• 한국사회정책
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.157-179
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• 2017

In Korea, 'spoon class discourse' has attracted public attention in the press and among young people, which reflects that mass awareness that the class status structure is clearly rooted in the society becomes widespread. Although income distribution has been improved since late 2000s, it is interesting that Korean people's subjective perception concerning class mobility and social justice has been worsemed. By using the survey data on people's perception of opportunity inequality, this study finds that Korean people have by and large negative subjective awareness regarding socio-economic opportunity inequality, magnitude of opportunity inequality, and achievement by efforts, and that the degree of the negative perception is greater in accordance with the people's subjective identification. The regression analysis reveals that the social status of respondents and their parents(-), experience of discrimination(+), age(-), and high education of college and above (+) have consistent effect over socio-economic opportunity inequality, magnitude of opportunity inequality, and achievement by efforts with statistical significance. More concretely, as people have lower subjective status identification at the time of parent generation and their own generation, as they have the experience of discriminatory misconduct, and as they are young and highly educated, they have negative or pessimistic perception regarding opportuinity inequality. In addition, it is revealed that the unemployed and non-regular workers have significantly negative perception on socio-economic opportunity inequality, magnitude of opportunity inequality, while negative perception on the magnitude of opportunity inequality and achievement by efforts is noticeable among high and middle income households.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.101-130
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• 2018

Social class has become a major focus of research in the field of Western psychology due to its critical impact on human life. The Korean scholarship in psychology, however, has paid very little attention to the issue of social class despite the deepening of social stratification in the country; and the concepts and measurement they used were typically borrowed from sociology. In this study, I discussed what social class means and how it should be measured in order to emphasize the importance of the concept and its related issues. To this end, I examined a variety of theoretical backgrounds on the measurement of social class and the concept of socioeconomic status (SES)-a term commonly used as a synonym for social class. This study divided the method of measuring social class into objective social class and subjective social class, and outlined the characteristics of each approach and their main indicators. Finally, I assessed the recent trend in the Korean psychology on social class measurement. Among the 23 studies I have found, 65.2% used the objective social class index; and education was the objective indicator they most frequently employed, followed by income and occupation. Social stratification identity was used in all seven studies that applied subjective social class. And seven different words to describe social class was found. Based on these results, I concluded that there should be a call for more direct research on social class variables. In addition, I suggest that 'social class', instead of socioeconomic status, should be used as a preferred term in the future studies and propose a few notes on how to use the objective indicators and subjective social class measurement.

• Survey Research
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2007

This paper explores the extent to which property scale, in particular housing price is useful as the measure of an individual's economic status. Its main object is to compare the distributions of the measure of housing wealth and other objective or subject measures, i,e., reported income and subjective class identification. Additionally, their relations to other variables are examined. An analysis of distributions and cross-tables based upon national survey of 2005 family and the database of apartment price of Kookmin Bank are used. It is shown that the measure of housing wealth differs from other economic status measures in terms of distribution and the relations to other variables, such as attitude variables and consumption-related variables. Its results also suggest that the measure of housing wealth can be applied to various areas as a new measure of an individual's objective economic status, in such a way to improve applicability of social survey.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.89-109
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• 2006

The 'Joongsancheung(JSC)', a unique term for the middle class in Korea, is defined as a stratum sharing common lifestyles and a certain level of life chances. It involves non-economic factors such as life chance, educational attainment, occupational groups as well as economic factor. Such objective measures as the occupational status of the main breadwinner, family income, and the educational level of respondent, and subjective measures of class identification are used for the operational definition of the JSC. Data from a national survey of 1,515 respondents is analyzed to investigate the change of the JSC in size and the major determinants of class identification. The results show that while there is no strong evidence of any significant change of the JSC by the objective measures during the recent decade, there seems to be a slight decrease in the subjective class identification. In addition, binary logistical regression analysis reveals that self-identification of JSC is heavily influenced by house ownership, along with subjective evaluation of one's own income and property ownership. This study demonstrates that the apparent class polarization in Korean society reflects not so much objective conditions but subjective perception of respondent of his or her circumstance. It is suggested that problems of housing and relative derivation people have as regards income and property should be resolved to alleviate such class polarization in Korean society.

• 재활복지
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.139-167
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between living satisfaction and income level and expenditure of the Disabled Households' and the mediation role of socioeconomic status in their relationship also the effect of the according to whether they receive basic living or not. The data and sample of total 2,906 households were extracted from the Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled (PSED) 8th data, and it was analyzed by the SEM(Structural equation model). The study results are as follows. First, Household income is negative effect on Engel and Schwabe Index, Socioeconomic status is positive effect on life satisfaction. and Socioeconomic status is partially mediated in the path between household income and life satisfaction and socioeconomic status full mediates the schwabe index and life satisfaction. Overall, the study results emphasizes the importance of the economic activity for security income of the disabled households, and it discusses about policy directions.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.67-95
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• 2007

