• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.24 no.5 s.83
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• pp.191-203
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• 2006

This study examined the experience of family of origin among those who decided consensual divorce. Questionnaires regarding family relationships, alcohol problem, domestic violence, and health in family or origin were distributed to 500 people who visited Busan Family court for filing divorce and 3% questionnaires were collected by the staff of the Family court in April, 2004. As for analyzing the data, using SPSS/WIN 10.0 program, t-test and ANOVA were conducted. The results of analyses are as follows. First, more respondents tended to report that theirs parents' marital relationship was bad in their childhood than parent-child relationship. Second, 41% of all respondents reported that their parents have had alcohol problems, and 32% reported that there had been domestic violence between their parents. Third, the overall score of health in family of origin was lower than the medium score, which implies the lower health in family of origin among the divorce deciders. Lastly, there were some differences in experiences of family of origin in terms of some demographic variables such as gender, education, and religion. Women tended to perceived their family relationship more positively than men did. Also, highly educated group of divorce deciders reported lower parental alcohol problem and higher health in family of origin than the group of lower education. Respondents which had specific religions reported that their parents have had less alcohol problems, and higher health in family-of-origin.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.59-75
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• 2013

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how divorced mothers had decided to take custody of their children and became single mothers. The experiences of their lives after divorce were also explored. Data were collected from 17 Korean divorced mothers who were divorced between 2004 and 2009, and were raising at least one minor child. The data were analyzed based on the phenomenological data analysis method. Three main themes were identified: (a) reasons for deciding to have physical custody of the children, (b) mothers' experiences of adjustment after divorce, and (c) mothers' need for a policy concerning the well-being of their families. According to the divorced mothers, they decided to have physical custody of the children since they believed raising children was their natural duty of mothers or they were the most appropriate ones to raise the children rather than the fathers. While the mothers were satisfied with their lives after divorce in general, they also experienced difficulties including child care and financial strain. In particular, most mothers experienced work-family conflict related to the lack of reliable child care. When their family lives and work lives collided, the mothers put their children first and chose jobs that helped them take care of their children at the same time. The divorced single mothers hoped that the social safety net for single parents would expand to support their independence. Implications for single-parent policy are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.33-60
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the life experiences of fifteen marriage immigrant Asian women who went through running away from their home countries, marrying with Korean men, divorcing from their husbands, and coping with many difficulties after their divorce in Korean society. In order to conduct this study grounded theory methods have been employed. The central phenomenon digged out from this study was 'resistance to baffled reality' (i. e. dislocation). The causal conditions which brought about the central phenomenon were 'escaping for survival' and 'experiencing the gap between reality and expectation. 'The intervening conditions included 'getting to know the reality of their husbands,' 'losing hope,' and 'not being able to pull themselves together.' The contextual conditions consisted of 'being treated as maids,' 'becoming victims of family violence,' 'making up their minds to survive,' 'securing future life,' 'being marginalized,' and 'being aware of themselves as strangers.' The action/interaction strategies on the central phenomenon were 'building support systems,' 'building up will for new life,' and 'reconstructing social identity.'The final outcome was 'arranging places of new settlement.' The divorce was classified as four types: 'coping and growth,' 'emancipation and settling down,' 'being overwhelmed by livelihood,' and 'continuous wandering.' Based on these results, this study provided a few political and practice suggestions to prevent family violence and divorces among multi-cultural families, and also to bumper the impacts of divorce.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.355-365
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• 1996

This is a study of divorce cases under new family law in Korea specifically during the period of May 1991 to November 1995. This study comprises 33 cases that appeared on two daily newspapers, Chosun-ilbo and Kookmin-ilbo during that period. This study contains the analysis on the rights of Korean women at the time of divorce.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.24 no.1 s.79
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• pp.223-235
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• 2006

This study examined, through a qualitative approach, the viewpoints and beliefs toward divorce held by people who have experienced a divorce. In-depth interviews with divorced individuals (two males and twelve females) were conducted for this study. The findings of the study are summarized as follows. First, the participants of the study had a tendency to withdraw. In other words, they felt powerless and lonely, and they think of themselves as a failure. Second, they clearly recognized the double standard in society toward divorce. They strongly felt that people who had shown tolerant attitudes toward divorce when it was a distant phenomenon suddenly took a different attitude when a divorce occurred to a relative. The fact that openly stated viewpoints toward divorce can be significantly different than unstated attitudes made the participants' lives still harder by adding another burden to the difficulties they already faced from the divorce. As a result, they would rather hide the fact that they were divorced than be open about it with other people. Aside from highly significant others, they attempted to conceal their divorce from others whenever possible. Third, as people who have already experienced divorce, they seem to take a more careful attitude toward divorce than those who have not experienced a divorce. The participants pointed to the social responsibilities to promote public understanding and a sense of value about divorce, and they hoped that our society would communicate better about the difficulties of getting divorced from the perspective of those who have experienced divorce. The participants believed this would ultimately contribute to preventing divorce among others. This study is expected to expand understanding toward the phenomenon of divorce in Korean society, and further, to provide basic information for a clearer understanding of the current state of the Korean family.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.491-504
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• 2007

