• Title/Summary/Keyword: National Religions

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Messianism in Civilizational History: The Transformation of the Buddhist Messiah via Maitreya

  • DINH Hong Hai
    • Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.71-92
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    • 2024
  • The world we live in is becoming more convenient thanks to the inventions of science and technology. Still, the world is also becoming more and more unpredictable with the current situation of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity). The Covid-19 pandemic brought the biggest global disaster ever with 774,631,444 infected people and 7,031,216 deaths (WHO on February 11, 2024) but it seems that humanity is gradually forgetting this disaster. Meanwhile the economic stimulus packages worth trillions of dollars from governments after the pandemic have further caused the world debt bubble to swell. The bubble burst scenario is something that many economic experts fear. Apparently, in the transitional period of the early decades of the 21st century, the world's economic, cultural, political, social, natural, and environmental aspects have undergone profound transformations: from the real estate and finance crises in the United States since 2008; through the melting of the Arctic ice over the past several decades; to the double disaster of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011. Especially, in the context of the world economic crisis after the COVID-19 pandemic, the human achievements of the past thousands of years are in jeopardy of being wiped out in an instant. Many people are predicting a bad scenario for a chain collapse. Facing the signals of an imminent economic catastrophe based on the appearance of "the Gray Rhino, Black Swan and White Elephant," many drawn in by Eschatological thought declare that Doomsday will occur shortly. This is the time for many other people to hope for the incoming Messiah. The Messiah is said to appear when people feel despair or suffer a great disaster because faith in the Savior can help them overcome adversity mentally. This research will find out how adherents of Buddhism view and deal with civilizational crises by examining history via symbols associated with Maitreya as based upon the Buddhist Messiah, Maitreya.

Online Religious Culture in Korea: Focusing on Religious Activities and Special Cases of Religious Expression (한국의 온라인 종교문화에 대한 시론적 연구 - 온라인 종교활동과 종교적 표현상의 특이 사례를 중심으로 -)

  • Shim Hyoung-june;Lee Won-sub;Oh Joon-hyeok;Lee You-na
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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    • v.45
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    • pp.187-226
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    • 2023
  • In contemporary society, digital media has become an integral part of daily life that shapes how people interact with the world around them. This phenomenon has also influenced religious activities and practices. Studies on digital religion and religious practices among digital natives in the Western world have indicated that traditional religious practices are on the decline. Instead, more accessible and flexible forms of religious activities and beliefs are emerging. Given this context, it is important to investigate whether similar trends are occurring in Korea. This study aims to explore the religious activities and expressions of Korean individuals in the online environment. Specifically, the study focuses on four main areas: ①the online religious activities of established religions such as Protestantism, Buddhism, and Catholicism; ②the online religious activities related to divination belief systems such as the Four Pillars of Destiny (四柱 saju) and Tarot; ③online holy sites and wish comments or chats; and ④popular religious neologisms such as jileumshin (지름神 a god with the power to justify consumption) and gatsaeng (갓[God]生 one's best life). Through this review, it can be ascertained that religious ideas and practices are restricted by the attributes of digital media. This implies that the emergence of simplistic forms of religious ideas and activities is associated with the features of digital media and the consumption of digital content.

Folk Ideas, Daoist Images, and Daoist Texts from the Late Joseon Dynasty (구한말 민중사상과 도교이미지, 그리고 도교서 언해)

  • Lee, Bong-ho
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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    • v.36
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    • pp.201-225
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    • 2020
  • In the late Joseon Dynasty, ideas in folk religions were closely related to Daoist themes. There were, for instance, folk ideas centered on Prophecies of Jeong Gam (鄭鑑錄 jeonggamrok) that developed into 'raising island-armies (海島起兵說 hado gibyeongseol),' the future utopian movement known as the 'South Joseon Faith (南朝鮮信仰 namjoseon sinang),' and faith around 'Maitreya's Descensionist-Birth (彌勒下生 mireuk hasaeng).' People aimed to transform their country based on these ideas. Associated folklore tended to come from fengshui (風水) and books on prophecies and divination (圖讖 docham), and both of these drew heavily upon Daoist concepts. On the other hand, Daoist texts began being translated as national projects under King Cheoljong (哲宗), and many more were translated and published later under King Gojong (高宗). The nature of these Daoist texts mostly consisted of either morality books (善書 seonseo) or precious scrolls (寶卷 bogeon). The problem was that these ordinances and the Daoist texts of regents were among the main causes of civil war during the Qing Dynasty. In this regard, the translation of the Daoist texts conducted as a national project provided a theoretical basis for the people wishing to foment civil war or transformation. This raises the question of why King Gojong implemented a Daoist translation project in his nation. In an effort to answer this question, this article summarizes the popular ideas of the late Joseon Dynasty and explains how they were closely related to Daoism. In addition, this article summarizes the facts about how Daoism has emerged from a national crisis but developed a function of protecting the state (鎭護) in Korean history. Further described is the situation under which Daoism was summoned during the Japanese Invasion of Joseon (壬辰倭亂). Analysis is provided to show that King Gojong's intention was to translate Daoism due to Daoism's role in protecting the state. In addition, the relationship between current Daoist rites and customs in Korea and King Gojong's dissemination of Daoist oaths and vouchers is confirmed.

