• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.103-119
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• 2011

This study examined the current status of the service networking experiences of workers in community child centers and the impact of various individual, organizational, and environmental factors on their service networking experiences. Structured questionnaires were mailed to the all community child centers in the Kyungnam area, and the data thus collected from 128 workers were used for the analysis. The findings indicated that most study participants did in fact possess service networking experience; however, the frequency was relatively low and the types of agencies in which this networking experienced was gained were somewhat limited. The results from the hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that being licensed social workers, the number of years in which a center had been operating, the numbers of workers and volunteers, the capacity of the centers, and workers' participation in work-related training were significantly associated with the frequency of worker's networking experiences. Based on the findings of this study, the implications for practice in promoting service networking among community child centers and other community resources were also discussed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.127-152
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• 2015

This study aimed to implement the enhancement program for the social work practice competency for children of community child center workers and to evaluate the program's effects. For this purpose, the program was implemented for ten community child center workers five times for five weeks(once a week, 120 minutes per session). For the quantitative evaluation, a non-equivalent control group design among quasi-experimental designs was used, and for the qualitative evaluation, the written materials related with the program were collected and analyzed. The results of the quantitative evaluation revealed that the social work practice skills and worker-client relationship empowerment of the community child center workers who participated in the competency enhancement program were significantly improved. In the qualitative evaluation, the subjective experiences were presented, including the improvement of the worker's practice competency and the worker's awareness of the changes in the child, the recognition of the strong points and the points to be improved in the program. This study is expected to raise the expertise and effectiveness of community child center workers, and ultimately, to contribute to the healthy development and the improvement of the mental health of children by improving the social work practice competency of the workers in community child centers, which comprise the representative service delivery system for children in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.56
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• pp.33-68
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• 2016

This study aimed to explore the experiences of community child center workers about how they have dealt with the mental health of children and adolescents who use such centers. For this study, we used a sample of ten community child center workers, who were divided into two groups and who participated in four focus group interviews. The results revealed four themes and twelve sub-themes: "the reality of facing children's mental health issues," "dealing with children's mental health issues and limitations," "know-hows accumulated from experiences and visible changes," and "remaining tasks--the workers who cannot give all." Based on the results the implications of promoting the mental health of children at community child centers were discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.257-269
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• 2014

This study examines the effects of community child care center workers' perception of professionalism on their job satisfaction. This study conducts a survey of 221 community child care workers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Gangwon provinces in Korea. Results show that the level of perception of professionalism and job satisfaction are over intermediate. The perception on professional values and ethics are slightly higher than the perception on professional knowledge and skills. The workers are more satisfied with intrinsic job factors such as achievement and responsibility than extrinsic job factors such as compensation and working conditions. Regression analysis reveals that the workers' perception of professionalism is positively associated with both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. Based on the findings, this study provides suggestions to enhance the workers' professionalism and job satisfaction, which will contribute the quality of services in community child care centers.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.51-65
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• 2015

Case management is becoming increasingly more important in the field of social welfare. The purpose of this study was to examine the practice of case management at community child centers and to identify factors influencing their performance. In addition, this study also analysed the performance level of case management at each stage and the factors influencing the level at each stage. For the purpose of this study, data obtained from about 181 community child center workers in Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongsangnamdo were analyzed. According to the results of the analysis, in Model 1 which represents the category of socio-demographic and personal factors, three factors namely gender, experience in case management, and interpersonal skills were found to be significantly influential and they have an explanatory power of 21.5%. Under the category of organizational factors in Model 2, four factors were found to be influential: experience in case management, interpersonal skills, availability of case management guidelines, and holding case conferences. These factors account for 33% explanatory power, 11.5% higher than that of Model 1. In Model 3 which represents the third category of community network literacy, three factors namely interpersonal skills, availability of case management guidelines, and ability to utilize networks were found to influence case management at community child centers, and they have an explanatory power of 43.4%, 10.4% higher than that of Model 2. For the practice of social welfare, these findings have the implication that community child center workers need to improve their interpersonal skills by cultivating communication skills, collaborative problem-solving skills, conflict-management skills, and other relevant skills. Furthermore, it is necessary to provide specific guidelines for case management, to have regular case conferences, to establish a community network, and to reinforce cooperation and mutual support among institutions within the network.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.285-310
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to verify qualitatively and quantitatively practitioners' perceptions of functions and roles of community child center which plays a pivotal role in afterschool care in Korea. To achieve its purposes, we investigate environments, services, workers, service users, and delivery systems of community child center. As a result, 4 types of perception of community child center(service integration-oriented type focusing on professional workers, care-oriented type based on child care center's physical environment, delivering service-oriented type working in collaboration with schools, and individual case management-oriented type) were examined. These results were also classified into two categories. One focused on the importance of workers and supports for service environments. The other focused more on the functions of community child center to find commonality and originality in other afterschool care systems. This study can be valuable in understanding practitioners' different perception on functions and roles of community child center which have not yet been confirmed statistically. The results allow us to apply diverse practitioners' perceptions to the practice, and to elicit discussions regarding improved practice directions for managing community child center. It also can provide useful baseline data in policy decisions and enforcement.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.406-416
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• 2019

