• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.399-432
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to understand the adjustment process of families adopting an older child, and to generate a substantial theory. To achieve this purpose, we conducted in-depth interviews with mothers adopting an older child and analyzed data with qualitative analysis approach. From the analysis, theoretical model has been made, and the model includes the adoptive families' diverse experiences, barriers to adjustment as well as resources and strategies that they mobilized and used for smooth adjustment. Their experiences in the process of adjustment consisted of five phases: unfamiliar meeting, shock, fighting alone without support, control, and stability. Barriers to adjustment process were composed of adoptees' problem behaviors, loss of time, lack of preparation, lack of experiences, repetition of the vicious circle, withstanding alone, improper resources, lack of support, and being criticized. Resources and strategies that families adopting an older child utilized were individual resources and ability such as rearing experiences, intellectual ability, willingness, belief, and perspective change; family system such as spouse and other offsprings; informal support system such as extended families, relatives, friends, neighbors, and other families adopting an older child; formal resources such as adoption workers and helping professionals. From our results, we suggested policy and practice guidelines to help adjustment experiences for families adopting an older child.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.695-711
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• 2007

Research on intercountry adoption was strongly needed in Korea; however, there were only a few research in geography on the United States. It is hard to find the geographical research on Korea-born adoptees in Europe. This research analyzed spatial distribution of Korea-born adoptees in Europe where adopted the largest number of Koreans after the United States. Since 1956 when Korea-born children were first adopted in Norway, the number of adoptees had increased rapidly until 1978. In the early 1970s, Korean children had adopted more in Europe than the Unites States. Even though the number of intercountry adoptees temporarily decreased after the Seoul Olympic in 1988, Korean children have been still adopted at a settled numbers. In the beginning period (1956$\sim$70) of adoption in Europe, the Korean war orphans and abandoned children were adopted by Sweden, Norway and Belgium. In the second period (1971$\sim$90), the number of Korean adoptees were social orphans as a result of rapid industrialization. The number of adoptees increased rapidly and their destination extended into ten countries including the Western Europe such as France, Germany, Italy and United Kingdom. In the third period after 1991, the adoptees were mainly from unmarried mothers. The number of adoptees decreased as the result of that the Korean government attempted to reduce the intercountry adoption and to increase the domestic adoption. Their destination reduced into Northern European countries, France and Luxemburg. Those countries kept adopting settled number of Korean children. Female Korean adoptees used to outnumber male Korean adoptees; however the sex ratio was reversed recently. The age of adoptees became to lower, so most of Korea-born adoptees were under one-year old.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.83-107
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to understand the life experiences of an adult adoptee. For this purpose, the data were collected through in-depth interviews with an adult adoptee, observation, and documents and analyzed using life history approach. Results of analysis were composed of summarized life history, thick description of life history, theme analysis, and issues for intervention. The themes generated from analysis are 'a slub', 'a larva that want to be a butterfly', 'I am okay. No, I am not okay', 'because it is not my fault', 'love, the critical determinant leading my life'. Researchers, also, examined intervention issues of adoption, post-adoption service, closed adoption or open adoption, searching root, intervention for adult adoptee. Based on the results of this study, the policies and practical guidelines for adult adoptees were suggested.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.35-48
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate prejudiced descriptions of adoption and adoptive families in the major textbooks in the field of child and family welfare studies. To this end, we analyzed the compositions and contents of eleven different textbooks and found four necessary changes to recommend: first, we found it essential for authors to have a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of the open adoption culture and adoptive families. Second, we observed the need for the revision of prejudiced terminology found in textbooks' descriptions of adoptive families - about adopters, adoptees, and adoption institutions. Third, we advise an enhancement in the understanding of adoptive families reflecting both qualitative and quantitative understandings of the open adoption culture and perspective about social prejudice against adoptive families. Finally, we advocate for the inclusion adoptive families as one of the diverse forms a family can take, not only in the curriculum of child (children's rights) studies but also in the curricula of other family-related disciplines such as family welfare and healthy family theory. Based on these four changes, we propose a new approach to authoring including a multifaceted review of the subject composition and the content of the major textbooks and revision of the overall contents of the textbooks.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.141-164
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to understand the school achievement of domestic adopted children in Korea and its related factors. Although the developmental outcomes of domestic adopted children were the focus of research interests, their school achievement has never been fully addressed in Korea. The subsample (9-17 years old) of 5th wave data of was used for the analysis. The results showed that the school achievement level of domestic adopted children was not significantly different from their non-adopted peers during elementary school years except the mathematics, but changed drastically after they entered the middle school, showing significantly lower level from their non-adopted peers. Factors related with the overall school achievement were the level of school, maternal education, age at adoption, child's self-esteem and school adjustment. For specific subject, however, significant factors were found to be somewhat different. Based on the results of the study, the practical guidelines to improve the school achievement of adopted children were suggested. Also, suggestions for the following studies were made.

