• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2024

Background: The present study aimed to analyze several aspects of the working conditions and health status of platform workers in the Republic of Korea, such as ergonomic and emotional hazards. We also compared the health status of the platform workers with that of the general population. Methods: A total of 1,000 platform workers participated in this survey from August 7 to August 17, 2022. The participants included 400 designated drivers, 400 food-delivery drivers, and 200 housekeeping managers. A face-to-face survey with a structured questionnaire was conducted by researchers who had received specific instructions. The focus of the survey extended to the work environment, encompassing factors such as workplace violence, as well as physical, chemical, and ergonomic hazards. Health-related data for the previous year were also collected, covering a range of issues such as hearing problems, skin problems, musculoskeletal symptoms, headaches, injuries, mental health issues, and digestive problems. Subsequently, we compared the health symptom data of the responders with those of the general population in the Republic of Korea. Results: Platform workers, including designated drivers, food-delivery drivers, and housekeeping managers, existed in the blind spot of social insurance, facing frequent exposure to physical and chemical hazards, ergonomic risk factors, and direct or indirect violence. The prevalence of health problems, including musculoskeletal symptoms, general fatigue, and depressive symptoms, in each occupational group was statistically higher than that in the general population after standardization for age and gender. Conclusion: The results revealed unfavorable working environment and inferior occupational health of platform workers compared with those of the general population.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.215-235
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• 2018

Policy concerns related to raising fertility rates are not only common interests among the OECD countries, but they are also issues of great concern to South Korea whose fertility rate is the lowest in the world. The fertility rate in South Korea continues to decline, even though most of the national budget has been spent on measures to address this and many studies have been conducted on the increase in the fertility rates. In this regard, this study aims to verify the effectiveness of the detailed factors affecting the fertility rate that have been discussed in the previous studies on fertility rates, and to investigate the overall trend toward enhancing the quality of life and increasing the fertility rate through macroscopic and structural studies under the recognition of problems related to the policy approaches through the case studies of the European countries. Toward this end, this study investigated if a high quality of life in advanced countries contributes to the increase in the fertility rate, which country serves as a state model that has a high quality of life and a high fertility rate, and what kind of social and policy environment does the country have with regard to childbirth. The analysis of the OECD Better Life Index (BLI) and CIA fertility rate data showed that the countries whose people enjoy a high quality of life do not necessarily have high fertility rates. In addition, under the recognition that a country with a high quality of life and a high birth rate serves as a state model that South Korea should aim for, the social characteristics of Iceland, Ireland, and New Zealand, which turned out to have both a high quality of life and a high fertility rate, were compared with those of Germany, which showed a high quality of life but a low fertility rate. According to the comparison results, the three countries that were mentioned showed higher awareness of gender equality; therefore, the gender wage gap was small. It was also confirmed that the governments of these countries support various policies that promote both parents sharing the care of their children. In Germany, on the other hand, the gender wage gap was large and the fertility rate was low. In a related move, however, the German government has made active efforts to a paradigm shift toward gender equality. The fertility rate increases when the synergy lies in the relationship between parents and children; therefore, awareness about gender equality should be firmly established both at home and in the labor market. For this reason, the government is required to provide support for the childbirth and rearing environment through appropriate family policies, and exert greater efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the relevant systems rather than simply promoting a system construction. Furthermore, it is necessary to help people in making their own childbearing decisions during the process of creating a better society by changing the national goal from 'raising the fertility rate' to 'creating a healthy society made of happy families'

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.508-515
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• 2018

