• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.42-51
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• 1997

Although a family-centered approach to health care for developmentally disabled children has been advocated, existing systems of care have not adequately addressed the support needs of the family system and the essential role that parents play in the daily care of these children. The overall purpose of this research is to examine family system adaptation to the care of a developmetally disabled child using the Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustement, and Adaptation Framework. Relationships among family system demands (stressors, strains, transitions, child's illness factors) and family system strengths and capabilities(resource of social support) were examined to determine their separate and combined contribution to explanining the variability in family system outcomes (family system coping ). The subject for this study was 46 families who have a child with developmental disabilities(mental retardation and / or autism) from three special educational programs in Seoul, Korea. Results from correlation and hierachial regression analysis revealed that perceived social support operated as a resiliency factor between family stress and coping. Child and family characteristics appeared to be important predictors of perceived social support and coping. In summary, there is evidence that the resource of social support as a family strength and capability was found to improve the family coping. These findings also must be viewed within the context that sample of families of children with disabilities was relatively small and eligible families from support group of special educational program.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.103-118
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• 2010

This study used qualitative data to examine how low-income families confront the child care needs of their children in the midst of changes in public policy. The data were drawn from in-home interviews conducted every 6 months with 22 mothers who were welfare-dependent at the start of the research. This research depicted several life stories of the circumstances of poor children that have not had much previous attention in the literature: the general flows and the special conditions of child care among the low-income families with or without a disabled child were reported. The results in this study suggested that enabling families, through both social support and public funding, find affordable and quality child care would be one pathway to foster self-sufficiency in these families.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.238-247
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between family stress and adaptation in families with a disabled child through literature review using McCubbin's Double ABCX family crisis framework. The literature review focused on (1) family stress and factors affecting family stress, (2) the critical individual, familial and social resources which families acquire and employ over time in managing crisis situation. (3) the changes in definition and meaning families develop in an effort to make sense out of their predicament. (4) the coping strategies families employ. and (5) the range of outcomes of these family efforts The results showed that families reported financial difficulties and the burden of care-giving demands as major family stressors. Siblings of disabled children manifested depressive symptoms and social isolation. but was not consistent study results. The parents' views of the cause of the disabling condition fundamentally affected their behavior toward their disabled child. Especially. the fathers' views of the child's characteristics made the greatest contribution to positive changes in the mothers' perceptions. The term perceived social support refers to the cognitive appraisal by individuals that they are cared for and valued, that significant others are available to them if needed, and that they are satisfied with their interpersonal relationships. The perceived social support was more protective than social support source. network size and network density. Parental adaptation was found to be related to the child's communication competence rather than family coping strategies proposed by Lazarus and Folkman. One study results showed that there was no difference in depressive symptoms and physical health between mothers with a disabled child and those without all though mothers with a disabled child had negative attitudes and perceived themselves as having significantly less social support and lower family functioning. But a longitudinal study revealed decreases in the negative impact of the child and increases in sibling and overall family adaptation.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.101-114
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• 2008

Eater Seal, the child care experts, observes that children with disability significantly benefit from receiving appropriated care along side their peers. Typically developing children serve as role models from which children with disabilities learn age-appropriated communications and social behavior. Therefore the children with disability can actively participate in well-designed child care settings. But unfortunately in Seoul, Korea, only 2% of children with disability are taken care of in child care centers. And even the disabled children at the child care centers are mostly mentally or emotionally disabled because the building, programs and services of the centers are restrictive to the children with severe physical disabilities. This study reviewed Korean domestic physical environment of child care centers for children with disabilities. Questionnaire survey was conducted to 103 centers located in Seoul by mail. Our survey revealed that they need more areas for nursing room and special rooms and the accessibility to buildings has to be improved. Also, there are no elevators in all buildings surveyed. Accessibility to toilet is noted as significant problem, especially wet floors in toilets. In a nursing room, a space for psychological rest and special education is needed for children with mental disability. Technical specifications on how to make buildings and facilities accessible for the children with disability should be developed. The goal of this study is to provide basic information to develop domestic design guidelines to ensure that the child care centers are safe, convenient, and usable for everyone possible.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.75-89
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to understand the physical accessibility of the child care centers for disabled children in Japan. Fifteen centers located in Tokyo, Japan were surveyed through sketching, measuring, taking pictures, and observation. To understand the user's needs. the directors of the centers were interviewed. As a result,the followings suggestions were proposed. First, when the entrance of the center is close to the road, careful design for the entrance area is required to secure the safety of children using wheelchairs. If possible, a fence or door between the corridor and entrance is necessary. Second, most aspects of accessibility are pretty well designed. But a canopy over the entrance area is required to escape the rain. Third, a wider corridor space is desirable for storing and driving wheelchairs and for special equipment for the disabled. Forth, because the emergency exits were installed but not used, the new and safer emergency exits should be installed. These results will be a good case reference for developing Korean design guidelines for the children with disabilities.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.24 no.5 s.83
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• pp.141-159
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• 2006

