• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.507-528
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• 2009

Coping and defense are similar psychological mechanisms to reduce stress response, but they are regarded as distinct from each other. Defense involved distortions of reality, but coping was used for strategies associated with accepting the true nature of the situation. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the coping and defense features of the North Korean Defectors in the Rorschach test. The subjects were then categorized into four groups based on their birth place and gender: Male North Korean defectors( N=16), female North Korean defectors(N=28), male South Koreans(N=17), and female South Koreans(N=25). All subjects were individually administered the Rorschach test, and protocols were scored according to the Exner(2003)'s Rorschach Comprehensive systems. Coping or defense-related Rorschach variables were selected for analysis: EA, CDI, Adj D, EB style, Lamda, Zd, X-%, Xu%, W:Dd:D, P, reaction time, and other behavior characteristics during the testing. Compared with other groups, female North Korean defectors were more likely to show poor coping resources(low EA), adjustment difficulties(Adj D), and distortions of reality(high X-%). They also demonstrated more 'don't know' responses and more delayed responses than other groups. These findings suggest that poor coping resources make female North Korean defectors more vulnerable to stress, and psychological intervention such as social skills training may help them settle successfully in south Korea. Limitations of the current study and implications for future research were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.675-693
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• 2016

As North Korean Youths are getting bigger, many psychologists have focused on them academically. But earlier studies showed many mistakes which have to be solved quickly. So the purposes of the present study are to set as the main problems as follows: Key issues and research direction for the Young North Korean defectors as research participants, issues and research direction for the objectivity of the Young North Korean defectors' psychological states, issues and research direction for the Young North Korea defectors' life in South Korea. Results as follows; First, there is no enough understanding of the research subjects and no consistency among the research results, and second, most of the researchers have no objective understanding of the research subjects' psychological states, and finally, most of the researchers have a 'adaptation model' strongly. So we have to have a more proper and objective stance for the Young North Korea defectors' life in South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1-22
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• 2006

This study is performed to identify attribution styles of the North Korean Defectors more accurately. For this purpose, cartoon-form method designed to measure attributions is used and total 129 subjects including comparison group of South Koreans are participated in this research. Interestingly, the result showed that two groups had similar and different attribution styles at the same time. That is, there is a common aspect in using internal attributions more in general, but there is also a different aspect in that South Koreans used internal attribution much more. These tendencies emerged similarly at the controllable and uncontrollable attribution dimension. However, the results demonstrated that South Koreans mainly used stable attribution and the North Korean Defectors used unstable attribution at the stable and unstable attribution dimension. And, the attributional styles of both koreans appeared consistently in a variety of scenarios. Finally, there was the stronger relationship between North Korean defectors' life satisfaction and attributional styles.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.53
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• pp.79-115
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to understand the women's experiences of negative perception, discrimination and 'ethnicized stigma' in South Korea. For this purpose, data were collected through in-depth interviews from 8 women escaped from North Korea and 4 professionals. The findings of this study are as follows: Almost of them experienced negative perception and discrimination caused by language, pronunciation intonation, and differences of ways to express their emotions. And they experienced the disapproval as the native perception and confusion of ethnic identity. Several participants in this study try to build or organize their communities to give emotional and instrumental support for them. However, in these processes, they experience emotional conflicts and crises feelings of disorganization of their communities because of they didn't have experience to involve communities, and didn't have ideas of membership and their roles. And they were learned to criticize with each other in North Korea. They worry about their families' safety in North Korea. For this reason, they can't have trustful personal relationships among Koreans including people escaped from North Korea in South Korea. They want to participate in Korean's community activities, and learn to adjust to everyday lives in South Korea. In conclusion, based upon the outcomes of this study, it is expected that any practical implications or solutions for North Korean defector's welfare would be suggested.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.361-369
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the adaptation factor to North Korean refugees by identifying the relationship between character strengths affecting adaptation process and psychological well-being(PWB) in South Korea. The study examined the relationship between PWB and character strength of 117 participants and identified the sub-factors of character strength that affect the settlement period in South Korea. The data were analyzed by using the Model 1 of Process Macro and SPSS 22. The results of this study showed a correlation between PWB and sub-factors of character strength such as wisdom, humanity, courage, justice, temperance, and spirituality. The main effect was to investigate the relationship between PWB and sub-factors of character strength by independent variables. The level of PWB increased with the level of sub-factors of character strength. The moderate effect was showed in the courage of the settling period in relation to PWB. Finally, Limitations and implications of this study was discussed.

