• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.13-20
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to describe the overall physical environment's features of nursing homes for Korean American elders in the United States. This investigation was conducted in Korean American nursing homes on the East Coast and in the Midwest with multiple qualitative data collection methods, such as interviews, observations, document review, and field notes. The findings of this study are as follows: 1) Although almost all respondents were unable to speak and understand English at all, most written materials in nursing homes were in only English; 2) The nursing homes were placed near or within the Korean communities; thus, it contributed to close ties with religious Korean American groups and other groups in the ethnic communities; 3) Whether the facility's physical features looked like those of a hospital or a home, many residents did not consider a nursing homes as a real home; 4) A fenced garden in the nursing home in the Midwest was the residents' favorite public space; 5) Due to being forced to room with residents who had dementia and were bedridden, they were more likely to have conflicts with their roommates and feel uncomfortable living in their room; and 6) The facilities seemed to be designed without consideration to protect residents' privacy.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.667-675
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• 2003

Purpose: This study was purposed to provide basic data for developing future health promotion programs by comparing health-promoting behavior, life satisfaction and self-esteem between the Korean elderly and the American-Korean elderly. Methods: The subjects were volunteer participants of 120 elders in the Gyeongsan City in Korea and 120 elders in the state of Washington in the U.S. Tools used in this study were Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (47 items), Life Satisfaction Scale (20 items) and Self-Esteem Scale (10 items). To analyze data, this study used frequency, percentage, chi-square test, t-test, Kendal tau test, Pearson's correlation coefficient with SPSS program. Results: 1) The average score of health-promoting behaviors was 3.21 in Koreans and 3.50 in American-Koreans, showing a significant difference between the two groups. 2) The sub-scales that got the highest score of health-promoting behaviors were self-actualization and nutrition(M=3.41) in Koreans and nutrition(M=3.61) in American-Koreans, and that with the lowest score was exercise in both groups(2.89 in Koreans and 3.02 in American-Koreans). 3) The average score for life satisfaction was 2.76 in Koreans and 3.06 in American-Koreans, showing a significant difference between the two groups. 4) The average score for self-esteem was 3.39 in Koreans and 3.09 in American-Koreans, showing a insignificant difference between the two groups. 5) Health-promoting behaviors were positively related to life satisfaction and self-esteem. Life satisfaction was positively related to self-esteem in both groups. Conclusions: According to the results of this study, the health-promoting behaviors of Korean and American-Korean elders strongly correlated with life satisfaction and self-esteem. Therefore, health promoting programs that enhance life satisfaction and self-esteem should be developed in order to promote the elderly's healthy lifestyle.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.125-136
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• 1997

The present study compares motives for caregiving, actual caregiving provision, care expectation from children in old age, and the connections between caregiving and inheritance distribution patterns as perceived by caregiving daughters/daughters-in-law and their care-receiving mothers/mothers-in-law between Korea and the United States. The results indicated that there was no difference in caregiving motives between Korean and American children while American mothers/mothers-in-law perceived significantly lower obligatory caregiving motives than their Korean counterparts. Also, both Korean children and their mothers/mothers-in-law reported higher level of care provision than their counterparts. The level of caregiving expectation from their children in old age among Korean elders was significantly different from those of American elders while no differences were found between Korean and American children. Finally, both Korean children and their mothers/mothers-in-law were more likely to endorse distributing larger shares of inheritance to the child who cared for his/her mothers/mothers-in-law than American counterparts. On the other hand, American subjects were more likely to accept the notion of equal distribution of inheritance. Overall, this cross-cultural study showed the cultural differences in caregiving and inheritance patterns between Korean and American subjects exhibiting salient difference among the older generation.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.329-337
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• 2007

Purpose: Increasing numbers of Koreans have immigrated to the United States since the late 1960s. The first generation of Korean immigrants or their parents become old and institutionalized in American nursing home setting. Although the Korean elders would experience many cultural differences in the nursing home, no study to date has investigated their everyday lives on how they live through their later lives within a different cultural environment from their own. Methods: Using ethnographic methodology, the purpose of this paper was to illustrate Korean residents' experiences and daily lives in a nursing home located in an east coastal city in the U.S. Participant observation, filed notes, semi-structured interviews were utilized by means of data collection. Eighteen Korean residents were observed, and five of them and two nurses participated in informal qualitative interviews. Results: The overriding theme from the findings is "thrown in a different world." Three sub-themes include "constant struggles in making themselves understood", "dealing with culturally inappropriate nursing care," and "maintaining their own ways of life". Conclusions: The discovered themes reflect culturally isolated lives of the participants and open a venue for designing a culturally congruent nursing care for Korean elders living in the U.S. nursing homes.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.31-55
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• 2004

The elder abuse draws an increasing concern as the elderly population grows rapidly, and increasing demands to provide long-term care to the impaired elderly are imposed on the families. This study compares Korean American elders' and their adult children's perceptions of possible elder abuse under care-giving situation, and related help-seeking behaviors using five scenarios developed by the author. The subjects consist of ten elders and their ten adult children including daughters-in-law who live in Los Angeles, the USA. Content analysis reveals very similar help-seeking behaviors of the two generations within the family despite the substanally generational difference towards the perceptions of elder abuse under care-giving situation. Mann-Whitney test shows a significant difference in the perceptions of elder abuse between the elderly and their adult children. It means that the elderly are substantially less likely to perceive a given situation as abusive than their adult children would. But there is no significant difference between the elderly and their adult children in their intended use of formal sources of help. Implications for gerontological social work practice and program development are discussed.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.27-50
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• 2018

Old age is often compared as climbing mountains which requires walking out of breath, yet with wider vision. And it is also likened to the estuary where the river flows slowly and broadly into the open sea. Socially, old age has been regarded as a symbol of wisdom and reflection, and elderly people often take the role of sage who leads the community. On the other hand, the dementia, gray hair and wrinkles of old age were sometimes perceived as the decline of intellect and vitality. Especially, in the digital age in which technology makes people more sensitive to physical artificiality, the evaluation of the old age becomes more complex and obscure. In other words, some elderly people can not escape from Confucious convention of the elders first, which causes the denouncement by younger generations. On the other hand, some elderly people are becoming more adaptable to the trend of young people, emerging as the new elderly people. The anti-aging movement, early adaptation of IT, bioengineering regimen also strong for the advanced age. However, as the new elderly people are active in many fields of society, they also face intergenerational conflicts in some areas where remains the overlap between young people and them due to the limited openings in economy and culture. This study is a transdisciplinary research which can be called old age humanities. First of all, this paper looks at the aspects of lifestyles and intergeneration conflicts in old age in four Korean and Western literary works about the old people, and also searches how to improve the quality of the later life of old people, Overall, this paper aims to explore the way the old people can achieve the full life with the help of intergenerational dependency through building aging humanities and new communities for old people.