Purpose: Children in migrant villages in Kyrgyzstan have a high incidence of anemia and need effective health promotion programs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a pilot study of a health promotion project for infants and toddlers based on community participation. Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the project. The project was carried out by nurses at a public health center, community health workers, and local residents in a migrant village. After the operational system of the project was established, health assessments, child-care education, provision of vouchers for iron supplements, and activities to improve residents' awareness were conducted during 6 months among 100 children, of whom 85 were finally analyzed. Results: In international health projects, close cooperation of the project team with community residents and health workers is important. Access to the community-based program was feasible in the socially and economically poor migrant village, and improvements were shown in children's anemia and awareness of health care. Conclusion: By focusing on the effective aspects of this preliminary project, plans to utilize community health workers and promotion strategies can be added to the main project to improve health promotion among children in this area.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.183-196
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of case management in child welfare facilities to determine what the inhibiting factors as well as complementary factors are. For this purpose, data from 181 workers in community children's centers and 96 workers in child protection agencies and foster care centers were analyzed, the analyzed by using SPSS 21.0 program. In the case of community children's center interpersonal skills, case management guidelines, super vision, and network utilization were the influential factors while in other child welfare facilities, personal inhibitory factors, social welfare work experience, case management experience, and network utilization were the affecting factors. The implications reveal that social welfare practice should enhance the interpersonal skills of the workers, strengthen the supervision system, and provide a clear case management guideline. It is also important to set up a network of all local child welfare facilities and strengthen cooperation and mutual support among the institutions within the network.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.256-268
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• 2020

Purpose: This study aimed to explore ecological factors and strategies for childhood obesity prevention targeting vulnerable children using a community-based participatory research (CBPR) methodology. Methods: The CBPR was conducted by following basic process steps. Participants were 12 community stakeholders such as community child center directors (n=4), vulnerable children's mothers (n=3), community health center officials (n=2), and lay health advisors (n=4); they were purposively sampled from K municipal county in Seoul, South Korea. The qualitative content analysis was performed to explore main themes of the ecological factors and strategies by using data obtained from 5 times of focus group interview. Results: Twelve ecological factors associated with childhood obesity prevention were identified: Intrapersonal factors including emotional overeating; interpersonal factors including permissive parenting style of children's eating behaviors; organizational factors including social workers' less educational opportunities; and community/policy factors including less government financial support. Four ecological strategies for childhood obesity prevention were addressed: Developing obesity prevention programs targeting vulnerable children' lifestyles; promoting parents' active participation in education; building healthy meal service environments through empowering social workers; and building supportive community environment and securing community resources for child obesity prevention. Conclusion: Our findings may be informative in terms of providing a comprehensive understanding of multi-level ecological barriers against vulnerable children' obesity prevention and, moreover, guiding multi-level strategies for preventing childhood obesity targeting children enrolled in community child centers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.143-151
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• 2020

Objective: Bidi is an inexpensive, low-processed, hand-rolled tobacco product. In Bangladesh, especially in Rangpur, tobacco farming and bidi processing are common. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the impact of bidi making on children working in bidi factories. Methods: This qualitative(walk-through survey) and quantitative(questionnaire-based survey and a urine cotinine level quantitation) study was conducted in Rangpur, Bangladesh in 2017. Study population included child-workers aged ≤14 years who were regularly employed as bidi makers. Findings: The results of the walk-through survey revealed hazardous working environments at bidi factories. For the quantitative survey, 171 child-workers were categorized into "less-working"(<5 hours/day) and "more-working"(≥5 hours/day) groups; additionally, "forced-working"(forced into work by parents) and "voluntary-working"(working voluntarily) groups were delineated within the same population. In the logistic regression analysis, odds ratios(ORs) of respiratory symptoms and unusual absence(absent ≥5 days/month) were higher in the "more-working" group than in the "less-working" group(unusual absence: OR, 2.91; 95% confidence interval[CI], 1.43-5.94), and this association became higher in the "forced-working" group with longer working hours(OR, 5.68, 95%CI 2.30-14.00). Conclusions: Cheap, hand-rolled tobacco(bidi) is harmful to the health of bidi-making child-workers. Children in poverty bow to the demands of cheap labor and poverty and jeopardize their health and future prospects by working in bidi factories. Tobacco control policies should consider the social effects of tobacco beyond its biological effects.