Boundary Ambiguity and Family Functioning in Remarriage

재혼가족의 가족경계모호성과 가족기능에 관한 연구

Remarriages constitute an increasing proportion of all marriage in Korea. In 2010, 21.9% of marriage were remarriages for one or both partners. In spite of such increasing of remarriage, not much attentions were given the issues of remarriage in the academic circle of social welfare in Korea. This study is conducted to understand the nature of remarriage, the family structure in remarriage, the relationship between the boundary ambiguity and the family functioning in remarriage. Although boundary ambiguity is believed to be more problematic for remarriage families than first-marriage families and as such has been the topic of research in the U.S.A and other countries, few studies have focused on this topic in Korea. This study examined degree of boundary ambiguity of 125 samples of remerried women and their family functioning. Also, the study examined the relationship between the boundary ambiguity and the family functioning in remarriage. This study conceptualized boundary ambiguity as an incongruence between physical and psychological presence or absence of family members. The findings indicated that the majority of respondents(67.6%) were categorized as having both no psychological and no physical ambiguity. 19.8% of respondents were categorized as having physical ambiguity, 9.9% as having psychological ambiguity, and 2.7% as having both psychological and physical ambiguity. Statistically significant differences of family functioning in remarriage were found among four groups having different type of boundary ambiguity.

본 연구는 재혼가족을 경계라는 체계적 관점에서 분석하고자 재혼가족의 모 125표본을 대상으로 재혼가족의 재혼특성, 가족특성, 그리고 가족경계모호성과 가족기능의 관련성 등을 분석하였다. 연구결과, 조사대상자의 79.2%, 남성배우자의 74.2%의 전혼해체사유가 이혼으로서 '이혼 후 재혼'이 재혼의 보편적 유형임이 확인되었다. 또한 여성재혼자가 전혼의 자녀를 데리고 사는 비율이 남성재혼자가 전혼의 자녀를 데리고 사는 비율보다 앞선 조사결과를 통해 재혼의 사회문화적 태도 또한 변화되고 있음을 알 수 있었다. 육체적 실재와 심리적 실재의 일치여부로 측정한 가족경계모호성 분석결과, 조사 대상자의 67.6%가 경계모호성이 없는 반면, 32.4%가 심리적, 육체적, 혹은 양쪽 모두의 경계모호성이 있는 것으로 드러났다. 가족경계모호성과 가족기능은 통계적으로 유의미한 관계가 있는 것으로 검증되었다.