• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2017

Background: In contemporary China, most parents are dual-earner couples and there is only one child in the family. We aimed to examine the associations of parents' work stress with suicidal ideation among the corresponding adolescent. We further hypothesized that low parental support experienced by adolescents may mediate the associations. Methods: Cross-sectional data from school students and their working parents were used, with 907 families from Kunming City, China. Stress at work was measured by the effort-reward imbalance questionnaire. Perceived parental support was assessed by an item on parental empathy and their willingness to communicate with the adolescent. Suicidal ideation was considered positive if students reported thoughts about suicide every month or more frequently during the previous 6 months. Logistic regression was used to examine the associations. Results: We observed that parents' work stress was positively associated with low parental support, which was in turn associated with adolescent suicidal ideation. The odds ratio for parents' work stress and adolescent suicidal ideation was 2.91 (95% confidence interval: 1.53-5.53), and this association was markedly attenuated to 2.24 (95% confidence interval: 1.15-4.36) after additional adjustment for parental support. Notably, mothers' work stress levels exerted stronger effects on children's suicidal ideation than those of fathers. Conclusion: Parents' work stress (particularly mother's work stress) was strongly associated with adolescent's suicidal ideation, and the association was partially mediated by low parental support. These results need to be replicated and extended in prospective investigations within and beyond China, in order to explore potential causal pathways as a basis of preventive action.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2016

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to check the obesity of middle and high school students in the nation and identify factors influencing their obesity. Methods: The present study is a secondary analysis research that obtained permission to use the primitive data of 10th (2014) Online Survey on Adolescents' Health Behaviors by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and analyzed the primitive data according to the purposes. Results: The findings show that the BMI of middle and high school students in the nation was $20.7kg/m^2$ with the obesity and non-obesity group recording $27.0kg/m^2$ and $19.9kg/m^2$, respectively. Factors influencing the obesity of adolescents include gender, grade, educational background of parent, school grades for the last 12 months, satisfaction with sleep, fast food consumption, ramen consumption, intense and muscle exercise three times a week or more, subjective sense of health, stress, suicidal ideation, and hours of Internet usage per week. Conclusion: For the management of adolescent obesity, there is a need for obesity management programs taking the characteristics of male students into consideration. The possibilities of obesity grow according to the grades, which means that both the teachers and parents should offer more guidance on weight control in upper grades. The adjustment of adolescent obesity requires psychological health management including stress and suicidal ideation as well as diet control and exercise. It is also needed to apply a stepwise obesity management program according to the hours of internet usage and dependence on the internet

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.144-153
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• 2021

Objectives: Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders in adolescents and seem to occur the earliest among all forms of psychopathology. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of anxiety severity with health risk behaviors and mental health in adolescents. Methods: Data from the 2020 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey were analyzed. A total of 54948 adolescents responded to the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) for the assessment of their anxiety severity as well as to the mental health and health risk behavior survey. Logistic regression analysis, t tests, and variance analysis of a complex sample general linear model were used to examine the association of anxiety severity with health behaviors and mental health. Results: After statistical adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, the subjects in the severe anxiety group were significantly more likely to be current smokers (odds ratio [OR]: 2.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.72-2.50), current drinkers (OR: 1.91, 95% CI: 1.67-2.19), experience habitual substance use (OR: 10.89, 95% CI: 8.22-14.42), have sexual intercourse (OR: 2.10, 95% CI: 1.76-2.51), and have unprotected intercourse (OR: 2.21, 95% CI: 1.67-2.92) than those in the normal group. Anxiety severity negatively correlated with sleep satisfaction and happiness, but positively correlated with stress perception, loneliness, depressive symptoms, and suicidality. Conclusion: Adolescent anxiety is associated with health risk behaviors and poor mental health. Thus, early screening and intervention for anxiety in adolescents could contribute to the management and coping of youth health risk behaviors in the community.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.78-90
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate measurement properties of self-report questionnaires measuring the social adjustment for youth after treatment of childhood cancer. Methods: Social adjustment measurement tools were identified through a two-stage systematic review. First, we searched for articles using self-report questionnaires to measure the social adjustment of youth after the treatment of childhood cancer. The appropriate tools were listed and categorized. Second, using methodological filters, we searched 5 electronic databases for articles examining the measurement properties of the tools when used with youth after the treatment of childhood cancer. The quality of these papers was then evaluated using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist. Results: Eight tools were frequently used to measure social adjustment. Eight studies investigated the measurement properties of 4 of these tools. The PedsQL 4.0 and MMQL-AF had moderate to strong evidence in some domains, but the rest of the domains had a lack of evidence. The SF-36 and KIDSCREEN-27 were validated for only a few areas. Conclusion: We found a lack of evidence regarding the measurement properties of these tools. More research is required on the measurement properties of tools for use in this population.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.147-160
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• 2015

