• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.157-182
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• 1998

The primary goal of this study is to identify disintegration and reconstruction of the family/kinship structure in the rapidly industrializing urban area, Seoul. For this purpose, detailed data about (1) the value related to the family and kinship (2) the family relationship, especially marital relationship (3) the attitude of divorce and remarriage (4) the characteristics of the social network (5) the family/kin rites and attitude about the rites are gathered. A total of 716 subjects completed structured questionnaires. Major conclusions of the study are as follows: Firstly, most of the respondents are found not to support familism and boy preference, and they show an ambivalence about the child value analyzed by concepts of the cost and reward. Secondly, most of the respondents perceive that marital relationship has been changed toward the direction of increased relative importance of wives' opinion in the decision making process within the family. However, they believe that husbands still have more power than their wives. Respondents also believe that parents have more power than their children. Thirdly, most of the respondents view divorce as an altemative to unhappy marriage. It was also shown that relatively few have negative attitude toward remarriage. Fourthly, the social network of the respondents is characterized by two distinct trends, namely, strong parent-child ties and narrowed kin relationship. Fifthly, the urbanization and the introduction of western life style have disrupted the traditional rites of passage. But ancestral rites serve to confirm family ties, especially the gathering of siblings to perform ancestral rites for parents. Therefore foreign element exist in parallel with pre-existing traditional elements.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.49
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• pp.319-342
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• 2002

The nuclear family is no longer the typical Korean Family. In recent years, stepfamilies have been of the most rapidly growing family forms in Korea. Census Bureau data show that 5.9% of marriage were in 1980, 8.0% in 1990, 10.3% in 1995, 18.0% in 2000. Especially it is remarkable that women's remarriage have been increased. In spite of the fact, the stepfamily is not an urgent issue of social welfare in Korea. The stepfamily is more vulnerable than the first-marriage family in many reasons such as vague family rules, boundary ambiguity, and stepparent role ambiguity, which provides rationale for social welfare services. This study categorizes determinants of psychological distress in remarried mothers into individual, family, and environment level and tries to prove the relationships between psychological distress and determinants. Also, it explores the degree of psychological distress in remarried mothers using Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale. The respondents of survey research are 62 cases. The result shows relatively severe level of depression among the subjects. 46.8% of them are clinically diagnosed as mild, moderate, severe depression. Our findings suggest that the variables of marriage satisfaction, ex-wife's remarriage, role strains, marriage experience, and income are significantly associated with the level of psychological distress in remarried mothers. The most powerful predictor of psychological distress is the variable of marriage satisfaction. According to the result, it is desperately needed to pay attention to social welfare services or programs for stepfamilies.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.161-184
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• 2021

This study attempts to develop marriage satisfaction program for remarried couples. Therefore, based on the in-depth interviews for 10 remarried couples, the plan was to present the direction of the program development for remarried couples' satisfaction. In this study, the marital satisfaction program of remarried couples should move toward increasing understanding among family members based on their strengths as well as conflicts and difficulties of remarried families. Therefore, the research will be meaningful in that it not only leads to successful remarriage but also enhance the happiness of family members.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.183-200
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• 1997

The purpose of this study was to identify the stress of remarried elderly in their remarried life. There were 10 remarried elderly respondents. The data was collected by in-depth personal interview. Focusing on the situation of remarried family life the remarried elderly perceived various stress. Those were the stress from the status of remarried person and the stress from relations with their own children/ new spouse/ new spouse's children/ ex-spouse and ex-kin/ sibling and relatives and friends. The results of this study could be a useful material for elderly's remarriage preparation program.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.73-102
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• 1997

The purpose of this study was to identify the specific and empirical contents in terms of first-married stepmother about her stress and efforts to adapt to her stepfamily. This studies relied on the qualitative research method in order to approach stepmother's subjective experience. There were 6 stepmother respondents who were 6 first-marrieds living in Seoul or Kyoungki area. The data was collected by in-depth personal interview.‘Open coding process’, a part of grounded theory procedures were used to analyzed the data. The major findings can be summarized as follows: 1. When focused o stressors, the stress of stepmothers were categorized into 4 categories. Those were the following: 1 When focused on stressors, the stress of stepmothers were categorized into 4 categories. Those were the following: (1) Stepmother's own problem such as stepmother' identity problem; (2) Problems within stepfamily such as problems about relations with husbands, stepchildren, and her own children; (3) Problems of stepmother family's kin such as relational problems with former spouses, in-laws, and her parent; (4) Problems of social relationship such as isolation and alienation in social relationship and neighbors' prejudice about stepmother. 2. In overcoming stress from stepfamily life and adapting to it, 4 categories were identified as important. Contents of 4 categories were such like this: (1) Stepmother's own efforts - (a) give a positive meaning to marriage or remarriage (b) flexible personality (c) situation-accepting attitude (d) exclusive management of household income (e) job (f) perseverance for time to adaptation; (2) Positive feedback within stepfamily - (a) supportive husband (b) sense of unity as a couple (c) psychological reward from stepchildren (d) existence of stepmother's own child (e) behavior for family solidarity (f) family-centered religious life; (3) Stepfamily's relationship with former spouses such as breakdown in relationship with ex-wives or ex-husbands; (4) Support from stepmothers' kin and people in social network with stepmothers. It was concluded that to reduce stress and to help adapt to stepfamily, stepmother should make an effort, and that her stepfamily and her kin should cooperate and support. In addition, negative stereotype of stepmother and stepfamily should disappeared. It was suggested that studies on stepfamily should be vitalized and that programs for preparing remarriage and counseling for stepfamily should be spread.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.157-180
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• 2000

