• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.405-420
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to find pathways among factors that distinguish the mothers' intention to have a second child. As for factors affecting the childbirth intention of mothers, this study aimed to explore pathways from fathers' participation in childrearing to intention of second childbirth as mediating variables, maternal parenting stress and marital satisfaction. This study used the third wave data of the Panel Study of Korean Children (PSKC) that is a national-representative birth-cohort study. Among the 1,802 participants of the PSKC, 717 mothers who have a husband/partner and only one child have responded a decided intention of second childbirth. SPSS 19.0 and Amos 19.0 were used to implement exploratory analyses of predictors and test path models. Results showed that the hypothetical model assuming a path from paternal involvement in childrearing to mothers' intention of second childbirth, mediated by maternal parenting stress and marital satisfaction fitted the data of working mothers and non-working mothers well. The results suggest policies focusing on internal characteristics of mothers and dynamics in the family.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.297-323
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• 2011

Part-time jobs in Sweden are highly feminized yet are in fair conditions in terms of job security, earnings, and collective representation. Three points are considered to be important to understand why part-time work in Sweden carries such positive characteristics. First, the part-time work in Sweden is widely spread not as a result of employers' need for labor flexibilization but as means to enhance the work-life balance, a value pursued within a broader social policy package to change the breadwinner model. Second, discrimination against part-time workers is restrained in Sweden because the boundary between part-time and full-time is not conspicuous. Most of part-time jobs are occupied by regular workers who exert the right to part-time work, hence may go back to the full-time status any time. Third, the regulation on overtime work of part-time workers as well as full-time workers is strong. It is largely agreed among researchers that part-time work contributed greatly to an increase of female employment rate in Sweden. Since the 1970s, the increased availability of part-time jobs induced married women who used to be economically inactive to the labor market and maintained them to be economically active throughout the child rearing period. From the gender perspective, one may still raise issues regarding part-time work in Sweden such as persistent feminization and strong occupational sex segregation. However, the observed trend shows that the part-time work in Sweden has functioned more as a stepping stone to the full-time work for women than as a women's trap.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 2010

Objectives: We investigated the clustering of selected lifestyle factors (cigarette smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, lack of physical exercise) and identified the population characteristics associated with increasing lifestyle risks. Methods: Data on lifestyle risk factors, sociodemographic characteristics, and history of chronic diseases were obtained from 7,694 individuals ${\geq}20$ years of age who participated in the 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Clustering of lifestyle risks involved the observed prevalence of multiple risks and those expected from marginal exposure prevalence of the three selected risk factors. Prevalence odds ratio was adopted as a measurement of clustering. Multiple correspondence analysis, Kendall tau correlation, Man-Whitney analysis, and ordinal logistic regression analysis were conducted to identify variables increasing lifestyle risks. Results: In both men and women, increased lifestyle risks were associated with clustering of: (1) cigarette smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, and (2) smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and lack of physical exercise. Patterns of clustering for physical exercise were different from those for cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. The increased unhealthy clustering was found among men 20-64 years of age with mild or moderate stress, and among women 35-49 years of age who were never-married, with mild stress, and increased body mass index (>$30\;kg/m^2$). Conclusions: Addressing a lack of physical exercise considering individual characteristics including gender, age, employment activity, and stress levels should be a focus of health promotion efforts.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.109-137
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• 2007

One of the key features of the Korean labor market is that, even though the central axis of employment has shifted from manufacturing sector to service sector, the ratio of part-time work is very low. Its major reasons are low wage rate, insufficient fringe benefits including social insurance, and deficient job security, even though part-time work has positive characteristics. This study examines whether part-time work would be a decent one and an alternative to full-time work by answering two questions: one is who chooses part-time work and another is whether part-time work is satisfactory. Analyses of 3,971 wage workers in the 8th wave of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey reveal that, as expected, part-time work is prevalent among the young, married women, and the old supporting the results from previous studies and that choosing part-time work on one's initiatives has a significant positive effect on job satisfaction for women while it is not for men. Form the result, it can be concluded that part-time work can be an appropriate alternative for full-time work if one chooses it voluntarily.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.149-157
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to listen to vivid story on economic life of marriage immigrant women using phenomenological study out of qualitative study methods, and to analyze the meaning of dynamicity of experiences through in-depth interviews. The research question is "What is the meaning of economic life that marriage immigrant women experience?" From the research, 67 meaningful statements were abstracted and 15 core meanings were organized. The 15 core meanings were categorized as 5 theme categories such as 'Tough Life', 'Unstable Income such as Children Education Expense and Insurance Premium', 'Search for Changes in Life Style for Adaptation', 'Pursuit of Economic Stability through Employment', 'Expectation of Supports and Return to Married Woman's Parents' Home.' The researcher made structural description through first person speaker for the application of hermeneutical writing. In other words, the meaning of economic life of marriage immigrant women in Korea is 'difficult coping process to family-oriented culture pursuing changes in life style to adapt themselves to difficult reality.' Various undertones of practice were proposed through those statements such as policy to expand opportunities to receive an old-age pension by applying 'Joint Scheme for Couples' (Virtual Name) to People's pension for stable economic life of marriage immigrant women in old age.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.133-156
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• 2006

