Family Volunteering and the Family Health

가족자원봉사경험과 가족의 건강성에 관한 연구

Our society has had a growing interest in a family volunteering activity which has been proposed to be helpful to strengthen the health of the families. Thus this could be a new alternative strategy for motivating a family life as well as activating a volunteering activity which takes a major portion in the source for social welfare, as a precautionary measure against various social problems. This research therefore studied the effects of the family volunteering activity on the status of family health on the purpose for providing social work implications to activate family volunteering and to enhance the degree of family health. The study subjects were whole family members in Korea (n=494) who had participated in a family volunteering program more than 6 months (experimental group). The control subjects (n=534) were from family members without having an experience in a family volunteering program (control group). The results demonstrated that experimental group experiencing family volunteering activities represents significantly higher status of family health regarding all the study fields, e.g., family values in common, autonomy or flexibility for family, family commitment, communication within a family, family oriented problem-solving ability, compared with control group. Even the cases of control group which were regularly engaged in the social activities together, showed the lower status of family health, as compared with families having experiences in the family volunteering activity. Accordingly, family volunteering experiences has taken more favorable influences upon the status of family health than any other family activities. Therefore, the present study suggests as follows for activating family volunteering activities: 1) the development and management of programs suitable for the voluntary activities of a family unit; 2) the flexible application of the concept of family volunteering; 3) the necessity of connection between various institutions which perform family volunteering services; 4) flexible work system based on individuality getting ready for the time for the family volunteering activity; and 5) the development of the circumstances for family members who need to be taken care of.

우리 사회에서 여러 사회문제의 예방차원에서 가족생활을 증진시키고, 사회복지의 중요한 자원인 자원봉사를 활성화시킬 수 있는 새로운 대안으로서 가족자원봉사에 대한 관심이 커지고 있다. 이에 본 연구는 가족자원봉사의 효과를 실증적으로 검증하기 위하여 정태적 집단비교설계방법으로 전국에서 가족자원봉사 프로그램에 6개월 이상 정기적으로 참여한 가족을 대상으로 가족 건강성을 조사하고 통제집단과 비교 분석하였다. 연구결과는 가족자원봉사 경험을 가진 실험집단(494명)이 통제집단(534명)보다 가족 건강성의 모든 영역(가족의 결속력, 가족원간의 의사소통, 가족의 문제해결능력, 가치체계 공유, 역할 유연성)에서 유의한 차이를 보였다. 또한 통제집단 중 가족이 정기적으로 함께 하는 활동이 있는 경우에도, 가족자원봉사 경험이 있는 가족과 비교하여 가족 건강성이 낮았다. 따라서 가족자원봉사경험이 여타 다른 가족활동보다 가족 건강성에 긍정적인 영향을 미치고 있는 것을 알 수 있었다. 가족자원봉사를 활성화하기 위한 방안으로 가족단위의 자원봉사에 맞는 프로그램의 개발, 융통성있는 가족자원봉사 개념규정, 가족자원봉사를 실시하고 있는 다양한 기관사이의 연계, 가족자원봉사의 시간 활용을 위한 탄력적인 근무제도 도입 등 가족자원봉사의 장애요소의 해결들이 제시되었다.