• 프린팅코리아
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.68-71
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• 2014

우리나라는 한국전쟁 후 전쟁고아 해외입양이 많이 이뤄져, 한 때 '아기 수출국'이라는 꼬리표를 달고 있었다. 전쟁이 끝나고 50년이 지난 지금도 여전히 많은 아이가 외국으로 입양되고 있다. 입양인들은 대개 한국에 대한 그리움을 품고 살지만 또 다른 한편에는 버려졌다는 원망을 간직하고 있다. 이처럼 상처 많은 입양인에게 고국은 그리움과 배신이 교차하지만 꼭 한번은 방문해 보고 싶은 나라였다. 이들에게 고국방문의 용기와 희망을 북돋워주는 이가 있다. 바로 진흥문화 박경진 회장이다.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.5-33
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to understand the open adoption experience of adoptive families. For this purpose, the data were collected through diverse data collection methods including in-depth interviews with adoptive families who had experiences of open adoption and analyzed using a qualitative case study approach. Data collected from six adoptive families were employed for within-case analysis and cross-case analysis. Each case was carefully examined and summarized using story-telling style in the within-case analysis and major issues for open adoption appeared in each case were described and compared one by one. In the cross-case analysis, all the cases were re-examined keeping the issues appeared in the within-case analysis in mind and eight integrated themes were emerged from it. The eight integrated themes are 'the crucial meeting', 'a clear arrangement', 'an uneasy parallel', 'the other mom', 'who are the real parents?', 'the words never to say', 'the hidden characters', and 'the center of relations or the outsider'. Based on the results of the study, the policies and practical guidelines related to open adoption were suggested. Also, the suggestions for the further studies were made to obtain more abundant information beyond the limitations of the study.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.53-78
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• 2013

This study applied hermeneutic grounded theory suggested by Rennie to understand general meaning of adoption decision process of 7 non-married mothers. At the end of the analysis, 191 meaning units, 46 subcategories, and 11 hermeneutic categories were constructed. The core category that threads throughout the adoption decision process was represented as "living with a scar left by the duality of motherhood; repudiating and embracing." The adoption decision process emerged as recognition of pregnancy, avoidance of reality, searching for adoption, escalation of confusion, determination and rationalization or forfeiture. Based upon our research, we suggested that the adoption decision process of non-married mother was another way of practicing motherhood, and we proposed that we need to develop a psycho-social support program to improve the lives of non-married mothers.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• no.36
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• pp.203-225
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to examine how much the external locus of control, social support, self-esteem, and adoption decision making process influence to teen parents' grief and find out the differences depending on meeting the baby, breast-feeding, anticipating the meeting the baby, ceremony for separation, and exposing their grief by themself or to others. Data was analysed with multiple regression and t-test. With the result of multiple regression analysis, the higher external locus of control, pressure of birthfather, regrets for adoption decision are, the higher grief is, and the lower support of friends and self-esteem are, the higher grief is. And It is estimated high grief statically among the group of breast-feeding, anticipating the baby, no ceremony for separation. But the group exposing their grief by self or to others felt low grief. On the basis of the results, we will find out the meaningful contents for intervention. The staffs of birthmother shelter and social worker don't overlooking the relationship between birthmother and birthfather and enforce the internal locus of control, self-esteem. Above all we will intervene about exploring the adoption decision making and facilitate the exposure of feeling related to surrendered baby(guilt, anxiety, sadness, shame, fear).

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.301-327
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine the timing and the risk factors associated with the adoption of legally-free foster children. The sample of the study was drawn from foster care files of Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System(AFCARS) in 32 states between October 1998 (FY 1999) and September 2002(FY 2002). The timing post-TPR to adoption was examined by plotting the Kaplan-Meier cumulative hazard function for adoption and by plotting the KM hazard functions stratified by child's race and child's age at TPR. Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for adoption of legally-free foster children after TPR. The hazard of adoption was very low immediately after TPR but increased steadily starting at 3 months and then declined after 20 months. The cumulative hazard functions for White non-Hispanic children and Black non-Hispanic children crossed over at 13 months after TPR. Racial minority status, older age, and disability were negatively associated with the hazard of adoption. Physical abuse, sexual abuse had the lower hazard for adoption compared by neglect. Caretaker's inability to cope had the slightly lower hazard for adoption whereas inadequate housing showed the slightly greater hazard for adoption. Characteristics of foster care services turned into be powerful predictors of adoption. Specifically, legally-free children placed in pre-adoptive homes, those who shared the same racial/ethnic background with their foster caretakers, and those who were placed in two-parent families have a greater likelihood of adoption. The findings highlight the importance of foster care service provisions after TPR to facilitate adoption of legally-free foster children. Furthermore, a more substantial resources and targeted support for foster children who experience physical abuse and sexual abuse in need of adoption should be provided for moving the foster children into permanency.