This study aims to analyze trends in domestic research concerning career guidance for college students majoring in arts, and to provide implications for future research. To this end, a total of 74 papers including journal articles, master's theses, and doctoral dissertations published from 2006-2016 were analyzed in terms of research period, research topic, research methods, study subjects' gender, years in college, and field of study in the arts. Research topics were analyzed according to six criteria, and results showed that there were 24 studies concerning topics related to adaptation/ behaviors/ experiences, including career-related stress, career maturity, anxiety, preparation and development competences, accounting for 32.5% of the total. In terms of gender, 96% of research included both male and female students, and three were conducted only for female students. In terms of year of study, 49 studies examined students in all years of study considered students in all years, accounting for 66% of the sample. Trends in research methods were characterized by the quantitative method applied in the study. Regarding the field of study in the arts, 54 studies were conducted in the field of dance (ballet, Korean dance, and contemporary dance), accounting for 73% of the total. In addition, topics in the field of dance were evenly covered by these studies. Most studies concerning career guidance in art colleges were difficult to categorize due to the small number of studies conducted in the sample. It is suggested that future research reflects various perspectives, social issues, students' majors, year of study, and gender using various research methods.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.51-73
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• 2010

This study starts with the question raised from the perspective of marriage migrant women's pregnancy, childbirth and childcare policies. In other words, the study starts with the basic perspective that policies concerning the childbirth and childcare of marriage migrant women should be looked at from both gender-specific as well as a multicultural-specific perspective. In this context, the study examines the policy issues concerning childbirth and childcare of marriage migrant women from these two different perspectives as well as focuses on the current statistical data of childbirth amongst marriage migrant women. Next, the study examines the childbirth and childcare policies for marriage migrant women and proposes improvements in future policy developments. According to the study results, it is revealed that although there has been an increase in policies regarding pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, there needs to be a new direction and policy improvements in four areas from a gender perspective. Next, the results of the study indicate as a minority group, childbirth and childcare policies for marriage migrant women should take into account the various cultural backgrounds and differences from the following multicultural perspective.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.297-323
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• 2011

Part-time jobs in Sweden are highly feminized yet are in fair conditions in terms of job security, earnings, and collective representation. Three points are considered to be important to understand why part-time work in Sweden carries such positive characteristics. First, the part-time work in Sweden is widely spread not as a result of employers' need for labor flexibilization but as means to enhance the work-life balance, a value pursued within a broader social policy package to change the breadwinner model. Second, discrimination against part-time workers is restrained in Sweden because the boundary between part-time and full-time is not conspicuous. Most of part-time jobs are occupied by regular workers who exert the right to part-time work, hence may go back to the full-time status any time. Third, the regulation on overtime work of part-time workers as well as full-time workers is strong. It is largely agreed among researchers that part-time work contributed greatly to an increase of female employment rate in Sweden. Since the 1970s, the increased availability of part-time jobs induced married women who used to be economically inactive to the labor market and maintained them to be economically active throughout the child rearing period. From the gender perspective, one may still raise issues regarding part-time work in Sweden such as persistent feminization and strong occupational sex segregation. However, the observed trend shows that the part-time work in Sweden has functioned more as a stepping stone to the full-time work for women than as a women's trap.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.475-503
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to clarify the constructs of emotion suppression and help understanding on the multidimensional nature of emotion suppression by classifying constructs for suppression according to the KMW model. Also, this study examined the gender differences of emotion suppression. For this purpose, 657 adult male and female subjects were evaluated for attitude toward emotions, and difficulty in emotional regulation, as well as depression, state anger and daily stress scale. As a result of the exploratory factor analysis on the scales related to the emotion suppression factors, the emotion suppression factors corresponding to each stage of the KMW model were found to be 'distraction against emotional information, 'difficulty in understanding and interpretation of emotions', 'emotion control beliefs', 'vulnerability on emotional expression beliefs'. Next, the study participants were classified by performing a cluster analysis based on each emotion suppression factor. As a result, four clusters were extracted and named 'emotional control belief cluster', 'emotional expression cluster', 'emotional attention failure cluster', and 'general emotional suppression cluster'. As a result of examining the average difference of male depression, depression, state anger, and daily stress for each group, significant differences were found in all dependent variables. As a result of examining whether there is a difference in the frequency of emotional suppression clusters according to gender, the frequency of emotional suppression clusters was high in men, and the ratio of emotional expression clusters was high in women. Finally, it was analyzed whether there was a gender difference in the effect of the emotional suppression cluster on psychosocial adaptation, and the implications were discussed based on the results of this study.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to identify the persistent and dynamic association between bullying and victimization. Gender differences in patterns of school bullying was hypothesized based on the literature. Analysis were based on waves 3-6 of the Korea Children and Youth Panel Survey, a nationally representative data of primary and secondary school students in South Korea (N = 1,881). Autoregressive cross-lagged model was employed to identify the reciprocal association between bullying and victimization in longitudinal data. As hypothesized, regardless of gender, lagged effects were statistically significant between each time points such that current bullying caused future bullying and current victimization led to future victimization. However, there was no cross-lagged effects of current victimization on future bullying nor current perpetration on future victimization for both male and female youth. Findings from this study may have implications for designing policies against school bulling. Not only is short-term intervention for handling immediate psycho-social maladjustment important, but so are long-term plans that prevent youth from falling into continued perpetration and victimization in the system of school bullying.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.43-66
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• 2003

