• Journal of Family Relations
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.201-228
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• 2018

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to classify never-married types of adult men and women and explore factors related to these types. Never-married types were categorized into 4 types according to continuity and voluntariness: continuous voluntary type; changed voluntary type; continuous non-voluntary type; and changed non-voluntary type. Factors related to types of being single were examined in terms of socio-demographic factors, individual and psychological factors (self-esteem, depression), dating relationship factors (current relationship status), original family factors (parental conflict, relationship with parents, parents' demand for marriage), marriage related factors (division of roles after marriage), and occupation related factors (work values, employment instability). Method: As for research method, a survey was conducted with never-married adult men and women between the ages of 35 and 49 living in Seoul, Gyeonggi or Incheon areas. Of 300 copies of questionnaire distributed, data from 295 copies were processed using SPSS 24.0 program for multinomial logit analysis. Results: The study results showed that, of never-married men respondents, continuous voluntary type accounted for 20.5%; changed voluntary type 18.9%; continuous non-voluntary type 49.6%; and changed non-voluntary type 11.0%. It was found that the factors related to continuous non-voluntary type among never-married men are age, religion, average monthly income, while the factors related to changed voluntary type are religion, self-esteem, depression, and frequency and strength of parental conflict, while the factor related to changed non-voluntary type men was living with parents. Examining never-married women respondents, it was found that, continuous voluntary type accounted for 33.9%; changed non-voluntary type 19.6%; continuous non-voluntary type 22.6%; and changed voluntary type 23.8%. The factor related to continuous non-voluntary type among never-married women was parents' demand for marriage, while the factors related changed voluntary type were age, depression and strength of parental conflict. Also, the factors related to changed non-voluntary type of never-married women were age, religion, living with parents, depression and parents' demand for marriage. Conclusion: In conclusion, it was found that continuous non-voluntary type formed the largest group among never-married men, whereas continuous voluntary type was the majority in never-married women. Both never-married men and women chose to remain single when they are living with their parents and their parental conflict is intense. Parents' demand for marriage was related to women, but not to men.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.151-166
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• 2016

This study examined frequency of contact between parents and their non-coresident, never-married daughters and sons compared to children in other marital statuses. Despite an increasing number of never married adults, little is known about the extent to which they may be willing to remain connected to and exchange support with their parents. The data were drawn from first wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA, 2006). For analyses, respondents who had at least one non-coresident child aged 40 or older were selected, resulting in the analytic sample of 2,755 parents with 7,741 children. Both sibling fixed effects regression models and regression models with robust standard errors were estimated using the xtreg and reg procedures in STATA. Findings revealed significant marital status by gender interaction effects on face-to-face contact. Never-married daughters were more likely to see their parents compared to their married, divorced, or widowed counterparts. Never-marred sons, on the other hand, reported slightly lower levels of in-person contact with their parents in comparison to married sons and lower levels of contact compared to divorced or widowed sons. More frequent contact via phone, mail, or email was reported in daughter-parent relationship compared to son-parent relationship, but no significant marital status by gender interactions were observed.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.391-406
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• 2022

This study examined the experience of middle-aged women, centering on the home as the residence of never-married children. I conducted interviews with four such women in their 50s and 60s who had experienced the residential independence of never-married children within the past five years, and a variety of field texts were used as research texts. Through reconstructing the participants' experiences, two main themes emerged: experiencing anxiety regarding alienation from their child and expecting to resolve this anxiety through the marriage of their child. The participants were anxious about their never-married children, and this study found that at the root of this was anxiety regarding being alienated from their children. The participants often attempted to visit their children's homes to relieve such anxiety but, as their children often discouraged this, the situation was aggravated. Thus, the participants wished for their children to marry, as they aspired to restore an intimate relationship with them through such an event. These results imply that tensions and conflicts between parents and children may arise due to the independence of never-married children.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2010

This study uses qualitative data to examine the dynamics and barriers of the delayed family formation phenomenon among the never-married professionals in Korea. The data was drawn from focus groups of 14 never-married professionals aged 28 through 40. The investigation depicts several dimensions of the circumstances of never-married professionals that have not garnered much attention in the literature. This research provides initial evidence of critical influences within the socio-cultural contexts of the participants' dating behaviors as well as the willingness to many. Two different realities, based on gender, were discovered: both male and female voluntarily delayed marriage to pursue their career, education and success. As both reached their career goals, however, male participants experienced a rise in their value as a marriage prospect whereas females experienced decreased value as a marriage prospect. Hence, neo-traditional familism was the dominant value among the participants, but it also functioned as a major barrier to family formation because in the present value system, female professionals, must still struggle with the dual burdens of work and family management.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.51-59
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• 1992

Previous studies indicated that unmarried persons are subject to higher mortality than the married, and that the differentials are more marked for male than for females. There are two major approaches to explaining the marital status differentials in mortality ; selection function and protection function of marriage. Following protection fucntion, this study develops the new "instrumental / expressive sex-role" hypothesis in order to explain why marriage protects males more against death. The hypothesis expects that male's instrumental role and female's expressive role have direct effect as well as indirect effect through social integration on sex differential mortality by marital status. for the hypothesis testing, Korea and US vital statistics and census data are used to compute age-specific , age-adjusted mortality rates and their ratios for persons in different marital status. Major findings are as follows. 1)For both Korea and US being married is more advantageous to males than females, ad being widowed, divorced, and separated is more disadvantageous to males, while being never-married is more disadvantageous to females, 2) For Korea, the never married men and women have the highest mortality rates, 3) For US the never married women have the highest mortality rate, while the divorced, separated, and widowed men have the highest mortality rate. Fro both Korea and US data, selection function is rejected, but instrumental/expressive sex-role hypothesis succeeds in accounting for the sex and marital status differential in mortality.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.192-198
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• 2015