It is generally blown that foster children often have special needs such as disability and psycho-behavioral problems. It is also known that foster parents will provide better care with those children when they are coping well with foster children with special needs. The purpose of the study was to explore the perceptions foster parents have and what factors affect their decisions to care for children with special needs. Literature review reveals that successful foster parent care is related to the foster parents' motivation, role perception, and social support systems. foster parents' motivation is related to 'altruism toward foster child', 'the egocentrism of the foster parent', 'previous experience with adoption' and 'the past experiences of the foster parent'. Role perceptions of the foster parent consist of 'supporting the internal system of the foster child' and 'supporting the external system of the foster child'. The social support system is characterized as the limited notions of a family oriented concept. In addition, a foster parent's decision to look after special-needs children is related to their motivation while the decision to foster disabled children is related to the levels of available social support systems as well as motivation. The results of the study implies that the motivation level and that of social support system are closely related to different aspects of the special-needs foster child; this factor should also be considered when recruiting foster parents or placing special needs children.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of the community welfare center. for the purpose this study consisted of three main subjects(1) A analysis about the programs of the community welfare center (2) A analysis about the experience of the user and non-user on the community welfare center (3) A analysis about the demand for family welfare service program For the data set 398 married women living in Jeonju were chosen. The data were analyzed with the spss pc+ program. The major findings were as follows : (1) The program of community welfare center consisted of child adolescent elder family a disabled person community welfare program Among contents of this program family welfare program is limited to level of individual needs (2) The wives experienced of community welfare center did not satisfied about equipment location program of community welfare program The 44.0 portion of wives not experience of community wlfare center have no plan using of community welfare center (3) The wives hoped to establish diversed subjects such as parents-child communication conjugal communication sexuality education for child child care techniques health and nutrition of family member time managememt and lesuire and consumer's rights and damage relief.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.410-416
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• 2009

In Korea, overseas adoption has been practiced for more than 50 years. Initially, overseas adoption began with the objective to provide permanent homes for Korean war orphans, including mixed-blood children. From 1953 to 2007, about 160,000 Korean children were placed worldwide through overseas adoption and approximately 70,000 children were adopted in Korea. During that period, Korea developed into one of leading industrial countries in the world and the family norms changed dramatically. Since 1989, the Korean government has made diverse efforts to increase domestic adoptions and to support adopted families through the revisions to Korea's Child Welfare Law. However, it is not enough to reduce overseas adoptions rapidly because the Korean government's economic support for adopted families is not adequate and Korean sentiments regarding adoption have not changed. Being an international adoptee is a unique experience, involving dissimilarities of race, ethnicity, and culture. Clearly, it is very important for us to focus on placing Korean children in the best possible environment. Therefore, Korea must make diverse efforts to reduce overseas adoptions and to encourage domestic adoption. First, Korean society has to try to reduce the number of children who need out-of-home care. Second, the Korean government and people should make an effort to increase domestic adoptions, including adoptions of disabled and older children. Finally, the Korean government and adoption agencies have to provide professional pre-adoption and post-adoption services for international adoptees and adoptive parents.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.434-450
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• 2001

