may be effective in enhancing friend social support, but not in other areas. To meet the programme objectives, Buddy support and social integration may be two aspects of the programme to enhance. In summary, the study points to specific areas of the programme that could be enhanced, as well as the participants’ perspectives on how the programme can be enhanced to meet their needs better.