Does Altai Exist?: Area Studies and the Meaning of "Area" (알타이는 존재하는가: 지역연구와 지역의 의미)

  • Nam, Youngho
    • Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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    • v.14 no.3
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    • pp.135-156
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    • 2010
  • While there are a few ways of giving meanings to the term, "Altai" ranging from a language family to a national residing around the Altai Mountains in Russian Federation, and to the people speaking the language or the whole area where they live, there have been controversial debates whether it is a meaningful categorization. This paper argues that the basic cause lying beneath the controversies is the underdevelopment of the subject that identifies itself as a representative of the whole area where the Altaic language family is spoken. It might be true, as some Korean and Russian scholars insist, that what deserves to be called Altaic culture (or civilization) has provided a common culture and mutual interactions with the people. However, the Altaic people failed to constitute themselves as a meaningful modern group, that is a nation, and they did not fully develop national consciousness, As a result, although their way of life may be regarded as an origin of various cultures across North-East Asia, Altaic culture is not sufficient to give a momentum to claim for cultural initiative in the region. This comes at least partly from the reconfiguration of ethnic identity through a Soviet type of modernization and its geopolitical situation surrounded by super-powers such as China and Russia, as well as belated import of religions such as Buddhism and Christianity. From a wide perspective, the trouble about delimiting an area is not unique in Altai, but universally found in anywhere, as far as area studies are concerned. The delimitation of an area is not a natural outcome of physical environment but an artificial production of how cultural-political relationships have been distributed. Therefore, while the case of Alai has its own specificities, its implications that a national or regional boundary in area studies should not be taken for granted may be applied to other areas.

A Study on the Religious Costume in Korea - Buddhist and Taoist Costume - (한국(韓國) 종교복식(宗敎服飾)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究) - 불교(佛敎)와 도교복식(道敎服飾)을 중심(中心)으로 -)

