• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2024

This study investigates the effects of depression and self-esteem on elderly mental health, quality of life, and life satisfaction, considering South Korea's transition to a super-aged society by 2025. The research aims to propose integrated strategies for effective management of these factors. The findings reveal that depression and self-esteem significantly impact elderly mental health, quality of life, and life satisfaction. Increased depression is associated with decreased quality of life and life satisfaction, while higher self-esteem is linked to reduced depression. Additionally, a reduction in social relationships is found to exacerbate depression and diminish self-esteem. To enhance the quality of life and life satisfaction for the elderly, it is crucial to manage depression and self-esteem systematically and continuously. Thus, an integrated, nationwide approach is needed for effective management.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.21-37
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• 2023

This study examines the living conditions and life satisfaction of single-person households according to their life cycle. The survey was conducted from August to October 2022, and respondents were single-person households from Kimpo, South Korea. The respondents were categorized to three groups namely, young, middle-aged, and older adults by life cycle, and items regarding their sociodemographic background, personal life, family relations, and life satisfaction were included in the analysis. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square analysis, analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis were performed. The key findings were as follows. First, significant differences were found according to life cycle in the respondents' diet, clothing, housing, financial and home management, self-care, and leisure life. Second, the variables that significantly affected the level of life satisfaction of single-person households were the life cycle with young adults showing a higher level of satisfaction; having a family member to care; living alone voluntarily, discrimination experience; community awareness; and ties with the local community. Based on the results, it is clear that single-person households have different needs and problems in each stage of life cycle. Thus, to reflect the different experiences and needs of single-person households by life cycle, tailored policy and programs should be provided for young, middle-aged, and older adult single-person households.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.517-526
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to provide convenience to the senior center staff and policy makers through a research of "Life satisfaction" in the senior centers with a systematic review and meta-analysis of the considerations of the elderly, published in foreign journals for the past 10 years. We searched published studies in the Medline Complete, Pub-med central and Scopus databases from January 2007 to November 2017. The main key words used "Elderly AND(And OR aged) AND Personal Satisfaction/ or life satisfaction" and out of 595 searched articles a total of 6 studies were selected. After qualitative analysis of the contents of the study, meta - analyzes were conducted for factors with more than three quantitative values. The factors affecting life satisfaction of the elderly were physical health (pooled effect size 0.582, p = .000), mental health (pooled effect size 0.423, p = .000), economic problems (r = .51, p =. 001), social activities, and daily living. It is expected that this study which provides an understanding of life satisfaction of the elderly would contribute to provide general information for developing social consensus on the employment in the super aging society should help improve the quality of welfare facilities for senior citizens in the future.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.339-363
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• 2012

This study examines the effects of adolescents' volunteer activities on their development of sense of community. When examining the effects of volunteer activities, both quantity and quality sides of volunteer activities were considered in the research model and besides the direct effects of volunteer activities on their sense of community, the mediating role of self-esteem and peer attachment were also examined. The data set of conducted by National Youth Policy Institute was reanalyzed for this study. The subjects of this study were 1,426 first-grade middle school students who had experiences of volunteer activities. The results of the study are as follows. First, the total hours of volunteer activities and the satisfaction with volunteer activities were positively related to their sense of community respectively. In an integrative model which combines both quantity and quality aspects of volunteer activities, however, only the satisfaction with volunteer activities was found to be significant. This means that the satisfaction with and reflective learning after volunteer activities are more important sides of adolescents' volunteer activities than whether and how many times they had experiences in volunteer activities. Second, the satisfaction with volunteer activities was found to enhance adolescents' self-esteem and peer attachment and the changes in their personal traits again led to a higher sense of community. Therefore, both the direct effects of volunteer activities and indirect effects through self-esteem and peer attachment were proved. Based on the results of the study, the need and ways to improve the management system of adolescents' volunteer activities were suggested.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.87-99
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• 2021

The life of middle-aged one-person households is rising as one of the most important family policy issues in Korean society. In Japan, even in multi-person households, the issues of middle-aged sons and daughters living with their old parents have been a concern. Data are from the 13^th wave of the Korea Welfare Panel Study analyzing 482 middle-aged singe males regardless of their past marital status. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of human capital and social capital on the life satisfaction of middle-aged single persons by comparing one-person and multi-person households, respectively. Major results were as follows: First, the level of human capital of one-person households of middle aged males was lower than their counterparts in multi-person households. Second, the level of social capital in the group of divorced or widowed, nonhouseholder middle-aged males in multi-person households was lower than their counterparts in one-person households. Third, the effects of human capital and social capital on life satisfaction was significantly different by their marital status and household types in the group of middle-aged single males. Based on the results, policy implications on the community programs for middle-aged males including not only one-person households but also multi-person households were discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.555-563
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• 2016