• 한국사회복지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.507-532
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• 2004

Due to the increasing concerns with the North Korean defectors, the researches have been increased.. However when compared with other areas, the researches about the North Korean defectors are rare. The sample size of this study is 171, which makes it possible to do statistical inferences. This study examines the adjustment stress and the effect of social support on the adaptation. As a demographic factors, gender, age and education are controlled. The context factors-the period of the stay in the third place, the period of residence and the existence of the education in Korea- are used as control variables. The research results show that the jobless is an important stressor. The structural social support affects the adjustment of stress as a whole and not individually. Among functional social support, the emotional social support is an important factor of adaptation, but the effect of structural social support is the opposite. Therefore, the adequacy of social support must be considered.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.21-43
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine cultural differences and related difficulties which KoreanChinese women in Korean society experience at work and the different styles of their cultural adaptation. For this, semi-structured interviews consisting of questions related to these issues were conducted on 17 Korean-Chinese women living in the metropolitan area (average age: 34, SD = 9.25, average stay in Korea = 4 years, SD = 2.24). After analysis of qualitative data based on Giorgi's(1985) method of phenomenological analysis, a total of 225 significant statements were found and those were grouped into 23 subcategories, which were then grouped again into 9 categories. Cultural differences and related difficulties appeared in identity, verbal communication, political and economic aspects, and relational and sexual affairs. It was also revealed that Korean-Chinese women adapted in the three ways of Active, Passive, and Avoident. Lastly, various social actions that can aid the adaptation of Korean-Chinese women to Korea based on these results were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.121-149
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• 2006

In recent days North Korean refugees. who hope to move into and settle in South Korea, have been rapidly increasing. However their adaptation to South Korea is reported to have not been so much successful as they expected. Considering such situations, this study attempts to investigate their information needs and behavior. North Korean refugees have various and strong information needs for settlement and daily life. The strongest were information needs related to economic Problem, specifically job and business related information needs. It was followed by information needs related to social welfare, health and security child care and education, and North Korean situation In order to meet their information needs. North Korean refugees were heavily dependent on informal interpersonal information sources such as their family members. friends. and their own neighborhoods. as compared to such formal interpersonal information sources as Public officers. social welfare agents, and NGOs members. Meanwhile. their usage of mass media such as TV. newspapers, and internet as information sources was also heavy However the overall information environment surrounding them appeared to be relatively inferior to that of average South Koreans.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.79-101
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• 2004

This study is performed to understand and resolve psychologically the issue of North Korea-South Korea's cultural heterogeneity which is treated importantly in unification debates. We collected data from 181 North Korea Defectors through survey, and found out that the North Korea Defectors perceived cultural heterogeneity so much especially at the early settlement stage. However, this fact itself didn't give a serious suggestion, What is significant was how much South Korean cultural orientation they had as a coping strategy. When they coped with South Korean cultural orientation, they showed high level of self-efficacy, and furthermore they demonstrated high level of psychological adaptation. By the way, this psychological adaptation level was not significantly correlated with positive index such as life satisfaction, but correlated with negative index such as depression. That is, low self-efficacy group showed high level of depression and 43% of them could be classified as a depression-symptom group. Thus, we can conclude that it is rather helpful for the North Korean Defectors to have South Korean cultural orientation for overcoming North Korea-South Korea's cultural heterogeneity, and coping strategy is more important than cultural heterogeneity itself.

• Journal of Internet of Things and Convergence
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.73-86
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• 2020

This study examines the North Korean defectors' economic and psychological adjustment status in South Korean society focusing on the specificity of North Korean defectors with the social integration perspective. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 225 North Korean defectors in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do and conducted analysis using the SPSS 22.0 program. The results of the study are as follows. First, the economic adaptation of North Korean defectors was evaluated to be generally low. Second, North Korean refugees' psychological and social adjustment status is generally lower than average, especially cultural adaptation stress, friendship, and satisfaction with physical and mental health. Third, the psychological and cultural adaptation strategy and social support of defectors affected the life satisfaction positively and the adaptation stress had significant negative impact on life satisfaction. Therefore, strategies which reducing adaptive stress and enhancing psychological and cultural adaptation strategies are needed to be implemented in South Korean society. Based on results, policy alternatives were discussed.