This study analyzed the differences in adjustment and family environments of adolescents from three different family structures, using the KCYPS panel 4th wave data from first graders in middle schools. The participants of the study consisted of 1,715 adolescents in two-parent families, 79 adolescents in single-father families, and 113 adolescents in single-mother families. The data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and ANCOVAs. The findings of this study indicated that adolescents in two-parent families showed a lower level of physical symptoms than those in single-mother families and a lower level of participation in classwork than those in single-father families whereas adolescents in single-father families were more likely to be involved in delinquency than those from the other two family structures. In addition, significant differences were found in family environments including parents' physical health and life satisfaction, family economic status, parenting behaviors, and parents' absence at home after school. Parents in single-mother and single-father families were less healthy physically, showed lower levels of life satisfaction, reported less income, and spent less money for their children, compared to those in two-parent families. With regard to parenting behaviors, single fathers tended to be less warm toward and neglected their children more than single mothers and parents in two-parent families. Adolescents in single-father families were most likely to be left alone at home after school, followed by those in single-mother and two-parent families. The results suggested that specific attention needs to be paid to adolescents from single-father families in order to support their adjustment.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.1-17
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• 2008

This study aimed at promoting interests and concerns about adolescents' behavior problems and inducing efforts for various preventive and therapeutic solutions by examining the relations of adolescents' family system types, school adjustment, and behavior problems. The subjects of this study were 1,444 middle school students who reside in Seoul and 1,382(male adolescents 747, female adolescents 635) self reported questionnaires were used for final analysis. The result of this study are as follows. First, female adolescents were experiencing more internalizing behavior problems than male adolescents. The gender difference must be considered in the prevention and solution of the behavior problems. Second, the level of adolescents' school adjustment in the maladjusted family type was the lowest, and the level of adolescents' school adjustment in the adjusted family type was the highest. Improving the level of the family functioning can effectively increase the level of the school life the most behavior problems, and those of the adjusted family type were adaptability. Third, adolescents of the maladjusted family type were experiencing the most behavior problems, and those of the adjusted family type were experiencing the least behavior problems. Fourth, if adolescents' school adjustment was in the high level, adolescents were experiencing the lower behavior problems. Therefore, developing educational and counseling programs that can constantly observe adolescents' school adjustment and improve maladjustment problems is adolescents' school adjustment and behavior problems in all family system types. Specially, the negative correlation between male adolescents' school adjustment and externalizing behavior problems and the negative correlation between female adolescents' school adjustment and internalizing behavior problems were higher in the maladjusted family type and middle-adjusted family than in the adjusted family.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.119-129
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• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate mental health problems in obese child and adolescent patients. We assess the frequency of mental health problems and their differences according to sex, school grade and severity of obesity. Methods: The sample consisted of 106 children and adolescents aged 8-16 years (61 boys with mean age $10.98{\pm}2.26$, 45 girls with mean age $9.74{\pm}1.96$, p=.004) who were diagnosed with obesity and recruited at the Department of Pediatrics of Jeju National University Hospital. The participants completed the Korean-Child Behavior Checklist (K-CBCL), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Korean version of the Eating Attitude Test-26 (KEAT-26), and somatotype drawings. Results: The percentage of participants having a T-score in clinical range on one or more CBCL subscale was 37.7%. The percentage of participants in the high risk group for depression (CDI score above 17) was 20.8% and that in the high risk group for eating disorder (EAT-26 score above 20) was 6%. The girls showed significantly lower CBCL T-scores in social competence ($48.39{\pm}15.66$ vs. $38.91{\pm}22.04$, p=.011), adjustment function ($49.51{\pm}17.35$ vs. $40.38{\pm}22.58$, p=.020) and school competence ($53.34{\pm}10.47$ vs. $48.22{\pm}15.11$, p=.042) than the boys, but the percentages of boys and girls in clinical range were not significantly different. The middle school students showed (significantly) higher CBCL T-scores in somatic symptoms ($60.86{\pm}9.44$ vs. $55.74{\pm}6.76$, p=.005), aggressive behavior ($58.81{\pm}6.74$ vs. $54.68{\pm}6.22$, p=.009), total problems ($59.86{\pm}9.91$ vs. $54.88{\pm}9.76$, p=.039) and externalizing problems ($57.90{\pm}10.57$ vs. $52.44{\pm}9.38$, p=.022) than the elementary school students. The severe obesity group showed significantly higher CBCL T-scores in attention problems ($59.18{\pm}9.45$ vs. $54.15{\pm}5.34$, p=.001), social problems ($59.25{\pm}8.59$ vs. $55.96{\pm}6.50$, p=.038), delinquent behavior ($58.07{\pm}6.97$ vs. $54.73{\pm}6.00$, p=.017) and total problems ($59.21{\pm}11.65$ vs. $54.67{\pm}9.03$, p=.037) than the mild to moderate obesity group. Conclusion: Significant proportions of obese children and adolescents suffer from mental health problems. Clinicians need to pay attention to the mental health risk, especially in obese adolescents and severely obese children and adolescents.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.99-107
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• 2015