This study was based on resilience approach to find out elementary first, second, and third year students' differences of social support and problem solving ability defending on their family situation (low-income divorced family or normal family) by comparing their sex and age. In addition, the purpose of this study was to find out the effect of factors (social support, problem behavior, and problem solving ability) of children defending on their family situation and age. Moreover, it was aimed to find out the effect of social support and problem solving ability of low-income divorced family's children on their problem behavior. Subjects were 165 children in elementary school (grade 1, 2, and 3). For this study two groups were used for comparison. First, low-grade elementary school children with low-income divorced parents (N=87), "group D" and second, with low-income non-divorced parents (N=78) "group N". The questionnaire, picture cards, and teacher's report was used to determine social support perception, problem-solving ability, and problem behavior, respectively. Results showed that "Group D" was determined to show regarding social support, problem-solving ability, and problem behaviors worse than "group N". In conclusion, problem behaviors of "group D" were affected by social support and their problem-solving ability.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.197-211
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• 2002

This study constructed a family life education program designed to help divorced parents. The purpose of this research was to develop long term education program for post-divorce adjustment. This program is consisted of 6 sessions aiming for understanding the grief process for adults and the six station of divorce, the recovery through forgiveness, children's response to divorce and coping strategy, the opened mind of parent-child relation, enhancing the self-esteem, the healthy single parent. We expect this program to be helpful in helping divorced parents'post-divorce adjustment, improving parent-child relation and helping future life of divorced parents.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.75-85
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes toward divorce of young men and women. The data were collected by questionnaire from 425 respondents who resided in Sunchon. Statistical methods for the data analysis were frequencies, one-way ANOVA, t-test. The data analysis revealed that the young men and women accepted divorce as an alternative to unhappy marriage and there were significant gender differences in the attitudes toward divorce. Women accepted divorce more positively as an alternative than men in every conditions. Men accepted divorce remarkably as an alternative to unfaithful debauchery of spouse, but women accepted divorce extremely well as an alternative to wrongdoing of spouse. Most of young men and women were worried about children, but not a few of them did not perceived themselves as child rearer. This results showed that divorce will be increased and perceived differently by gender. The young men and women who had lower conservative familism, who were younger, and who had higher education responded more positively about divorce.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.53
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• pp.51-73
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• 2003

In the context of dramatic change in the formation of the Korean family, this study attempts to examine the role of social safety net in family disruption. This study selected 366 individuals who experienced family disruption, mainly divorce and separation, using the 1996 Panel of Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Methodologically, due to the absence of proper longitudinal data in korea for the purpose of this study, the study analyzed the SIPP and attempted to provide policy implications for Korea. Findings of the current study confirmed that women with children experienced severe economic decline upon family disruption. American social safety net was insufficient to protect mother with children from poverty. Findings imply that Korea needs to develop public policies to protect mother-only-families, who experienced family disruption, from poverty. Expanding and reforming the eligibility of public assistance can be an important policy recommendation. A strong guideline for awarding child support, an active labor market policy, and EITC may have a positive effect on increasing the income of mother-only-families.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.17-43
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• 2011

With a substantial rise in divorce rates since the mid 1990s, single-parent households are increasing rapidly in Korea. Often it is believed that children in single-mother households suffer the most economically and socially with the marital disruption of the parents. This study hypothesizes that in Korea the socioeconomic status of single-father households may be lower than that of single-mother households mainly because low-income divorced women are not able to form their own households with children. The analysis is based on two sub-samples from the 2% sample of the 2005 Census, one, with children 12 years old or younger and, the other, with divorced mothers of children of the same ages. The findings support the hypothesis that previously-married single fathers show the lowest educational and occupational status among 6 groups of parents: fathers and mothers from two-parent families, fathers and mothers from married but spouse-absent families, and previously-married single fathers and mothers. Divorced mothers'likelihood of living apart from their children has a strong negative association with their educational attainment, with the highest likelihood among women of middle school or lower education and the lowest likelihood among women with college education. Although single mothers comprise a larger percentage of single-parent households, single-father households demonstrate a particular vulnerability with their weak socioeconomic status.