This study was to investigate two main purposes; The first was to explore the factors which have an effect on conceding seats to the old or the weak in subway(concessive action). The second was to examine the influence that the psychological burden and the responsibility had on concessive action and it's gender differences. The results of study 1 showed that affective empathy, morality, and negative-state relief were important inductive factors, while 3 factors were revealed as important inhibitory factors for the concessive action; psychological burden, repulsion for coercive demand for conceding seats and vagueness of concession situation. In study 2, We could find the fact that the psychological burden and the responsibility had a main effect on the concessive action. The more participants felt the psychological burden, they were likely to evaluate that the tendency to concessive action would be decreased. And the more participants felt the responsibility, they were inclined to evaluate that concessive action would be increased. Secondly, the interaction effect was also revealed: On the situation that the psychological burden was high and responsibility was low, participants judged that people tended not to concede seats. Finally, We were able to identify gender differences. Specifically, Judging the tendency to concessive action, women were more responsive to the psychological burden than men.

• Architectural research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.31-40
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• 2010

The main objective of this study is to investigate the perception, recognition and response of innovative/ self-initiated play and its correlation to play space and play environment understood by children in their middle childhood years. Play, play theory, and the acceptance of play have an important role in child development. In recent years, play and the importance of innovative/ self-initiated play have been associated with a number of important societal issues. The impact of play and/or lack of play during the developmental stages of childhood directly influence a child's ability to mature and adapt into society. In order to investigate the overall perceptions of play and play space among the average child in their middle childhood, a questionnaire survey was distributed and analyzed using SSPS 15.0. This survey was conducted within the site specific context of South Korea. Interestingly enough, the differences in the responses can be organized into three main categories: age, gender and housing type. In result different directions for further study and research for future play spaces and play environments that support innovated/ self-initiated play have been suggested.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.248-256
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• 2008

Purpose: The findings of various studies and policy reports on marriage change, international marriage migrant women and its issues are presented in this study. Method: Research objectives were accomplished by conducting a literature review. The main areas of the literature review included married migrant women, its challenges, and current policies for international marriage migrant women. Result: Women migrating through international marriage are known to face various difficulties due to their migration. Some important obstacles women migrants face in the Republic of Korea are cultural differences in daily lifestyle, language, food, health care services, cultural assumptions, gender structure, family relationships, expected roles within family, interpersonal relationships and more. The plights of married migrant women include commercialization of international marriage, false information regarding the spouse, family abuse, insecure nationality, economic difficulty and unemployment, racial prejudice, and cultural maladjustment. Current support policies for migrant women living in Korea are suggested. Conclusion: This study concluded with policy implications and recommendations for future study. In addition, the author suggests the necessity of programs and policies for the improvement of married migrant women's well-being based on women's health and family nursing dimensions.