  • Im, Yeong-Ja
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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    • v.14
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    • pp.63-73
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    • 1990
  • The thought of three religious, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, had been the mainaxis of Korean spirit of the past. This study is centered on Buddhist and Taoist costume. There have been a lot of studies on Korean costume from many viewpoints. However, there have been few approaches to the inner !"ide of it. That is to say, the research on spiritual back-ground or religious correlation has not done yet. And especially, we are wholly lacking the studies on Taoist costume. In this dissertation, I investigate how they had come to wear Buddhist costume and how it trans, on the basis of related documentary records and existing remains. I also inquiry Taoist costume which was worn at Taoist ceremony in our country, with the help of Korean books and documents and of the sources of Packwoonkwan in China. In the case of Topobyunjeung in Korean costume, in particular, we can catch the source of it only after studying the religious side of Taoist costume and Buddhist costume. As revealed in the theory of Topobyunjeung in Ojuyunmoonja-ngsango by Lee, Kyu Kyung, even old masters and great Confucianists could not know whether Topo, the ordinary clothes of the Sadaeboo, originated from Taoist costume or Buddhist costume. There have been many opinions about the origin, but even now it is true that no one has made it clear. Therefore in this dissertatio I demonstrate mainly how Topo and Hakchangeui appeared in Korean costume through Taoist costume. It is said that Taoists, Buddhists, and literary men wore Topo, Chickchul, and Chickshin in Song dynasty of China. Topo was a clerical robe of Taoists and was also an ordinary clothes. Chick-chul was a clerical robe of Buddhists, and Chick-shin was worn by Zen priests in Won dynaty. Over the Po, Buddhist wore a large robe, namely Kasa, and Taoist wore Packhakchang like Wooeui, when they attended at the religious ceremony. And they regarded such manner of dressing as ceremonial full-dress attire. The style of Topo in China was Saryunggyogeo. The is th say that they put the black Yeon along Sajoo, which are Young, Soogoo, Keum, and Keo, and that they wore Sajodae around their waists so as to let the band down in front of them. Our existing type of Topo is that of Chickryung-gyoin. The characteristics of the type are its Koreum hung on the dress, no Yeon along Sajoo, and Soopok at the back of the dress. And when they put on the dress, they wear Saejodae around their waists. These characteristics considered, we can find the source of Topo from the Po of Chickshin among Buddhist costume. Other types of Topo are those that were transformed elegantly according to our national manners and customs in our country. So-called Wooeui in Chiness Taoism is Hakchang. Originally it was made by weaving for of cranes or other feathered birds. Its remarkable feature is the wide sleeves. Later they called such a robe with wide sleeves Hakchang. Our hakchangeui has Yeon along Sajoo and a belt around waist. We can guess that the features of Topo and wide-sleeved Hakchang mingled and turned into Hakchangeui. Or it might also be that Topa worn by Taoist was regarded as Hakchang and Topa which has Yeon along Sajoo was regarded as Hakchangeui in our country. Such type of Hakchang worn by Taoists was well shown in the Buddhist and Taoist paintings among "The Pictures of Hills, Waters, and Folks" in the latter half of the 16th century. In China Hakchang with a belt around waist could not be seen. Comparing our style of Hakchangeui with the Chinese style, we can recognize the former was similar to that of Chinese Topa. From this, we gather that Topa was regarded as Hakchang, Wooeui worn by Taoists, Ascetics and True Men in Korea. Furthermore I also gather that our Hakchangeui, which has Tongjeong, Koreurn and a belt around waist, was a transformed style in our own country. From the above, we can realize that in costume the three religions, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, cannot be treated separately although they are different each other in the essential thought. We have to recognize that Korean Costume was established under the closely connected correlation among the religions and that it was transfigured and accepted according to the cultural characteristics. This study is significant in that it is the first attempt to understand Korean costume through the religous approach, which has never been made in our Korean costume studies. We are demanded even more wide and profound investigation on the religious side of costume throughout the general field of costume studies.

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A Comparative Study on Spiritual Humanism in Daesoon Thought (대순사상의 영성인본주의 비교연구)

  • Kim Yong-hwan
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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    • v.44
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    • pp.141-175
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    • 2023
  • This comparative study combines the methodologies of comparative research and literature review to examine Daesoon Thought. Comparative religious analysis in the social sciences, does not presuppose an a priori framework of the essence of religion because it targets various aspects of religion which are revealed within a historical field. However, it does not decompose and return to psychological or social phenomena like social sciences. In addition, with the emergence of religious pluralism, the climate of focusing on similarities between religions has already been accomplished to some degree. Furthermore, it is worth noting that many spiritual movements in modern spirituality reveal mixed or amorphous characteristics without being restricted by specific religious membership. It is time to overcome instrumentation and restore the transcendence of its original appearance even in secular humanist reasoning. It can be said that this reveals the perception that the ills and crises of modern civilization should be overcome in connection with the opening of the acquired world of Daesoon Thought. It could further be said that the main culprit of evil behavior is instrumental reason or degenerated reason rather than spirituality. Religion is the intellectual crystalline body of humankind and aims at human perfection and salvation. However, extremists in previous times amplified conflicts between religions and formed ideas suitable for their specific regions through different experiences. This generated mental rifts that proved greatly influential. At the time of initial inception, each religion confronted and fought other ideologies, but when the era of religious pluralism began, the necessity for inter-spiritual communication became urgent. It could be said that happiness is the realization of human spirituality by exploring the vision of humanism. In that case, the combined methodologies of comparative research and literature review reveal that the spirituality of Daesoon Thought would enable a humanism based on human dignity. This would be a path for seeking spirituality through human life and living as a true human being. Spiritual humanism as discussed through this study aims to share the problems of modern civilization and provide a critical view of modern civilization that shows the roots of prevailing thought are stuck in a Cartesian dualistic view of humanity and the world. The type of spiritual humanism to examined here focuses on a cosmotheandric vision by considering the spiritual return to Daoism via Daesoon Thought. This would treat human beings like heaven in alignment with Donghak ideology and honor the human dignity proposed by Daesoon Thought. It would also deliver sentient beings from suffering and to bliss in accordance with the aims of faith in Maitreya Buddha, and it would implement the Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence in fulfillment of Daesoon Thought.

