• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.205-215
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was to compare the effects of individual and group intervention programs on the demented elderly and their families. Methods: The programs were applied to two groups, one by home visiting and the other by group intervention. The groups were composed of 14 elders and 12 elders, respectively, with their families. The programs were applied twice a week, ninety minutes per session for four weeks. Programs consisted of cognitive therapy, music and art therapy, and massage for the demented elderly, education on dementia, cognitive-behavioral intervention for problematic behavior, methods to lessen stress, and counselling for the families. Results: AER, problematic behavior, QOL of pts and QOL, caregiving burden, and relationship with the pts of caregivers were improved after each program but not significantly except QOL of pts (Z=-3.37, p=.00) in the group intervention. When the two interventions were compared with each other, the group intervention program was more effective than the home visiting program in all variables but not significantly except QOL of pts (U=32.00, p=.00). Conclusion: In summary, both the individual and group intervention programs were helpful to both pts and families, and even though there was no statistically significant difference between the two intervention programs except in QOL of pts, the group intervention was more effective.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5477-5482
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• 2013

Background: Communication plays an important role for the well being of patients, families and also health care professionals in cancer care. Conversely, ineffective communication may cause depression, increased anxiety, hopelessness and decreased of quality life for patients, families and also nurses. Objective: This study aimed to explore communication difficulties of pediatric hematology/oncology nurses with patients and their families, as well as their suggestions about communication difficulties. Materials and Methods: It was conducted in a pediatric hematology/oncology hospital in Ankara, Turkey. Qualitative data were collected by focus groups, with 21 pediatric hematology/oncology nursing staff from three groups. Content analysis was used for data analysis. Results: Findings were grouped in three main categories. The first category concerned communication difficulties, assessing problems in responding to questions, ineffective communication and conflicts with the patient's families. The second was about the effects of communication difficulties on nurses and the last main category involved suggestions for empowering nurses with communication difficulties, the theme being related to institutional issues. Conclusions: Nurses experience communication difficulties with children and their families during long hospital stays. Communication difficulties particularly increase during crisis periods, like at the time of first diagnosis, relapse, the terminal stage or on days with special meaning such as holidays. The results obtained indicate that pediatric nurses and the child/family need to be supported, especially during crisis periods. Feeling of empowerment in communication will improve the quality of care by reducing the feelings of exhaustion and incompetence in nurses.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.51-62
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• 2017

Purpose: This study aimed to understand the essence of experiences of patients and family members during flexible visiting in an intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: This is a qualitative study using interviews with open ended questions. We used Colaizzi's method of phenomenological interpretation. Results: Flexible visiting in the ICU impacted the patients and their families in various ways. The following categories were extracted from the patients' experiences with flexible visiting: 1) the opportunity to feel the presence of the family and 2) the burden of unrestricted visiting. The following categories were extracted from the families' experiences with flexible visiting: 1) psychological comfort by convenience 2) being aware of health care professionals and critical care nursing in the intensive care unit, and 3) double trouble. Conclusions: These results showed that flexible visiting in the ICU affected the patients and their families positively and negatively. Therefore, nursing staff need to design psychological and social interventions that address the needs of patients and their families.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.11-23
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• 2012

This qualitative study attempts to analyze the separation experiences of wild geese families from a social exchange perspective. The participants of this study were 16 mothers who lived apart from their partners for the purpose of educating their offspring. To collect data, in-depth interviews were conducted with the mothers about the decision-making process and the separation experiences. The results showed that there was a unique educational factor in Korea that affected wild geese families' decision on family separation. Geese families had to face psychological inconvenience caused by negative eyes from society. In addition, the fathers suffered loneliness and had difficulties in doing household chores, and the mothers experienced an overload of child parenting. On the other hand, emotional relationship between the husband and wife was enhanced, and the friendly relationship between a mother and her children was built. The biggest reward from the wild geese families turned out to be the educational achievement of their children.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.146-152
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• 2016

The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of professional soldiers' family healthiness on the organizational effectiveness of the military and test for any differences in the structural modeling path caused by the mediating effects of empowerment depending on whether they lived with their families or not. Data were collected with a self-administered survey distributed to 480 professional soldiers after the approval of the Ministry of National Defense. The data collected were then analyzed using descriptive statistics, structural equation modeling, and multi-group analysis. The analysis results show that the family healthiness of all of the professional soldiers had direct or indirect effects on their organizational effectiveness via empowerment and that family healthiness was a variable with a very large explanatory power for organizational effectiveness. Both family healthiness and empowerment had effects on the organizational effectiveness of the solders that were living with their families and those who lived separately from their families. The levels of family healthiness, empowerment, and organizational effectiveness were all high among the professional soldiers that were living with their families and all low among those who were not. Increasing the family healthiness and empowerment was found to enhance the organizational effectiveness in all of the models, and a higher organizational effectiveness would be expected from professional soldiers living with their families. These findings led to a proposal that various plans should be prepared to help professional soldiers live with their families and provide them with family welfare support.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.147-163
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• 2016

