• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.59-78
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• 2015

This study aims to explore the relationship between North Korean refugee mothers' perceived home psychological characteristics and ego-resilience of their young children focusing on moderating effect of social support. For this purpose, we sampled 96 North Korean refugee mothers with 3-5 year old children. Home psychological characteristics consisting of family strength, family environment and family functioning, social support, and ego-resilience was analyzed by Pearson correlation analyses and hierarchical regression method. The results of this study were as follows. First, there is a significant correlation between North Korean refugee mothers' perceived home psychological characteristics and ego-resilience of their young children. Second, the perceived factors by North Korean refugee mothers of home psychological characteristics explained their young children's self-resilience 73.4% of the time and social support had a significant moderating effect. These results suggest that more effective social support to North Korean refugees has to be offered. Not only financial but emotional support is also needed.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.201-228
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• 2013

The research goal of this study is to investigate the realities and difficulties of English education for young children of North Korean refugee mothers. The subjects of this study were 201 North Korean refugee mothers of 3-5-year-old children. They were surveyed and some of them were interviewed on their children's English education. The results of the study are as follows. First, most of the North Korean refugee mothers in this study provided their children with English education since their children were 3 years old. The major reason for the English education was their children's peer group who received English education early in their lives. Their educational interaction periods with their children were less than 10 minutes, and they had their young children study English alone, focusing solely on their assignment. Next, North Korean refugee mothers claimed that the biggest difficulties for teaching English to their children were cost, lack of information, lack of time to teach English, and unsatisfactory English education. They expressed that the cost for English education was a burden on the family to some extent.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.102-110
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was done to develop a theory on the early childhood caring experience of North Korean refugee mothers and how such caring affects how they deal with the socio-psychological problems they face as North Korean refugees. Methods: Data were gathered by indepth interviews, participant observation, and medical records, and were analyzed using the Grounded Theory methods of Strauss and Corbin (1998). Results: From open coding 62 concepts, 23 subcategories and 11 categories were derived, and the North Korean refugee mothers' caring experience was revealed to be 'hopeful upbringing'. A central theme common to the participants was 'coexistence of expectations and worries'. Conclusion: The results of this study provide theoretical grounds to understand North Korean refugee mothers' child care experiences and offer personalized nursing and a deeper understanding of their needs by looking at their experience. Findings may also be useful to help nurses who care for North Korean refugee mother-child dyads in the community and in clinical settings to gain insight on this special needs group, and facilitate the development of interventions based on better understanding of the mothers' experiences.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.13-27
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• 2012

This study explored the parental belief types of mothers who had defected from North Korea and found out its relationship to the mother's child-rearing behaviors and socio-demographical variables and the child's age. 89 mothers who had defected from North Korea with the youngest child being under 20 years old, responded to the questionnaire. The data were statistically analyzed by cluster analysis, MANOVA, and $X^2$-test. The results showed that the parental beliefs were clustered into 3 types: 'high child- and parent-centered & low cultural transformation'(cluster 1)(37.08%), 'low child- and parent-centered & middle cultural transformation'(cluster 2)(46.03%), and 'high child- and parent-centered & high cultural transformation'(cluster 3)(16.85%). The differences among the clusters were found in the warmth-acceptance and rejection-restriction dimensions of the mother's child-rearing behaviors. The frequencies of each cluster were meaningfully different depending on the mother's age, educational level, length of residence in South Korea, and their child's age. Based on these findings, the implications and suggestions were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.41-69
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to promote the use of cultural facilities of North Korean refugee mothers with young children by finding out their past experience of cultural facility use. The subjects of this study were 183 North Korean refugee mothers with young children and a total of four research participants. A survey and in-depth interviews were used to draw reliable research results. The research results are as follows: First, as to uses of cultural facilities, North Korean refugee mothers with young children got information about cultural facilities through the Internet community such as Internet cafes and blogs. Their considerations for using cultural facilities were diversity of activity programs and subdivision of performances and arts activities. Over 50% of mothers responded that cultural facilities were needed to enhance the creativity of their children. Second, concerning difficulties of cultural facility use, the most difficulty was high costs, and the second most difficulty was absence of cultural facilities nearby their residence. Third, as to the needs of cultural facility use, a children's library was needed the most for children's development. They responded that the most necessary policy for cultural facility use was to increase cultural vouchers for low-income households and to expand recipients of these vouchers.