The Homecare Needs of Cancer Patients (암환자의 퇴원 후 가정간호 요구)

  • Kwon, In-Soo;Eun, Young
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.29 no.4
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    • pp.743-754
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    • 1999
  • The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify the homecare needs of patients with cancer and to provide a basis of interventions. One hundred and two patients at one general hospital in Gyeongnam responded to a questionnaire developed on the basis of care needs perceived by nurses caring for hospitalized patients with cancer. The questionnaire was a Likert type 5 point scale with 56 items on five need categories ; 1) informational 2) physical care : 3) emotional care 4) socioeconomic care and 5) special care needs. Internal consistency of this questionnaire was Cronbach's $\alpha$=.9101 for total items. The data was collected from March 1st to May 31th, 1998, by two graduate nurses. In the data analysis, mean & standard deviation were calculated to identify the degree of care need of each item, and the t-test & ANOVA were done to determine the effects of patients' demographic background on their care needs. The findings are summarized as follows ; 1) The mean score of total of need items was 3.048. Of the four need categories the highest score was informational at 3.4, followed by emotional care, 3.063, physical care, 2.623, and socioeconomic care, 2.599. 2) In the informational need category there were four subcategories with 19 items. Medication and pain control had the highest score, 3.755 ; second was diet and exercise, 3.613 ; third was disease and treatment process, 3.337 ; and last was personal hygiene and infection prevention at 2.687. 3) In the physical care need category there was nine items, IV infusion for nutrition and management of treatment complication was above 3.2 points and the remaining items were in the 2.847-2.070 score ranges. 4) In the emotional care need category there were seven items. The highest need was in support for relationships with health personnel, 3.673. The need for support of religions beliefs and support for having a religion were low at about 2 points. 5) In the socioeconomic care need category there were six items. Support for medical insurance expansion and financial support were above 3 points. Legal support and support for caring of children were low in the care needs. 6) In the special care need category the there were 15 items. Informational need about immunization and informational need about effects of disease on growth and development were high, above 4.1 points. Need for decubitus care and prevention, sitz bath and incontinence care were low, below 2 points. 7) There were significant differences in degree of care need according to admission rate, education level, marital status, religion and caregiver's religion. In conclusion, homecare needs perceived by hospitalized patient's with cancer was moderate, but informational need was higher than direct care need, leading to the conclusion that the provision of sufficient information to patients with cancer at discharge is needed. Nursing interventions should be developed considering the patient's background.

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Personal, Family, and School Factors associated with adolescents' attitude toward volunteer activities (청소년의 봉사활동 태도에 영향을 미치는 개인, 가족, 학교 특성)

  • Kim, BoHyun;Kwon, HeeKyung
    • Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.101-118
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    • 2014
  • The purpose of this study was to examine the factors associated with adolescents' attitude toward volunteer activities. Analyses of data provided by 450 adolescents attending secondary schools in Gyeongnam Province suggested the following results. First, adolescents' attitude toward volunteer activities differed by gender, religion, and academic grades. Adolescents who were girls, who had religions, and whose academic grades were higher showed higher levels of positive attitude toward volunteer activities than their counterparts who were boys, who did not have religion and whose academic standing was lower. Second, adolescents' attitude toward volunteer activities significantly differed by the family factor. To be specific, parental attention, parental support and family's participation in volunteer work made differences to the adolescents' attitude toward volunteer activities. Third, the adolescents took significantly different attitudes toward voluntary activities according to the school factor. Significant differences were found according to attention and support from teachers. The students whose teachers had more interest in voluntary service and whose teachers offered more aid took a more positive attitude to voluntary service. Forth, some of the personal, family, and school factors were associated with adolescents' attitude toward volunteer activities. Among the personal factors, gender, religion, academic standing, and morality were associated with dolescents' attitude toward volunteer activities. Those who were girls, who were religious, whose academic standing was higher, and who were more moral took a more positive attitude toward volunteer activities. Among family and school factors, parental attention/support and attention and support from teachers affected the voluntary service attitude of the adolescents. The students whose parents had more interest and gave more support and whose teachers showed more interest and offered more support took a more positive attitude toward volunteer activities. Therefore parental attention and support were identified as the variable to make the best prediction of the adolescents' positive attitude toward volunteer activities.