This study examined the economic burden of middle age householders supporting their family. They could not prepare for their later life because they are supporting their parents and children in their unstable employment. This study examined how to decrease the burden of middle age householders. Using the Korea Welfare Panel Study, this study analyzed data by hierarchical regression. The result showed that age, gender, education, unemployed, ownership of the house, number of employees, monthly income, and family relationship satisfaction had an effect on the economic burden of support by middle age householders. Based on the result, the researchers offered political suggestions for decreasing the levels of economic burden of support by middle age householders.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.187-215
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• 2011

This study examined the longitudinal relationship between depressive symptoms and alcohol use based on the tension reduction hypothesis and the intoxication hypothesis considering for path of depressive symptoms on alcohol use and vice versa simultaneously. And this study examined the effect of psychosocial behavior factors (i.e. smoking level, self-esteem, satisfaction with family relationships, and satisfaction with social relationships) on depressive symptoms and alcohol use. Using the data on the Korea Welfare Panel Study for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years, this study were estimated using the Latent Growth Curve Model which is helpful for examining differences between the two. The results are as follows: the initial level of alcohol use had a positive impact on the rate of change in depressive symptoms, thereby supporting the intoxication hypothesis. Second, self-esteem and satisfaction with family relationships act as variables with the biggest effect on the initial level and the rate of change in depressive symptoms, whereas other psychosocial behavior factors such as smoking level and satisfaction with social relationship exert the largest influence over the initial level and the rate of change in alcohol use. This study has implications in that it clarified the confused relationship mechanism between alcohol use and depressive symptoms the two. Based on the finding of the study, political and practical implications were discussed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.93-108
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of absolute / relative poverty on the life satisfaction focusing on mediation effect of subjective social status by type of elderly residents. In order to analyze the distinct characteristics of the elderly, analysis was conducted with 3,327 the elderly living together and 668 the elderly living alone using 'Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA)' from 3rd to 5th wave data provided by the Korea Employment Information Service. The main analysis results are as follows. First, each poverty rate for the elderly living together accounted for 43.5 percent and 51.4 percent, while 63.8 percent and 77.2 percent for the elderly living alone respectively. Second, life satisfaction was higher among the elderly living together than living alone, However, life satisfaction was not related to condition of poverty among the elderly living alone. Third, absolute / relative poverty were associated with life satisfaction of the elderly living together, and subjective social status had a mediating effect. However, relative poverty was not related to life satisfaction among the elderly living alone, which indicated that it needs to support not only the financial approach to overcome absolute poverty but also the multi-dimensional poverty perspective in the intervention of the elderly living alone Based on the results, the study suggested to make a tool to measure of poverty using multi-dimensional poverty indicators.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.424-434
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• 2022

This study is to verify the mediating effect of self-esteem on the effect of the elderly's smart device use on life satisfaction. To this end, secondary data analysis was conducted using the Korea Media Panel Survey conducted by the Information and Communication Policy Institute in 2021. The responses of 3,211 people in their 60s or older who are the subjects of this study were utilized. For analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation, and multiple regression analysis were performed using SPSS, and the Sobel test was conducted to verify mediating effects. As a result, smart device utilization averaged 2.13 points out of 5, indicating that the actual utilization level was less than half. The use of smart devices, an independent variable, had a positive effect on the dependent variable, life satisfaction. Self-esteem, which is a parameter, has been verified as a partial mediating effect in that smart device use affects life satisfaction. Based on the results of this study, various policy and practical measures were proposed to increase the smart device utilization rate of the elderly in Korea, improve self-esteem and life satisfaction, so that they can spend a happy old age.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.301-326
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• 2011

The major purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the long-term care insurance program. In order to estimate the impact of policy accurately, certain bias which might hamper the validity of this study has been removed by Propensity Score Matching(PSM) and Double Difference(DD) method from the semi-experimental design. To study the effects of long-term care insurance on the elderly and their family members as social outcome variable sand the quality of life of their family and satisfaction in family relationships, the third and fourth waves of Korea Welfare Panel are used to match experimental and comparative groups by the propensity score matching. Then, DD method, using the panel fixed effects model, is applied to estimate the differences of those groups'treatment effects before and after the policy implementation. As a result, it was found that the Quality of life on the elderly and their family members is statistically meaningless, while the satisfaction in family relationships has much increased after the policy implementation. The result has a limitation in that this evaluation is performed at the point when the long-term insurance program has not been ripened enough. However, there is an important implication on the significance of realizing the main goal of the long-term care insurance to improve the quality of life of the elderly and their family members and as for the potentiality of further system improvements.