Multicultural Family Support Centers (MFSC) have provided five program areas including family, gender equality, human rights, social integration, and counseling since 2015. It is important to examine the MFSC staff's perceptions of the family programs and program needs for multicultural families to improve the effectiveness of these programs. In this study, we aim to explore the staff's perceptions of the family programs and to assess multicultural family program needs based on the family life cycle. A total of 130 MFSC staff were recruited through 128 MFSCs across Korea. Descriptive statistics were conducted for data analysis. Our findings revealed that MFSC staff have increasingly recognized that their target audiences are not only marriage immigrants and their families but also foreign workers' families and families from North Korea. In addition, the MFSC staff identified the importance of family programs instead of only programs for individual family members and multicultural families' different program needs based on their family life cycle. Contrary to the positive perception of the family programs, they described challenges of the family programs including a shortage of funds, difficulty recruiting family member combinations (e.g., couples, parent-child) for family programs, a lack of a program manual, and a heavy workload. This study provides insights into the family programs including their development and delivery.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.312-325
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate dietary behaviors and nutritional knowledge among immigrant women in multicultural families. In addition, this study reveals a necessity for nutrition education, which is apparent to both immigrant women living in multicultural families as well as nutrition education experts. The survey was conducted with 30 immigrant women within multicultural families in Seoul. The dietary behaviors of the women were significantly different by their period of residence. The longer they had resided in Korea, the higher their dietary behavior score. However, there was no significant difference in nutrition knowledge by their period of residence. This study also conducted in-depth personal interviews with 8 immigrant women who lived in Seoul, and with 4 nutrition education experts. These interviews were performed to provide profound insights regarding the content and means of nutrition education for immigrant women. Nutrition education for immigrant women living in multicultural families should proceed at a basic level in terms of language and content, using bilingual (Korean and their native language) education materials. Education topics and content need to be developed differently according to the level of Korean comprehension and period of residence in Korea. Also, this multicultural approach should be adapted when planning nutrition education since immigrant women have various acculturation levels, and the content and means of education should be adjusted to these acculturation levels. Management after nutrition education is necessary for immigrant women who do not have sufficient understanding of the Korean language. Practical educational methods such as real cooking practices and food purchasing simulations must be developed. Finally, the results suggest that the government needs to establish a systematic plan for nutrition education among immigrant women living in multicultural families. Policy support such as training nutrition educators on multicultural individuals residing in Korea is necessary for active and effective nutritional education.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.85-108
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• 2018

Objective: This study intended to analyze parenting characteristics, difficulties and support needs of multi-cultural families that had children under 3 years old, in order to develop their supporting resources. Methods: This study performed semi-structured interviews with 7 mothers from multi-cultural families that had their young children enrolled at child care and education centers in Gyeonggi Do. The interview data transcribed were analyzed using the successive contents analysis, and led to 4 themes and 12 sub-themes. Results: First, the mothers from multi-cultural families were married without understanding the Korean language and culture. Second, the multi-cultural mothers didn't properly respond to their children's needs in interaction and language aspects. As a result, the multi-cultural support centers and child care and education centers gave help to them. Third, in the view of the difficulties facing mothers, parenting problems caused by the lack of information concerning child education, the biased burden of parenting, and the different parenting values of Korean families were all expressed by the mothers. Fourth, regarding support needs, providing individual professional support for children and child-raising support for mothers, customized language and employment support for mothers and parenting education for fathers and family education on multi-culturalism are needed. Conclusion/Implications: Suggestions for decreasing the difficulties facing multi-cultural families that had children under 3 years old were discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.201-212
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• 2013

This study divides and traces experience courses of families' disorganization and reorganization of North Korean refugees in North Korea, China, and South Korea after settlement respectively, from the course of their escaping North Korea to entering South Korea. Through these results, the study is to propose political implications. Main data for the study were analyzed through a case study as a qualitative study method, targeting eight people from July in 2012 to March in 2013. From the study result, though North Korean refugees seemed to disorganize and leave family relations in the course of escaping North Korea, it was found out that this is not disorganization but a preparatory stage which saves families standing at the crossroads of life and death and makes a chance to live with them someday. In these courses, in order for them to overcome their situations and survive, while repeating disorganization and reorganization of families, they used them as a way of saving themselves and their families. It was discovered that these phenomena always occurred simultaneously.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1185-1200
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: In the United States, one in every 5 children is obese with greater likelihood in low-income households. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have accelerated disparities in child obesity risk factors, such as poor dietary intake and increased sedentary behaviors, among low-income families because of financial difficulties, social isolation and other struggles. This study reveals insights into nutrition and health challenges among low-income families of young children in West Texas to better understand needs and develop interventions. SUBJECTS/METHODS: In-depth individual interviews were performed via Zoom among 11 families of children under the age of 3. A semi-structured interview guide was developed to explore 3 areas: changes in (1) dietary intake and (2) sedentary behaviors and (3) families' preferences regarding a parent nutrition education program. Each interview was audiorecorded, transcribed, and coded using MaxQDA software. RESULTS: Eating together as a family become challenging because of irregular work schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most parents stated that their children's dietary habits shifted with an increased consumption of processed foods. Many parents are unable to afford healthful foods and have utilized food and nutrition assistance programs to help feed their families. All families reported that their children's screen time substantially increased compared to the pre-pandemic times. Moreover, the majority of parents did not associate child screen time with an obesity risk, so this area could be of particular interest for future interventions. Meal preparation ideas, remote modality, and early timing were identified as key intervention strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Online nutrition interventions that emphasize the guidelines for child screen time and regular meal routines will be effective and promising tools to reach low-income parents for early childhood health promotion and obesity prevention.