This study purposed to analyze difference in experience of life in Korea among adolescents whose immigrant backgrounds were different (Korean-born children of multicultural families and foreign-born immigrant children) using the data of the 2012 National Survey of Multicultural Families (adolescent children aged between 9 and 24). According to the results of analysis, first, multicultural adolescents with immigrant backgrounds experienced 'difficulty in using the Korean language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing),' 'school dropout,' and 'school violence' more frequently than Korean-born multicultural adolescents. Second, with regard to social discrimination (friends, teachers, relatives, neighbors, and unknown people), multicultural adolescents with immigrant backgrounds experienced 'discrimination by teachers,' 'discrimination by relatives,' 'discrimination by neighbors,' and 'discrimination by unknown people' more frequently than Korean-born multicultural adolescents. By analyzing these differences, this study suggested directions for differentiated support policies and specific strategies for adjustment to life in Korea by multicultural family adolescents with different backgrounds.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.76-81
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• 2012

Objectives : Childhood is a critical period involving various developmental tasks that need to be accomplished. Childhood depression has overall negative implications for certain areas of development, including cognition, emotion, social skills, academic achievement, and ability to cope with stress. Yet, because depression can be "masked" by accompanying behavioral problems, early detection and diagnosis of childhood depression is somewhat challenging. In this study, using the Korean version of the Child Behavior Checklist (K-CBCL), we evaluated the association between children's self reports on depression and parents' assessment of children's behaviors. Methods : Subjects were recruited from the S city, a cohort comprising a non-random convenience sample of 226, 10-year-old ethnic Koreans in their fourth year of elementary school and their parents. All participants underwent several tests, including Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and K-CBCL. Results : A total of 226 children, including 166 boys (73.5%) and 60 girls (26.5%), participated in the study. The average CDI for the participants was 14.57 (SD=7.54). Two items on the K-CBCL, total scale of adjustment scale and social withdrawal problems, showed a close association with the CDI. Conclusion : Although much remains to be elucidated, after controlling for covariates, the results of this study suggested that behavioral problems observed in children may be closely associated with depression.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.100-108
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• 1995

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving(ICPS) skill training would enhance interpersonal solving skills and behavioral adjustment of mildly mentally retarded adolescents in the junior and high school. The program used in the present study was shortened and adapted for mildly retarded adolescents from Shure and Spivack(1982) program which was developed to improve the adjustment of children in the intermediate grades 5-6. The subjects were 22 mildly retarded adolescents, and they were assigned to either the experimental(11) or the control group(11). The experimental group were given ICPS training 4 times a week over a period of 8 weeks with a total of 32 sessions in all. The results showed a significant improvement of alternative thinking and consequential thinking in the experimental group compared with the control group. With regard to behavioral ratings by the parents and teachers, there were no significant differences between the groups. The results indicated that the training was effective in increasing the ability to generate alternative solutions and to predict consequences, but the significant improvement of interpersonal cognitive problem solving skills did not lead to noticeable improvement in behavioral adjustment. It was suggested that a longer training period for over-learning, concomitant parent education program, and more behaviorally oriented social skill training combined with the cognitive approach would yield significant training effects, maintenance and transfer.