• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.711-722
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to analyzed child care teachers' health state and a relationship between health promoting lifestyle and job stress of child care teachers. The subjects were 101 child care teachers in Busan. They responded to 'health state open ended question', 'health promoting lifestyle scale', and 'job stress scale'. For the analysis of the data, M(SD), frequencies, t-test, Pearson's correlation were run by using SPSS WIN computer program. The major findings of this study were as follows; First, the most uncomfortable symptoms of child care teacher's physical health state was respiratory organs and the main cause was classroom ventilation and dust. The most uncomfortable symptoms of child care teacher's mental health state was tension and the main cause was children's safety. Second, the mean scores of the variables were as follows : the mean score of health promoting lifestyle was 2.54. The highest sub factor of health promoting lifestyle was 'positive self recognition' and the lowest one was 'exercising'. The mean score of job stress was 2.80 and the highest sub factor was 'administration services'. They desire for a healthy life, but in reality, they are unsatisfied with their current health state and they are not able to practice certain actions actively to promote their health. Third, health promoting lifestyle was negatively correlated with job stress. The result of this study can be used as the basic data for reducing day care teacher's job stress, development of a program to promote day care teacher's health and improving day care teachers working environment.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.101-120
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between teachers' sense of self-efficacy and their job satisfaction to improve the quality of child care centers. It is crucial for teachers to have self-efficacy to reveal their potential for change and have opportunities to work better. In addition to teachers' self-efficacy, teachers' job satisfaction should be added to offer better child care service for parents as well as children. In this study, teachers' personalities and self-efficacy were compared between public and private child care centers to have further discussion making a progress of their job satisfaction. The results of this study are as follows : (a)The location of child care centers have meaningful effects on teachers' job satisfaction both in public and private child care centers equally. (b)Teachers in public child care centers have stronger influences on self-efficacy in home-related education and positive learning environment than teachers in private child care centers. (c)Teachers' participation in decision making is a significant factor that has affects on teachers' job satisfaction both in public and private child care centers.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.185-208
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• 2012

The goal of this study is to take a look at grandmothers' experience raising children with a focus on the children's generation and the grandchildren's generation. To do this, we conducted in-depth interviews with three grandmothers who raised their children and their grandchildren. As a result, grandmothers' experience raising children was shown in three categories: change in the raising environment, the raising culture, and the sense of value of raising children. These results suggest that the raising experience of grandmothers who have raised children in the past and are currently raising children again are being changed by the transition in raising experience, raising culture, and sense of value of raising children.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.223-241
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of teacher efficacy and stress coping strategies on job satisfaction of teachers in early childhood education and care. 189 teachers were recruited from 8 day care centers and 10 kindergartens in Seoul, Kyunggi, Kyungbuk, and Chonbuk provinces in Korea. Data were analyzed through frequencies, Pearson's correlations, and the stepwise regression analyses using PASW 18.0. The findings are as follows. First, the result showed that teachers in ECEC were most likely to be satisfied with their job characteristics most among the 4 subcategories in job satisfaction. They also perceived their the ability of discipline high for teacher efficacy, and used the direct coping strategy most as a stress coping strategy. Second, the teachers' ability to create a positive learning atmosphere affected job characteristics, the ability to participate in decision-making affected the relationship with director and colleagues, working environment, welfare and salary the most. Third, the direct coping strategy had the most impacts on all subcategories of job satisfaction. The results of this study may provide basic data for finding effective way to increase job satisfaction of teachers in ECEC.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.497-511
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• 2013

This study aimed to examine Korean men's experiences of work-family balance in dual income families with children under six years of age. We focused on identifying the difficulty of balancing work and family considering their individual, social, and cultural conditions. The method was a qualitative study involving two in-depth interviews with each of 12 men, and analyzing the data through the grounded theory approach. From the results, a model of men's work-family experience was constructed. It demonstrates the central phenomena (difficulties of balancing), the causal conditions (lacking time for family, seeking support from the employer, and learning husband's roles insufficiently), the contextual conditions (remaining paternalism and changing husband's roles), the intervening conditions (workplace, childcare support, and wife characteristics), and strategies (help from relatives, utilizing daycare centers, controlling birth, managing work conditions, and using family polices). We clarify the overall picture of working and family life experiences, and also show how men deal with their problems in their circumstances by balancing working and family life. In conclusion, males have difficulty participating in family life autonomously because of having less decision-making power than the wife. Moreover, the great responsibilities of the breadwinner disturb the work-family balance. Men devote themselves to working to hold a job instead of spending time with their family. However, they ultimately value work-family balance with respect to 'keeping a peaceful family life'.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.21-40
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study is to find the tendencies and differences of mother's child-rearing anxiety before and after their children enter into elementary school, to analyze the factors influencing child-rearing anxiety at each time, and thereby to seek a support plan at the time of transition. Methods: The subjects of this study were 181 mothers who participated in two surveys which were conducted before and after their child entered into elementary school. Results: Firstly, mother's child-rearing anxiety before and after their children's entrance into elementary school was at a middle level, but increased significantly when they experienced their children's transition to elementary school. Secondly, mother's child-rearing anxiety, before their children's entrance into elementary school, was influenced by private education, the collection of educational information, cognitive ability, whether or not to develop a work status change plan, and birth order sequentially. Thirdly, child-rearing anxiety after their children's entrance into elementary school was significantly influenced by child-rearing anxiety before their children's entrance into elementary school and the mother's employment. Conclusion/Implications: This study is meaningful in the point that it suggested the necessity for the cooperation between multiple systems, such as systematic and stepwise parenting education, the importance of offering information to educational institutions and local governments, and for work- family support policy to prioritize children in order to support children's successful transition into elementary school.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.447-455
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• 2013

