• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.11-23
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• 2005

The purposes of this article is to assess the current status of conjugal violence among elderly women and to examine the relationship between conjugal violence and the mental health status of elderly women in Korea. The results of this study are; (1) the largest proportion (44.9%) of elderly women experienced verbal violence, followed by minor physical violence (35.5%), severe physical violence (13.1%), and sexual violence (5.6%); (2) the mental health status of elderly women who have been exposed to violence was worse than that of elderly women who have not. In conclusion, this article argues that interventions for better marital relationships among elderly couples are needed and comprehensive programs for improvement of mental health are also needed for elderly women in general.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.646-662
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• 2016

This study of elderly couples examined the main environmental factors affecting the married life satisfaction and life satisfaction of the spouses. The survey was conducted on 60-year-old elderly couples who live in the metropolitan area of Seoul and Gyeonggi. A total of 400 questionnaires were used to analyze the exception of a number of 12 388 additional missing data. The results were as follows. First, environmental factors affecting the marital satisfaction of spouses' personality suitability and gender role attitudes appeared in the economic conditions. Second, the spouses environmental factors affecting the life satisfaction turned out to be the gender role attitude, reliability and economic conditions. Third, the major environmental factors affecting both spouses married life satisfaction and life satisfaction was found to be the gender role attitude and economic conditions. Fourth, the environmental factors representing a moderating effect on the supporting spouse between environmental factors and life satisfaction appeared to be the personality suitability and economic conditions. These results suggest that the recent increases in the twilight divorce rate may be due to the marriage satisfaction and common factors of gender role attitudes. Therefore, to improve the lives and economic conditions as well as the satisfaction of the spouse, the support of important factors are needed to adjust the crisis of old age couples. Therefore, a relevant policy that targets elderly couples through counseling and education will be needed.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.615-628
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• 2004

This study is designed to examine influences of living arrangements on psycho-social factors, health and nutritional status, dietary adequacy and meal service utility patterns of the elderly. Nutritional status was evaluated by Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). Three hundred and nine elderly (110 men and 199 women) who participated in meal service in the Chung-buk province were investigated. Proportion of the elderly living alone, couples only, living with spouse and family, living with family without spouse; and living with other than family were 30.7%, 25.9%, 14.2%, 24.3% and 4.9% respectively. The mean age of the elderly was 74.1 years and the elderly who are living couples only and living with spouse and family were younger than those with other living status. Living arrangements seem to be related to psycho-social factors, health and nutritional status, and dietary quality. Those who live alone and live with other than family were mostly women and they have lower socio-economic status, psycho-social, health and nutritional status and dietary patterns compared with those of the elderly who are living with spouse or family. It was found that the elderly who live a couple only and live with spouse and family had better emotional, health and nutritional index than those of the elderly who live with family without spouse, especially in case of females. Most of elderly perceived that participation of meal service programs had a positive effect on their daily life and satisfied with meals. The elderly living alone and living with other than family were more frequently using meal service but had a negative attitude about the charged meal service for better quality than the elderly with other living status. The most important reason for all the elderly to participate in meal service was to meet their friends and then to get other services. Particularly those who are living alone and living with other than family showed lack of moivation to prepare and set the meal, and for them the economic reason is also important. They also replied that the poor health and lack of other help were the most difficult problems for them to prepare meals. It would be effective to provide nutritional services that meet specific needs of the elderly according to their characteristics and living environment.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.361-374
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• 2015

This study explores the relationships between the division of housework, perceived marital fairness, communication, and marital satisfaction in elderly households. Although the marital relationship is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of life, few studies have focused on marital quality, particularly in the context of older adults. Data were obtained from the 2nd National Korean Family Survey in 2010. The results based on a total of 410 elderly households with couples aged 60 and over indicate significant differences in housework participation between men and women. Women were responsible for most of the housework. According to the regression analysis, the division of housework, perceived marital fairness, and communication independently predicted marital satisfaction, but there were no significant relationships between sociodemographic factors and marital satisfaction. There were significant interactions between the division of housework, perceived marital fairness, and marital satisfaction through communication as a moderator of effects of the division of housework and perceived marital fairness on marital satisfaction. The higher the satisfaction with communication, the stronger the relationship between marital satisfaction and satisfaction with the division of housework was. On the other hand, the lower the satisfaction with communication, the greater the effect of perceived marital fairness on marital satisfaction was. These results suggest that the way in which elderly couples perceive their marital relationships and the level of their satisfaction in interacting with each other play important roles in enhancing their marital quality.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.83-96
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• 2008

Using a sample of 107 married couples, this study investigated the influence of self-reported argument-communication behaviors on marital satisfaction. The results were as follows. (a) Wives used more criticism, contempt, and self-assertion during marital arguments than husbands. There were no significant gender differences in the levels of defensiveness, stonewalling, and active listening. (b) Multilevel analyses indicated that marital satisfaction was predicted by the person's own level of self-assertion and stonewalling(i.e., actor effects) and by his or her spouse's level of stonewalling(i.e., partner effect). No other significant actor and partner effects were found. Also, there were no significant gender differences in the sizes of effects. (c) A cluster analysis of both spouses' communication behaviors during marital arguments identified four distinct groups of married couples. : mutual constructive, husband constructive-wife destructive, husband destructive-wife constructive, and mutual destructive. Mutual constructive couples reported the best marital satisfaction.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.83-92
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• 2001