이 연구의 주된 목적은 IMF 외환위기를 계기로 사회경제적 차별출산력의 양상이 어떻게 변화하였는가를 파악하는 것이다. 이 연구는 2003년 전국출산력조사 자료를 활용하여 20-49세 기혼 여자의 총출생아수와 1998년 이후의 출생아수를 비교분석하였다. 또한, 분석대상을 1997년 이전에 결혼하였거나 재혼한 부인들과 1997년 이후 처음 결혼한 부인들의 두 집단으로 구분하여 출산력 수준과 출산행태를 비교함으로써 IMF 외환우기 이전과 이후의 변화양상을 파악하고자 시도하였다. 총출생아수에 대한 분석 결과. 부부의 사회경제적인 조건과 출산수준은 대체로 뒤집어진 J 자형의 관계를 유지하는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 즉 사회경제적 지위가 높아질수록 출산수준이 낮아지는 경향이 발견되었다. 그러나 사회경제적 지위가 가장 높은 집단은 바로 밑의 집단 보다 출산수준이 상대적으로 높았다. 그런데, 최근의 출산수준은 이러한 사회경제적 차별출산력과는 뚜렷하게 대조적인 양상을 나타냈다. IMF 외환위기 이후 출산수준 감소의 폭은 기존의 출산수준과 정비례하는 방식으로 미루어졌다. 출산수준이 높은 집단일수록 급속한 출산력 저하가 이루어졌으며 출산수준이 낮은 집단에서는 상대적으로 변화가 완만하였다. 그 결과, 최근의 출산수준은 중상층에 해당하는 사회경제적 지위를 지닌 집단이 가장 높고, 다음이 최상위 집단, 그리고 하위 집단의 순으로 바뀌었다. 이러한 경향은 부부의 교육수준, 직업, 종사상 지위, 주관적 계층에 따른 최근 출산력의 변화양상에서 일관적으로 나타났다.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.1135-1153
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• 2011

The study aims to examine the interaction of socio-economic status in education and income in the difference of the level of subjective health, physical health, and mental health of middle-age and the elderly of Korea. While there have been various discussions in precedent study with respect to the serious increase in the number of dependent life alongside with increasing elderly population, research on the health level according to socio-economic status is highly limited, and also how the health level of middle-age and the elderly - whom will arrive at senescence in just a few years - is different. The study aims at analyzing the health level by hierarchy and age based on data targeting the whole nation. As for analysis data, the study utilized 1st Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA) implemented by Korea Labor Institute, and carried out a path analysis to verify whether income and academic background serve as a parameter to the level of subjective health, physical health, and mental health. As a result, while the subjective health level decreases, the study confirmed an increase in chronic diseases, and extremely low level of mental health when people in middle-age enter the elderly. In addition, the higher the education and income, the more the health levels both on middle-age and the elderly; the result suggests that education background and income have mediated effects in all health level of middle-age and the elderly.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.197-208
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• 2020

This study attempts to identify the structure of class conflict in Korea and to suggest an alternative framework for a empathetic society. The objective and subjective level of satisfaction with life and class consciousness are in direct proportion, and status consistency signifies polarization. Distorted distribution structures and cultural values make income disparity and property disputes widen, which in turn lead to educational divides and status fixations, refracting or blocking the possibility of social mobility. By overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, it is not appropriate to go back to the past but to correct wrong consciousness and practices in the past, and the consistency between the state and members of society must be re-established. Through the process of innovation at the economic, global, and digital level, a major transformation is required in the new normal era, which prioritizes social development for human values. The conflict resolution depends on the solidarity of the community as a social foundation, since an empathetic society needs the trust and communication of the members of the society.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.83-87
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• 2012

This study is aimed to identify latent classes which are based the change patterns in assistive technology device use among worker with disabilities and to test the effects of independent variables(gender, education, disability type, disability density, activity and participation of ICF: ICF, subjective socioeconomic status: SES, job satisfaction, life satisfaction) on determining latents classes. This study applied Nagin's(1999) semi-parametric group based approach to the panel survey of employment for the disabled. Because dependant variable has dichotomous scale, logit model was used. The results identified three latent classes, which could be defined based on the patterns as follows; assistive device continued use group, assistive device mid-level use group, assistive device sharp decline use group. The effects of the independent variables on the latent classes was tested by multinomial logit analysis. The results showed that education, disability type, ICF, SES, and life satisfaction were significant determinants of the latent classes. Finally, the implications based on analysis results were suggested.

• Proceedings of the Population Association of Korea Conference
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• 2006.12a
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• pp.59-87
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• 2006

This paper explores the effects of the 1997 economic crisis on the pattern of socioeconomic differentials in fertility. Based on analysis of data from the 2003 Korea National Fertility Survey, this study focuses on recent changes in the level of fertility according to socioeconomic status of the couple including educational level, occupation, working status, income, etc. Results reveal that the level of fertility of those with the highest education, most prestigious occupation, and employer status are higher than those of the next group in the socioeconomic hierarchy. These findings imply that the straight line inverse pattern of socioeconomic differentials in CEB yielded to a reversed J-shaped curve. However, recent differentials of fertility after the economic crisis were found to contrast with the pattern above. Decrease in fertility has been most drastic among those with a high level of fertility, and relatively slow for those with a low level of fertility. The level of recent fertility turns out to be highest among those with upper-middle socioeconomic status, followed by those with the highest socioeconomic status and those with the lowest status. Policy implications and some comments on current population policies of the Korean government are also presented in this paper.