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine associations between marital status and vegetable intake. Methods: Data were from participants 30 years and over (n = 18,190) in the 2007~2010 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Marital status was divided into three groups: married, never married, and separated/divorced/widowed. Vegetable intake was estimated from the twenty-four hour dietary recall. Data were analyzed using a chi-square test, analysis of covariance, least squares means, and logistic regression. Results: Married respondents tend to consume more vegetables, including kimchi, than all other marital status groups. Vegetable intake, excluding kimchi, was lowest among 30~64 year-old respondents who had never married. Elderly men (65 years and older) who were never married/separated/divorced/ widowed had significantly lower vegetable intake than elderly men who were married (p = 0.0008). When considering the Korean dietary reference intake (KDRIs), elderly men who were never married/separated/divorced/widowed, compared with elderly men who were married, had a significantly higher odds ratio for consuming fewer vegetables than the KDRIs (OR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.13~2.37). Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that marital status might influence vegetable intake and the probability of consuming fewer vegetables than the KDRIs. In particular, being never married/separated/divorced/ widowed might adversely affect vegetable consumption among elderly men, although assessing the causal effect of marital status from this cross-sectional study is difficult.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.183-214
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychological characteristics of affecting never married men and women through analyzing the content of in-depth interviews about the idea of marriage and the reason for never married choice. For achieving this purpose, the in-depth interview was conducted with 9 men and women aged mid-20s to late 30s who said to choose never married life for a long time, and then the content of interview was analyzed using consensual qualitative research. As a result of analyzing the content of in-depth interview, it was derived into 2 areas, 10 sub-areas, and 25 categories. The results of the study were as follows. Firstly, it was found that research participants negatively recognized the marriage and had unrealistic expectation rather than no expectation for marriage. Secondly, most of the research participants felt negative feelings about their parents' patriarchal role, and they did not want to live like their parents. They also reported that they did not see their marriage separated from their parents. Thirdly, most of the research participants felt difficulty in forming relationships with intimate person, and it became more difficult to have expectations about spouses and marriage due to repeated relationship conflict patterns. Fourthly, the research participants showed psychological aspect of experiential avoidance and seeking for individuality in terms of never married choice. Most of the research participants predicted the failure of married life, and reported that they were trying to prevent uncomfortable feelings and sufferings by choosing never married life. Also they reported that individuality considered more important than connection with others(togetherness) and individual value considered more important than collective value. Participants in this study showed negative evaluation or had negative influences on the marriage life of parents and acquaintances. This is more likely to be a passive factor in never married choice, so future research should examine the characteristics of active factors in never married choice.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.718-727
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the financial preparations for aging on the life satisfaction of single households are different according to their experiences of having been married or not, and thereby to suggest an alternative policy which differenciate single households with their exposure to married life from those without their exposure to married life. The analyzed data is based on social statistics in 2015 of the Statistics Korea, with 4,406 people, over 30, who are either never married singles or married but divorced or bereaved singles. Finding are, first, there was a statistically significant difference in financial preparations for aging between unmarried single households and married, and unmarried single households are more prepared than married ones. Second, life satisfaction of unmarried single households was higher than married ones. Third, the effects of the financial preparations for aging on the life satisfaction were shown from both groups, and married single households were more sensitive to the effect of financial preparations for aging on the life satisfaction.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.177-193
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• 2014

In this study, we investigated the effect of family values and the resource factors provided by parents on marriage intention among men and women in their 30s and 40s who have never married. The study participants were 300 never-married men and women in their 30s and 40s living in Seoul and its suburbs. The participants were chosen via purposive sampling. The study results are follows. First, according to the analysis of the subjects' family values and the resource factors provided by parents, both family values and the resource provided factors by parents showed higher scores than the median. Subjects had higher scores than the median score in regards to marriage intention, indicating that they had a greater intention to marry. Second, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify the effect of the socio-demographic characteristics of subjects, family values, and the resource factors provided by parents on marriage intention. As a result, age, the need of marriage and gender-role attitudes prevalent in family values, and the economic resources among the resource factors provided by parents had significant effects on marriage intention. Thus, the older the age of the subjects, the more traditional the view of marriage and gender-role attitudes, and the greater the amount of economic resources provided by parents, the greater the subjects' intention to marry.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.97-115
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• 2017

Unlike the past several decades when over 90% of unwed mothers chose to adopt their children, the number of never-married mothers who determine to raise their children for themselves has recently been increasing. However, many unwed mothers are still suffering from a diversity of problems including poverty, discrimination and biased stereotypes. To this end, this study aims to observe the development process of social policy for unwed mothers in Korea, with a special focus on the policy paradigm shift, and examine current social services for never-married mothers and their children. The results of the study shows the paradigm shift of social policy for unwed mothers occurred around the mid-2000's towards helping never-married mothers rear their children. However, social services for them have not kept pace with the paradigm change, which makes still very much hard for unwed mothers to raise their kids on their own. The study concludes with policy implications for improving social services for families headed by never-married mothers.