• 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.

• 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.

• 한국노년학
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to examine that basic pension entitlement affects the subjective well-being(SWB) of the elderly. For controlling unobserved heterogeneity, we used fixed effects model for longitudinal data. The data used for this study is KLoSA from 2006 to 2016. The research results are as follows. SWB of non-basic pensioners was higher than for basic pension beneficiaries. Second, when the demographic variables were controlled, SWB of the basic pension recipients was higher then that of non-beneficiaries. Third, the factors affecting SWB were economic satisfaction, marital status, family financial support, employment status, subjective health status, daily life restrictions, gender, and age. Fourth, the effect of basic pension on SWB was positive at the lowest income quartile. The results of this study shows that the basic pension system has a positive effect on the SWB of elderly despite the low benefit level. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the basic pension system to solve poverty problems and improve the quality of life for the aged. Also, various aspects of social support for the low-income vulnerable elderly are needed. Lastly, It was suggested that the benefit level of the basic pension should be raised to have a substantial effect on the low-income class, which is a key policy subject.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.19-31
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• 2019

There have been a growing number of studies that show huge discrepancies between individuals' perceptions of relative economic position and the economic position based on the reported income in the survey. If this is the case, it is expected that the impact of perceived income status on individual happiness can be different from that of objective income status based on the reported income. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the discrepancies between perception and reality with respect to relative income status, focusing on the 'Reference group theory'. This study also tries to extend existing knowledge of the relative status on the happiness level of individuals, by examining how individual's happiness can be changed by providing the accurate information about their objective income level. There are systematic biases in perceived income status. A majority of people who actually rank in the lower part of income ladder place themselves in higher positions, while a significant portion of rich individuals underestimate their actual income status. Secondly, the misperception about the income distribution is affected by a variety of individual, household characteristics and reference group income. Thirdly, providing individuals with accurate information has a considerable effect on their happiness level.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.317-327
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• 2012

The purpose of present study was to observe the path and influencing effects between socioeconomic class (SEC), health practices and self-rated health(SRH) by the age bracket. The subjects were 4,987 adults over 25 years old who participated in the 2008 Korean National Examination Health and Nutrition Survey and could be classified into SEC in terms of the three characteristics: education, income and occupation. Path analysis was conducted with the effects of health behaviors execution on the differences in SRH, and the complex samples analysis executed by chi-square test, t-test, ANOVA. As the result, lower SRH level paralleled with the lower SEC, and more health behaviors had differed by SEC in the younger and middle aged group. The lower SEC, the lower SRH: non-smoking and weight control for younger women and exercise for aged men had indirect effects as parameters. In conclusion, when planning a health promotion program, to select the correct target populations with consideration of the age bracket, gender and SEC and to establish tailored contents fit for each of the population would be important.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.207-213
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• 2014

How to eliminate health disparity to ensure health equity is one of major issues that are handled across the world. The purpose of this study was to examine any possible differences in self-rated oral health state according to socioeconomic status and the relationship between the two based on the data of the 5th National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey of 2010~2012. As for differences in self-rated oral health state according to sociodemographic characteristics, the women considered themselves to be in poorer oral health than the men. The older respondents found themselves to be in poorer oral health, and there was a tendency that the respondents who were less educated and whose household income was smaller rated their own health as worse. When a logistic regression analysis was made to determine influential factors for self-rated oral health status, the women perceived they were in better oral health than the men did, and the better-educated respondents were more likely to consider themselves healthier. Concerning disparities in self-rated health state according to income level, there were broader differences in that regard according to an increase of income. The findings of the study illustrated that there was oral health inequity according to social stratum. It's required to make a nationwide effort to promote national oral health, and appropriate support should especially be provided for disadvantaged people at the same time in order to get rid of the gap in oral health among different social classes, as there is a yawning gap between them and the other classes.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.120-123
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine closely between the sociodemographic characteristics and sports participation. To subject who answered to givev questionaire was 389 persons. To analyze materials, $X^2$ analysis used as statistic analysis techniques. On the basis of the results, the conclusions were as follows; Firstly, there was significants relationship between sex and sports participation. Secondly, there was significants relationship between college & department and sports participation. Thirdly, there was not significants relationship between house income and sports participation. Lastly, there was not significants relationship between subjective social-class and sports participation.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.