This study is designed to understand the meaning and nature of raising children with cerebral palsy. It researches the experience of mothers of schoolchildren with cerebral palsy by the research method of hermeneutic phenomenology. The study was conducted from November 10, 1999 to December 20, 2000. When children with cerebral palsy usually show symptoms in the early stage of cerebral palsy, mothers do not take children to a doctor for diagnosis. And, most of mothers have a difficult time to accept the reality; they usually respond to the initial diagnosis with shock, reproach, and deny. When mothers start recognizing the reality, they consider that their children have cerebral palsy due to the their mismanagement during pregnancy, delivery, nursing, and initial treatment. They shelter their children from view and feel guilty that they cannot afford to try folk remedies for their children. As time passes, mothers face conflicts between families in diverse ways. Families put the blame on genetic effects. Mothers-in-law give their daughters-in-law a hard time, husbands shift the responsibility of raising children onto their wives, and trouble arises between families-in-law and mothers native families. When children grow up, it is physically difficult for mothers to take care their children. In addition, they suffer from all the troubles in family due to childrens handicap. Mothers try the diverse methods of bringing up children. However, they start getting tired of raising children as they experience failures and financial difficulties. Mothers feel collapsed recalling the ways of raising children. They feel anxiety, miserable, lonely, and worrying when they think how children would attend school, make friends, and live in the future. In this stage, mothers do their best to raise their children with hope. They tend to compare their children with others without handicap and spend money and time in attempting all the treatments. When mothers and children join the society at school, they find that the society does not understand disabled people, teachers show inconsiderate attitude, friends avoid them, and children hardly follow classes. Such experiences make mothers feel angry and frustrated. However, when children adapt to school, mothers see the possibility that children could accomplish schoolwork. They appreciate teachers help and others consideration. Mothers place appropriate expectations on their children and help them to prepare for the future. I would make following suggestions based on the results. 1. As a primary basic course of rehabilitation nursing intervention, solution-centered nursing intervention system should be developed. The intervention needs to be based on the understanding of mothers, who raise children with cerebral palsy, through in-depth interview. 2. Advance researches on the development of individual nursing intervention should be conducted. Individual nursing intervention needs to prevent and release actual pain focusing on mothers raising children with cerebral palsy. 3. Integrated curriculum that help children with cerebral palsy lead a normal school life with ordinary children should be developed. 4. Basic research on using of facilities and effective application of service volunteer to help children with cerebral palsy in school needs to be conducted.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.73-88
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the factors such as self-esteem, social supports, socio-economic status of parents, degree of disability in child, stress coping, religion, and sports.exercise on the qualities of lives in mothers with disabled children. Data were collect from 45 institutions(schools from kindergarten to senior-high, special education institutes, and social welfare institutions) by self-report questionnaire, and the subjects of the study were 386 mothers in Seoul whose children were attending the schools or institutions. Findings according to socio-demographic variables are as follows: 1. Mothers with disabled children in this study thought their quality of life as average degree. 2. The younger the mothers and children, the higher the quality of life was. 3. The higher the educational level and monthly income, the higher the quality of life was. 4. There was no statistically significant difference between the existence and nonexistence of spouse, and between the existence and nonexistence of religion as well. Findings analyzed by multiple regression are as follows: 1. Among 7 independent variables 'self-esteem'(${\beta}$=.49, p<.001), 'social supports'(${\beta}$=.15, p<.01), and 'socio-economic status'(${\beta}$=.11, p<.05) were found to be statistically significant in quality of life in mothers, while the rests were found not significant. 2. 'Self-esteem' was found to be the most influencing variable, meaning that the psychological factor such as self-esteem is more important than environmental factors in qualities of lives in mothers. 3. The total amount of explanation of the model was Adjusted R square=.301, so that it can be said about 30% can be explained among total variance of the qualities of lives in mothers with disabled children. Conclusions and recommendations based on the results above are: First, it is strongly recommended to conduct programs promoting self-esteem in mothers with disabled children, and to include 'self-esteem' hereafter in the studies related to qualities of lives in mothers with disabled children. Second, comprehensive and practical countermeasures should to be formulated to back up expenses for education and medical care, purchasing relative tools and equipments, plus helping to find jobs.