This study focused on the disintegration and reconstruction of the family/kinship structure among the rural families of Korea. For this study, detailed data about the value related to the family/kinship, the family relationship, The attitude of divorce and remarriage, the social network, and the family/kin rites are gathered A total 593 subjects completed structured questionnaires. Major conclusion of the study are as follows : First, most of the rural respondents are found to support familism and boy preference slightly, and not to agree the reward of child value. So, their attitudes toward traditional values are changing slowly than urban residents. Second, the rural respondents shared the common perceptions that spousal and parent-child relationships has been changed toward the direction that the positions of wives and children are respected and the their influences are increased in the past 10 years. In addition, generational differences in the perceptions of relationship change and appropriate roles of wives and husbands are discovered. However, sex differences previously revealed in Seoul study were not found in the case of rural respondents. Third, generally, there are both remaining and changing aspects of conservative attitude toward divorce and remarriage, the level of change is different according to age and sex. And the difference by age is stronger than by sex. Fourth, the social networks of the respondents is characterized by two distinct trends, namely, strong parent-adult child ties and the close relationships between neighbors. fifthly, in the family/kin rites, traditional aspects coexist with changing aspects under the influence of industrialization and westernization. But the aspects of attitudes toward rites, it is showed the non-traditional tendency. Respondents who support westernization and socialization of family rites are young, highly eamed, and Christian.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.129-139
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• 2003

Living arrangement is considered an important variable in discussing loneliness and the psychological state of the elderly. From this point of view, this study aimed at Identifying the effects of living arrangements, sociodemographic variables, social activities, and social psychological variables on the psychological loneliness of the rural elderly. Though hierarchical regression analyses. the predictors of loneliness among the rural elderly were identified as single/co-residence living arrangement(r=.49), sense of well-being based on respects for others' perspectives (r: -.22), needs for remarriage (r=.22), and work hours during off- farming season (r: -.19). The effects of living arrangement remained strong and were not influenced by the addition of sociodemographic variables, social activity variable, and social psychological variables. The feeling of loneliness of the elderly who were living alone was higher than among the elderly who were living with someone else. This finding suggests that the loneliness of the rural elderly derives primarily from the lack of family Interaction. Therefore, it is recommended that social welfare policies for the rural elderly be designed to improve their family and social interactions.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.279-298
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to review the trend in international marriage of Koreans based on Census data from 2001 to 2007 and to analyse socio-demographic characteristics of the married couples. This study remarks that as the primary causes underlying the recent increase in international marriages of Koreans, the change of worldwide condition such as globalization and localization, the condition of countries to leave immigrants, the change of sex/age ratio in population, and the change of value systems are addressed. Census data from the marriage and divorce registration for the period 2001-2007 are analysed. This study covers analysis of foreign partners' nationalities, remarriage, age gap between partners, education levels, male partners' occupation, region of residence and divorce in international marriage of Koreans.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.159-177
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• 2002

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate how the information society affected the attitude about the family/kinship life of Netizen. For this goal, the data were collected from 305 Netizen who use the Internet. The major findings were as follows. Firstly, In Netizen, the support to familism and boy preference was low level. Secondly, in their altitude to the divorce and remarriage, there was a tendency which accepts a marriage with selection. Thirdly, they had a tendency to agree equal partnership in couple relationship. Fourthly, virtual community in cyber-space was found, but the loyalty of members was not enough strong. Fifthly, in the family/kin rites, it was showed non-traditional tendency. And in all aspects, some differences were found between men and women. The findings of the present study suggest that the couple relationship in the information society becomes more important, and there is a tend to increase acceptability to increase. In contrast, there is stiff another discrimination in cyber-space by focusing on traditional mother route.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to explore the dynamics of stepfamilies and the adjustment difficulties such families may experience. The study describes some sociodemographic characteristics of a sample of 117 stepfamilies. The independent variables were stresses due to adjustment difficulties, which were defined as "role strains". Sociodemographic variables included gender, family income level, length of time since remarriage, type of stepfamily, and the existence of any children born to the new marriage. The dependent variable was the extent of stepfamily adjustment, expressed as a scale. The factors influencing family adjustment included stepparent gender, family income level, type of stepfamily, and various role strain variables (family boundary ambiguity, role conflict, etc.). Practical recommendations for social work are made and possibilities for future research in this area are discussed based on the results of this study.