• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2010

This study examined Korean immigrant elderly's generativity and care-giving experiences of their grandchildren according to their level of generativity. In-depth interview and participant observation method were used. First, this study used Loyola Generativity Scale in order to find Korean immigrant elderly's generativity level. 4 grandparents were selected as a group of low generativity level and 4 grandparents as high level. Grandparents with low generativity level showed non-voluntary care-giving, severe care-giving stress, guilty feeling for their adult children and shame for their ancestors, anxiety for the unstable future, lack of self-care, and lack of social assistance. Grandparents with high generativity level showed voluntary care-giving, positive reaction for the reversed parental care, feeling of usefulness for care-giving, hope for the future, existence of self-care, and existence of social assistance. Further discussion and suggestions were made from the study results.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.115-142
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• 2006

This study examined the level of social support for grandparent-headed families and its effects on the grandparents' physical and mental health. For this purpose, the survey data was collected from 141 grandparents raising their grandchildren in Daejeon Metropolitan City. The study generated several findings. First, grandparent-headed families tended to rely on formal support system rather than informal one. Second, grandparent's physical health was found to be very poor that 82.3% of the grandparents reportedly needed some assistance in at least one ADL, and their mean score of depression measured by CES-D was 27.4, indicating a moderate level of psychological distress. Third, among the sociodemographic and stressor variables, grandparents' sex, the number of their children and household keeping burden were statistically significant predictors of their ADL restriction. As for depression level of the grandparents, their monthly income, parenting duration, the number of their children, economic difficulties, household keeping burden and social restrictions were found to be statistically significant. Fourth, grandparents who reported of having more social support from their friends, a higher level of satisfaction of the friends' social support and also of being satisfied with social support from their religious associations tended to experience significantly less ADL restrictions. The more kinds of social support received from friends and social welfare agencies and the less satisfied they were with social support from governmental sector, the higher their depression level was. Implications for social welfare services and programs for grandparent-headed families were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.99-122
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to examine how providing care to grandchildren and the continuity of care affects the grandparents' perception on old-age support. Specifically, in this study, providing care is divided into three continuous types: did not provide care, provided care at one point in time and provided care at two points in time. This is done to investigate how the duration of providing care influences the perception on old-age support. The results show that grandparents providing care to their grandchildren prefer to reside with their own children in the future more often than those who do not provide care to their grandchildren. Furthermore, grandparents providing care to their grandchildren during two-time points and grandparents providing care during one-time point prefer to reside with their adult children in the future more than grandparents providing care not once during two-time points. Interestingly, grandparents who provide care to grandchildren during two-time points prefer to reside with their children in the future more frequently than grandparents providing care during just one-time point. These results suggest it is likely that grandparents recognize providing care to their grandchildren as an insurance in care and support for themselves in the future. Additionally, these results suggest that the family plays an efficient and flexible role to meet needs of family members through a reciprocal relationship in Korean society where the public sector is weak. These findings have suggested theoretical implications.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.491-518
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to compare with qualitative research articles on the grandparents' parenting experiences of grandchildren between those with primary responsibility and those with partial responsibility in Korean Journals since 2000. For the purpose of the study, this study analyzed research of 43 qualitative research articles(19 grandfamilies, 24 custodial grandparents), with respect to their objectives, basic annual trends, methodology, subject, category of content. The major findings are as follows. Firstly, the annual number of articles of grandfamilies are on an decreasing trend, while those of custodial grandparents are on an increasing trend. Secondly, the phenomenology and interview are frequently used in research of the two types of family. Thirdly, 6~10 participants were the most frequent number of participation in all of the family. However, demographics, caring circumstances, physical circumstances were significantly different in two types of family. Fourthly, caring categories of contents(the meaning, positive factor, conflict factor and resolution of conflicts) were also similar, while these were significant diffent in specific psychological experiences in all of the family. Based on the findings of this comparative study, suggestions for pratical services and implication for future study were proposed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.299-313
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• 2014

Recently, an interest on parenting stress and depression of grandparents raising grandchildren is rising according to the increase of working couple and divorce. Discussing around developmental task of elderly, one of the influencing factors on increase of grandparents' parenting stress and depression is leisure restriction. However, this factor has received far less rigorous analysis. Thus, the purpose of this article is to offer an analysis of the effect of leisure activities on depression in grandparents raising grandchildren. The data was collected from 172 grandparents raising their grandchildren in 2011 national survey results on the elderly life conditions. Their analyses were composed of descriptive statistic and multiple regression analysis. The study generated several findings. First, grandparents participated in activities for exercise and religion at a high rate and their mean score of depression was 7.1 of 15 what suggests middle level of depression. second, multiple regression analysis showed that the factor of exercise, travel experience, leisure activities satisfaction and other special leisure activities were statistically significant predictors of depression. Implication for social welfare services and programs to improve the mental health of grandparents raising their grandchildren to have positive self-awareness and attitude about life in their position and living condition for help prevent depression were discussed.