• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.5-25
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to explore factors influencing the poverty of the elderly in Korea. In spite the fact that poverty of the elderly is more serious than any other demographic group, this important issue is rarely studied. Using the 7-year accumulated data from the KLIPS(Korean Labor and Income Study), I combined the work history of the elders, their demographic characteristics and residence to estimate pooled data analysis of the elderly after reaching age 55 and who are also only living by themselves(only the elders). The results of this study are as followed: first of all, age, education, marital status, wealth, residence and work history are shown to be significant predictors for the poverty of elderly. Second, the results show that factors influencing the poverty is different depending on the elder's (demographic) characteristics. For example, age and marital status is a more important predictor in female than in male, and wealth and health status is a more important predictor in elders who do not have a spouse than in elders who do. Such results suggest that the policy of the poverty of the elderly which is only focused on elder's characteristic is limited. Therefore we can suggest that a policy which workable people can earn decent income and saving wealth for their elderly in job is needed. Especially, policies on the 'Working Poor' and reconstruct the current public pension system is very much needed.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.73-84
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to examine the variables influencing marital satisfaction of newly married men and women who have been married for 5 years and do not have a child yet. Data were collected from 242 newly married men and women who were living in Busan. Major findings were as follows : First, newly married men were more satisfied with their marriage when they engage in frequent pleasure seeking activities, had high intimacy with parent of both families and had less communication behavior escalating marital conflict. Second, newly married women were more satisfied with their marriage when they engage in frequent pleasure seeking activities, had high intimacy with parent of both families, had mild depression, and had less communication behavior escalating marital conflict.

• 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 Home Economics Association
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.121-139
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• 1980

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.157-173
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to determine factors influencing the health satisfaction of the elderly. The study was conducted with 1,294 subjects during 3 months from 1st February to 30, April, 2008. The results were as follows. 1. The average score of their health satisfaction level is $2.76{\pm}1.81$ points on the basis of 5 point(54.2 points on the basis of 100 points). The health satisfaction level of the elderly was significantly associated with age, sex, marital status, monthly allowance, education level, occupation, the number of family members living together, family closeness, stress, and use of the social welfare centers. 2. As the variables affecting on the health satisfaction level, sex, age, marital status, monthly income, accupation, education level, the number of family members living together. stress levels. family closeness, ADL IADL and the use of the social welfare centers. were found, and the influence of these variables was 49.34%. The government, social service units, private health & medical organizations and experts need to pay more attention to factors influencing effective policy and health education programs for health promotion regarding the quality of life.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2010

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate risk factors for falls in the elderly by life-cycle. Methods: This study used the data on 435 male and female elderly generated from a survey taken at 21 Welfare Centers for the Elderly in Seoul. The incidence of demographic characteristics, physical changes brought about with ageing, health-related behavior, chronic diseases, and environmental characteristics on falls in the elderly was analyzed. Hierarchical Logistic Regression analysis was also conducted to investigate the incidence by life-cycle (early-mid-late stage) and the results were used for predicting falls. Results: The incidence of risk factors on falls varied across life-cycle. Among the elderly in the early (ages from 65 through 74), marital status, the existence of a companion, the quality of sleep, the chronic diseases, and the condition of the bathroom floor were found to be related to falls. Among those in the mid-stage (ages from 75 through 84), sex, marital status, the existence of a companion, hearing capacity, sense of balancing, chronic diseases, the exclusive use of rooms, and the side bar with bath tub were found to affect falls. Finally, for the elderly in their late stage (85 years of age and older), drinking and vision were found to be related to falls. Conclusion: The incidence of risk factors on falls was found to vary according the stage in the elderly. A key implication of this finding is that falls prevention programs and interventions must be catered to specific age sub-groups.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.975-991
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• 2012

Using data from 271 elderly couples, this study was to explore the types of group classified by couples' perception of marital relationship(marital intimacy, marital comparison level) and relationship with adult children(triangulation, differentiation between parents and adult children. In addition, this study was to analyze the differences in the demographic variables and psychological maladjustment according to the group types of elderly couples. A cluster analysis result identified four clusters such as chaos, bad, average, and good type. Second, the four clusters were different in the length of marriage, education level, and the type of social activity participation. Third, the four clusters were different in the levels of the psychological maladjustment, indicating that the psychological maladjustment level was the lowest in the cluster of good type but the highest in the cluster of bad type in both relationships with spouses and adult children.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.59-73
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• 1999

It is known that the role of informal support for elderly women is critical to their physical and mental health, adjustment in old age, and their overall life satisfaction. Elderly women's situation such as social losses, widowhood, living alone, and geographic relocation etc. may result in a need for more informal supports for elderly women's health than ever before. Particularly, women's same-sex friendships were rated higher for overall quality, intimacy, enjoyment, and nurturance. Unlike a generally accepted notion that later life for women is a time of isolation and loneliness, elderly women tend to maintain and reestablish their friendship regardless their marital status and living situation. Although studies on informal support for elderly women were inconclusive in many ways, elderly women's friendship tends to be stable despite of changing health status and life events. The relative importance between daughters and friends was also controversial. This study suggests that more research with reliable measurements is necessary for the practical prevention and intervention program of elderly women's health on this issue.

• 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 Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.39 no.11
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• pp.129-144
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• 2001

In spite of rapid sociocultural changes and an increase in the number of nuclear families in recent years, quite many families in Korea still have taken the extended family form where daughter-in-law provides care for the elderly parents. Even though the nature of the inter-generational relationship in Korea is reciprocal in many regards, most of the studies looked at the burden or costs of coresidence with the elderly parents while relatively little attention has been given to the positive side of the coresidence. This study is an attempt to fill this gap in the area. The purpose of this study is to examine not only the costs but also benefits of the coresidence with the elderly parents. We also explore whether there is a rural-urban differences in costs and benefits of coresidence and related factors. For the purpose, data were gathered from 876 daughters-in-law of three generational family both in rural and urban area, using structured questionnaire. The statistical methods used for data analysis were descriptive statistics, cross tables, and regression analysis with SPSS/PC+ program. The major findings of this study were as follows: Marital and economic status of the elderly parents, age, job status and filial responsibility attitude of caregiver, sibling support, and coresidence duration were the significant variables predicting the level of perceived benefits. Marital status of elderly parents, income, job status, educational level, and filial responsibility altitude of caregiver, residence region affected the level of perceived costs. Rural-urban differences are found in many aspects of coresidence experiences and related factors. Rural caregivers receive higher level of the sibling support, have more traditional final responsibility altitude and perceived less costs and more benefit than urban caregivers. There also are differences in the factors influencing the level of perceived costs and benefits between rural and urban area. Level of sibling support and final responsibility attitude have significant impact on both the perceived costs and benefits. But there are differences in terms of that perceived costs and benefits of urban caregivers are affected by job status of caregivers while those of rural caregivers are affected by educational level of caregivers and marital status of elderly. The results confirm that Korean caregivers experience both positive and negative aspects of coresidence and shows that the nature of the inter-generational relationships differ between rural and urban Korea.