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Comparison of Bioethical Perception between Dental Hygiene Students and Non-Health Students (치위생(학)과와 비보건계 학생들의 생명윤리의식에 관한 비교)

  • Ahn, Yong-Soon;Kim, Myoung-Hee;Han, Ji-Hyoung
    • Journal of dental hygiene science
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.1-6
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    • 2012
  • This study was practiced to provide basic data which is necessary for ethical education of dental hygiene students by comparing the bioethical perception between dental hygiene students and non-health students. Questionnaire surveys were conducted for 778 students in two universities in Gyeonggi-Do province and analyzed the collected data with SAS 9.2. The findings of the study were as follows : 1. there was no stastistical difference in the degree of bioethical perception between dental hygiene students and non-health students. 2. Students who have family member in medical field were more conscious of bioethics than students who doesn't. According to religion, the protestants were most conscious and no-religions scored the lowest. 3. In case of dental hygiene students, female was more conscious. According to religion, there were statistical differences between the Catholic and Buddhism, the Catholic and No-religion. 4. Dental hygiene students were more strongly opposed to let infant with fatal congenital disease die than non-health students. 5. Dental hygiene students were more strongly opposed to rejecting organ transplant, trade in human organs and using alternative organ of animal. Also, they estimated higher the possibility of medical irrationalities due to trade in human organs. From these results, a curriculum for bioethical education in department of dental hygiene should be developed to form and improve the more desirable bioethical perception of dental hygiene students.

The Status of Drug Use of Juveniles and their Deliquent Behaviors -Based on those of Boys and Girls on the Third Years (청소년의 약물 사용과 비행 실태 - 충청남도 일부 고등학교 3학년 학생을 중심으로 -)

  • Kim Sook-Kyeong;So Hee-Young
    • Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.49-65
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    • 1993
  • This study had conducted to push our society for getting some proper measures of the anti-drug abuse and adopting this study as a fundamental data for the school health education. Sample subjects were the 3rd grade of high school in Chungnam Province and the number were 1,014. The data had been collected on Dec. 3th-8th, 1990 according to the tool of Institute on Drug Abuse of Korea. And then Frequency and $x^2-test$ were need to analyse of data by SPSS-X program. The results of this study could be summarized as follows. 1. They had used 14 kinds of drugs: $70.1\%$ of the subjects students used alcohol, $69.2\%$ analgesics, $38.6\%$ cigarette, $15.0\%$ stimulants, $14.7\%$ antitussives, $11.2\%$ antithistamines, $8.9\%$ hypnotics, $7.1\%$tranquilizers, $4.2\%$ inhalants, $2.3\%$ marijuana, $1.4\%$ hallucinogens, $0.9\%$ cocaine, $0.6\%$ amphetamines, and $0.6\%$narcotics. The boys' drug using rate is higher than girls' except in analgesics and stimulants. 2. With respect to misbehaving, $43.0\%$ of the students said they had pop houses, $42.4\%$ adult video, $17.4\%$ unexcused absence from school, $11.0\%$ dangerous weapon, $9.1\%$ sexual intercourse, $70.1\%$ disappearance from home, 8.0% blackmail, and $6.0\%$ assault. In every kinds of misbehaving, the boys' misbehaving rate is higher than the girls'. 3. Almost every kinds of drugs have the students first used at the age of 15 through. 18. And $13.8\%$ of the students smoked every da·y and $1.7\%$ drank every day. 4. The frequency of the drug using such as cigarette (p<.01), marijuana (p<.05), cocaine (p<.05) and narcotics (p<.05) showed the stastically significant differences according to the religions of the subjects 5. The subjects who has complaints about someone use more drugs than the ones who doesn't, and who doesn't have any complaints about five elements have never used drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, narcotics, hallucinogens, and inhalants. 6. The drug using subjects have the more experiences of adult video, pop houses, and unexcused absent from school than the non-drug using ones. It means that the subjects who use drug were apt to do misbehaving more often than the ones who have never used them, and delinquent boys and girls use more drugs.

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