Objectives: This study aims to understand the concentration, diversity, and antibiotic characteristics of staphylococci present in the indoor air of child-care facilities. Methods: Air sampling was performed from October 2012 to January 2013 in 120 child-care facilities in Seoul, Korea. Methicillin-resistant bacteria were selected from the total obtained airborne bacteria and subjected to 16S rRNA analysis for methicillin-resistant staphylococcal species determination. Identified staphylococcal strains were tested for resistance to a range of antibiotics. Results: Average total airborne bacterial concentration was $508.9{\pm}246.3CFU/m^3$. Indoor concentration of total airborne bacteria had a significant positive correlation with the $CO_2$ concentration in the child-care facilities. Methicillin-resistant staphylococci were present in 13.3% of the child-care facilities studied. A total of four species (S. epidermidis, S. cohnii, S. saprophyticus, S. sp.) and 55 strains were identified from the indoor air of the child-care facilities. Staphylococcus cohnii was the most common species (54.5%), followed by S. epidermidis (38.2%). All of the isolated staphylococcal strains exhibited high resistance to oxacillin, erythromycin, mupirocin, and ceftizoxime. Especially, S. saprophyticus strains showed more multidrug resistance to oxacillin, vancomycin, clindamycin, erythromycin, lincomycin, ceftizoxime, mupirocin, and tetracycline than did other species. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that a monitoring system for multidrug-resistant bacteria is needed in facilities for children, as the community-associated infections of these bacteria are increasing.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.77-96
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• 2012

This study investigated into the practice levels of child-care directors, child-care teachers, and the cooking staffs in terms of practicing eco-friendly rules regarding meals and snacks provided to the children. It also sought out to see which determinants makes differences between these three groups, if there are in fact any meaningful differences between these three groups. In order to achieve the aforementioned purpose, this study selected 200 child-care institutions located in Seoul and Kyung-ki Province and surveyed a total of 583 members of these child-care institutions including 118 child-care directors, 363 child-care teachers and 102 workers in the cooking staffs. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS 12.0 program. The summary of this survey is as follows: First, regarding the provision of eco-friendly meals and snacks for the children, the practice levels got lower in the order of cooking staffs, child-care directors and child-care teachers. Second, it was shown that the child-care teachers' practice level of providing eco-friendly environment to feed eco-friendly meals and snacks to the children is relevant to the type, number of teachers, position and their educational backgrounds. However, it is shown that the experience of the child-care teacher is not relevant to the practice level.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.621-629
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• 2016

This study investigated the moderating effects of marital fondness and admiration as well as the father's involvement in child rearing on the association between parenting stress and marital satisfaction for a comparison of unemployed and employed mothers. The subjects were 159 unemployed mothers and 103 employed mothers with children under 3 years of age. The major findings of this study were as follows. First, unemployed mothers who had a lower level of marital fondness and admiration were dissatisfied with their marriage when they had higher parenting stress. Marital fondness and admiration are necessary for unemployed mothers in their transition period to parents. Especially, it is important for fathers to understand challenging conditions and encourage and support the spouse. However, there was no moderating effect of the father's involvement in child rearing in the association between parenting stress and marital satisfaction. Second, employed mothers who had a lower level of father's involvement in child rearing were dissatisfied with their marriage when they had higher parenting stress. The father's involvement in child rearing is necessary for employed mothers in their transition period to parents. Furthermore, it is important to implement policies at the national level to support childcare hours for balanced work and life. However, there was no moderating effect of marital fondness and admiration for the association between parenting stress and marital satisfaction.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.295-317
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• 2014

This study is intended to improve parental capacity from the viewpoint of children's happiness. It extracts a core parental capacity for children's happiness from the international index such as OECD well-being, UNICEF Children's welfare, International survey of children's well-being, and Korean children's key index. Based on the extracted core parental capacity, this study developed a self-checklist aiming to perceive parents' capacity status and suggest a political plan in order to improve parents' capacity for children's happiness. The self-checklist has a total of 66 questions and is composed of 7 domains; Child development, Health and Safety, Family relation, Physical and material environment, Play, Guidance in life, and Community engagement. The results from the survey are as follows. The domains of Development of children as well as Health & Safety are reported as the highest value at 4.1 point; on the contrary, those of Guidance in life and Community engagement are reported as the lowest value at 3.8 point. In terms of age, it was reported that the capacity of parents under 35 years-old was better than that of parents over 35 years of age. As for family income, it was revealed that the order of parents' capacity generally depends on the family income.