This paper tries to explore the overall profile of Korean female labor force over the period of 1960-2000. A particular emphasis is put on portraying major over-time characteristics of female labor force, following five different political regimes--that of Park, J.H.(1960 and 1970s), of Chon D.H. (early and late 1980s), of Roh T.W. (late 1980-early 1990s), of Kim,Y.S. (early 1990-1ate 1990s), and of Kim. D. J. (late 1990-early 2000s), respectively. Discussions have centered around: 1) utilization of young single girls from rural areas during the early industrialization process of 1960-1985; 2) the beginning of married women's entry into labor market and issues of the socalled &M-curve& thesis in Korean experiences since 1990s; 3) the emergence and enlargement of non-regular workers; and 4) the launching of labor related legal measures such as the Equal Employment Act of 1988 and its successive revisions, the Maternity Leave Acts, the On-the-Job Chi1dcare Centers, and the prohibition of sexual harassments on the job setting, and so on. All in all, although it is undeniable that the Korean female labor force has experienced much progress over the period of time in terms of &equality and protection& issues, overall industrial reality we are facing with has not been so prosperous in the sense that most women workers have become the victims of industrial polarization, as time goes by.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.227-246
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• 1993

Gender differences in the seperation of emplo-yment from home and commuting patterns of the Seoul Area are examined in this paper. Throughout the analysis, it is found that there exist a substantial gender variation in comm-uting rates. Even though the regional variation of commuting rates of male workers is very small, the female workers' regional variation of commuting rates is substantial. Especially, the area around the traditional central place of Kangbuk, the area near the Youngdungpo and Kuro where manufacturing and retailing activities are concentrated, and the area where low-income families are concentrated show high rate of female commuting. In contrast, the traditional residential area, especially the high-income area of Kangnam, shows lower rate of female commuting. Generally, female workers tend to work closer to home than male workers. Accordingly, the job search range of female workers is smaller than that of mle workers. But the areal unit of job search range of female workers is wider at least than Dong. The fact that female workers' job search area is smaller than male workers' implies that the job opportunity around the home location could have more impacts on female workers' job search process than male workers' job search process. There is a substantial difference in commuting behavior between male and female workers. In general, male workers commute longer, use more expensive transportation mode, and pay higher transportation cost in comparision with female workers. These gender differences in commuting behavior could be resulted not only form the gender difference in the seperation of employment form work, but also form the gender difference in the social status in both work place and home.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.954-977
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• 2013

This paper investigates the factors to affect the consumer selection of machine-to-machine (M2M) technology in the purchase and utilization of home appliances. M2M technology, based on mobile internet, allows for automatic operation and remote control of home appliances and equipment. The introduction of M2M technology could lead to the saving of domestic housework and of active social participation for women. With a view to focusing on the liberating potential of M2M technology, this paper analyzes the correlation between four independent variables (gender, income, employment status of married woman, and possession of mobile internet devices) and two dependent variables (intention for purchase and utilization of M2M household appliances). The possession of mobile internet devices such as smart phone and tablet PC turns out to be the most significant factor to affect both the purchase and utilization of M2M household appliances. The employment status (employed or not-employed) affects only the intention for purchase. Neither the income level nor gender has significant correlation with the intention for purchase or utilization. The results differ from the conventional wisdom that the consumer selection of household technology is substantially affected by gender, income and employment of housewife.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2011

There are two main purposes in this study. First, we compare the effects of wives' characteristics with the effects of the husbands' characteristics on the induced abortion. Second, we analyze whether the determinants of the induced abortion have changed according to parity and conception period. The main findings are follows. First, both wives' and husbands' socioeconomic characters have insignificant effects on the induced abortion at parity 0, in the 1997 and 2000 Korean Fertility Survey data. Second, during the periods of the lowest-low fertility, after 2000 in Korea, wives' employments have positive effects at parity 0 and 1, while husbands' educational levels have negative effects at parity 1 on the induced abortion. The implications are as follows. First, having children had been the universal social phenomenon before 2000 in Korea. however, after 2000, reproductions have become the women's choice, lather than the duty of married women. Women must weight the balance between the benefits and the costs of children so that women's fertility behaviors become a rational choice. Women's employment is the most important factor in these rational calculations. Second, both Western individualism and the traditional Korean familism have significant effects on the fertility behavior and the induced abortions in Korea. This rejects the diffusion theory, which tells that the traditional familism must be replaced by the Western individualism in order to decline the fertility rates in developing countries.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.323-331
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• 2011

Objective: This study aimed to examine the level of risk perception related to pesticide contamination of food products and associated sociodemographic factors, as well as investigate the association with environmental pollution preventive behaviors. Methods: Based on data from Social Survey conducted in 2008 among a nationally representative sample of the population 15 years or older, we estimated proportions and 95% confidence intervals of the risk perception of pesticide contamination of food products. Logistic regression analyses were used to analyze the effects of sociodemographic status on risk perception. Results: Among respondents, those who feel anxious about the risks of pesticide contamination of domestic food products accounted for 40.4%, whereas the proportion rose to 87.0% with imported food products. These numbers showed that levels of anxiety about the pesticide contamination of imported food products were ranked at the top, and those for domestic products were at the bottom of the list of all environmental pollutants examined in the survey. Significantly related factors to anxiety about pesticide contamination of food products included women, the 40-50 age group, university graduates, married, non-manual employment, having school-aged children, and owning one's own home. The population attempting to prevent environmental pollution showed higher levels of anxiety about pesticide contamination of food products than did those who were not taking such steps. Conclusion: Compared to other forms of environmental pollution, Koreans show the highest levels of anxiety about pesticide contamination of imported food products. Therefore, it is necessary to establish appropriate regulations and transparent risk communication with the public about the safety of imported food.