The number of aged persons, which would account for 7.1% of total population of 200 year in south korea means that our country would have entered into aging society and that a demand for elderly housing in korea would have been increase rapidly. From this point, this study investigated the present situation of elderly housing in korea, types of those to be provided generally by private and public firms, and the preferred housing types, the location of them and housing sizes of old singles and couples on existing surveys by several firms and organizations. finally, this study suggested several design guidelines to be taken into account in the elderly housings of korea on the basic function of safety, convenience and comfortability and the cultural aspects of leisure life and wealth. Those suggested here will be applied to design guidelines of elderly housing in future.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2012

As of November 1st 2010, 59% of overall residences in Korea are apartments with 8,185,000 households and when including the multi-unit houses, 71.0% of the overall residences are multifamily houses. The apartments have become the most universal form of residence in Korea and its' relative weight will continuously increase in the future. Meanwhile, Korea has turned into aging society in 2000 and will turn into the super-aged society by 2026 to display the world's fastest speed for aging. Majority of the elderly will spend their declining years in apartments. To understand the residence consciousness and its' properties for unit housing of the elderly residing in apartments, the present study obtained the following results through surveying the 541 nationwide samples. First, the elderly most prefer the mid and high levels(6-9th floors, or 10-15th floors) of apartments. Second, the elderly couples most prefer areas of $85m^2$ while single elderly most prefer $60m^2$. Third, the elderly feel the most inconveniences in bathrooms and showers. Fourth, safety accidents in dwelling of the elderly have no significant correlation with age, gender or their possessed diseases. Fifth, the elderly displayed high satisfaction for their bedrooms. Sixth, there were less tendencies for elderly to feel lack of storage spaces or conduct remodeling. As a result of the analysis, all apartment houses of Korea must support the physical aging of residents and prevent safety accidents in houses to enable Korean aging in place.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.324-332
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to identify knowledge of, attitude toward, and the importance of, sexuality in the elderly. Method: By convenience sampling, 152 elderly people aged 60 and over who registered at 3 elderly schools located in W city were selected. Knowledge and attitude toward sexuality were measured with ASKAS. Perceived importance toward sexuality was measured with an instrument developed by the investigator. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation. Results: Elderly males, elderly couples, and elders perceiving themselves as healthy reported higher scores in knowledge on and the importance of sexuality. Elderly males, elders with higher education, and elders perceiving themselves as healthy showed a more acceptable attitude toward sexuality. The higher knowledge of sexuality, the more acceptable the sexuality. The higher knowledge of and more acceptable attitude toward sexuality, the higher significance of sexuality. Conclusions: Sexuality is an important issue in elderly life. To improve knowledge, positive views of sexuality, recognition of its importance, education and consulting programs on sexuality need to be developed, reflecting characteristics of the elderly. These programs should be provided not only to the elderly but also to people caring for the elderly and their families.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.555-568
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• 2004

The current national pension system tends to be sexually discriminatory in that it excludes elderly women. It is because the system is based on family incomes usually earned by men. Considering structural changes in a family - for example, a growing divorce rate, an increasing number of unmarried couples living together, and broken families - and socio-economic changes - such as an improved level of women's education and more female participation in economic activities, this paper will make some suggestions as follows: 1) to introduce basic pension system which guarantees incomes for the elderly with "one pension per person" policy; 2) to enlarge voluntary enrollment; 3) to implement pension credit system which pays women allowances for childbirth and upbringing; 4) to improve ways of allotting retirement pension of a husband; also to provide for an elderly woman both divided pension that derives from her husband's pension and an old-age pension of her own.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.155-172
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between the later personality adjustment types and the elderly percepted conflict with their married children. The subjects for this study are the aged over 60 years in Seoul both having the eldest sons' couples and perceiving their own economics level as the middle-upper. The results based on this are as followed: 1) The Active Integrated Coper is appeared in the higher educational level group in the better health condition in the 11-30 thousand won of personal expense in the professional and management occupation and in the more vigorous for social activity. The Failing Overcoper the Dependent Passive Coper and the Self-negating Undercoper is appeared in th female elder group in the later group of the older age in the lower educational level in the worse health condition in the group without spouse in one without income in the below 10 thousand won in the less preparation for the later life. 2) The problems of emotion and iew of values bring about the conflicts between them and theirs rather than the financial problem. when they are in the worse health condition in the group without religion in the group not cohabiting their eldest sons' couples and in the group not well-prepared for their later life as the socio-demographic variables the old recognized the seriousness of the conflict with their eldest sons' couples. 3) The lower the Active Integrated Coper is and the higher the Failing Overcoper is the more intense the conflict between them and their eldest sons' couples is. 4) The t-test to examine the difference in the old's conflict with their eldest sons' couples among the later groups shows that it is in the less the Active Integrated Coper and in the more the Failing Overcoper that the conflict is more surfaced. 5) The educational level the level of the later life preparation the contact frequency with their daughter the level of their social activity as the socio-demographic variables and the Failing Overcoper as the later personality adjustment type answer for 22 percentage of the conflict.