• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.371-380
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• 2004

This study investigated about tendency of friendships characteristics and self-esteem of elementary and middle school girls, especially how they differ with respect to grades and how self-esteem differ in terms of friendships characteristics of elementary and middle school girls. The results of this study were as follows: First, regarding general tendencies of friendships and of self-esteem, this study showed that most adolescents had best friends, close friends and a group of friends. Also, almost all had more than three close friends, hung around with a group of friends consisting of 5 to 8 young people, interacted with friends more than once a week. Most adolescents perceived 'social acceptance' as most important, followed by general self-worth, conduct behavioral, cognitive ability, physical appearance and the physical ability. Second, this study showed that there were significant differences in terms of general characteristics and self-esteem based on grade. Third, this study showed there were significant differences in the level of self-esteem according to whether the adolescents had best friends, how many close friends they had, how many had a group of friends, and how frequently they interacted with friends.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.307-314
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• 2019

This study investigated children's friendship factors such as number of friends, friendship quality, and friends' characteristics as a function of children's sociometric status. The concordance between children's and their friends'perceptions of friendship quality was examined. Subjects were fifth grade students recruited from two public schools. The peer nomination index assessed peer rejection and acceptance. Positive and negative nominations as well as social preference identified children into rejected and popular groups. Children who nominated each other on their list of friends were considered mutual friends. Children reported the quality of their friendships using the friendship quality scale. The results showed that rejected children had fewer mutual friends compared to popular children. Rejected children as well as their friends perceived their friendships less positively. Moreover, rejected children's perception showed lower correlations with their friends'perceptions than popular children's perceptions. Furthermore, rejected children were similar with friends in respect to peer rejection level. It was concluded that rejected children's problems in their peer group and dyadic friendships may mutually influence each other. The findings from this study highlight the need for future research on friendship quality and psychosocial adjustment for rejected children.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.35-49
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• 2002

This study examined the developmental characteristics of friends and disliked peers in 169 children and adolescents, including 44 preschool children, 43 primary school, 42 middle school, and 40 university students. Their descriptions of 2 same gender friends and 2 disliked same gender peers were categorized with an 81 category coding system. Comparisons across age and sex were made by a cross-tabulation test. Results showed that the reported characteristics of friends and disliked peers varied by age, but there was no sex difference. That is, younger children liked their friends because they played together, their friends were generous and attractive, but older children liked friends because they had some similarity, were reliable allies, caring and concerned. Younger children's disliked peers were aversive, aggressive and hyperactive while older children's disliked peers were dissimilar and snobbish.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.713-735
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the characteristics of maternal social networks on maternal expectation for their own children to examine the path that social networks had an effect on the self-esteem and the emotional intelligence of children through maternal expectation for their own children. The data used in this study were collected from 524 fourth to sixth graders and their mothers residing in Daejeon using structured questionnaire. The major findings of the study were as follows : (1) Among social network characteristics, proportion of friends and neighbors, proximity, direction and interference had a negative effect, and proportion of mothers of child's friends, frequency of contact, intimacy, emotional support, service support had a positive effect on maternal expectation for their own children. (2) Among social network characteristics, proportion of mothers of child's friends had a direct effect and proportion of friends, neighbors, and mothers of child's friends, proximity, frequency of contact, intimacy, direction, emotional support, service support, and interference had an indirect effect on children's emotional intelligence through maternal expectation for their own children. (3) Among social network characteristics, proportion of kin and mothers of child's friends, intimacy, service support, material support and interference had a direct effect, and proportion of neighbors and mothers of child's friends, proximity, frequency of contact, direction, service support had an indirect effect on children's emotional intelligence through maternal expectation for their own children.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.91-109
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of various factors, the social support of friends and relatives, couple's characteristics, and the mother's parenting characteristics, and their impact upon infant development. For the purposes of this study, data was taken from 2078 infants who were born in 2008 and their mothers who participated in the 1st Korean Children Panel Survey of the Child-Care Policy Research Institute. The data collected were processed statistically by means of a structural model and the fit of the model was also found to be very good. The findings indicated that the social support of friends and relatives and couple's characteristics did indeed impact upon an infant's development, with the mother's parenting characteristics having a mediating effect. The direct effect of the social support of friends and relatives on infant development was positive and the results of the effect were the same even when taking into account the mediating effects of the mother's parenting characteristics. The direct effect of a couple's characteristics on the mother's parenting characteristics was negative but the result of it was also positive when taken in conjunction with the mediating effects of the mother's parenting characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.37-58
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• 2001

The Purpose of this study was to examine the direct or indirect effects of psychological family environment self-control, and friends characteristics of middle school students on their problem behaviors. Data were corrected from 520 senior students of middle school (266 boys and 254 girls) who reside in Inchon. The level of problem behaviors was directly influenced positively by closeness with friends and negatively by self-control and open communication with mothers. And the level of problem behaviors was indirectly influenced positively by intrafamily conflicts and negatively by self-control, parental monitoring and open communication with parents. Self-control was the most powerful predicator of problem behaviors of middle school students. Self-control was directly influenced positively by open communication with fathers and negatively by intrafamily conflicts. Closeness with friends was directly influenced positively by parental monitoring and negatively by self-control and open communication with mothers.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.75-83
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between peer victimization by peers, bullying, and friendships, with a focus on friendship network, friendship quality, and friends' characteristics. The subjects were 678 fifth and sixth grade primary school children recruited from a public school in Bucheon city. The peer nomination index was used to assess peer victimization, bullying, and friendship network. In addition, children themselves reported on the quality of their friendships using the Friendship Quality Scale. The results showed that victimization by peers was influenced by friendship network size, support, and victimization of friends, whereas bullying was explained by support and the bullying behaviors of friends.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.36
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• pp.261-288
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• 2011

This study focuses on adolescent prosocial behavior as one of the necessary elements for youth to grow as a healthy member of the society. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of peer group on adolescent prosocial behavior by comparing the peer influence model and the individual characteristics model. For the study, we conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses using the data from the Korean Youth General Survey 2008, administered by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Results show that friends' prosocial behavior had a positive impact, but friends' antisocial behavior had a negative impact on adolescent prosocial behavior. When individual characteristics including self-esteem and empathy were analyzed simultaneously, empathy, self-esteem, friends' prosocial behavior, and friends' antisocial behavior were found to be statistically significant. The strength of association between individual characteristics and adolescent prosocial behavior was greater than that of friends' behaviors. Also, significant moderating effects of individual characteristics on the relationships between adolescent prosocial behavior and friends' behaviors were found. For example, the positive effect of friends' prosocial behavior on adolescent prosocial behavior increased as adolescent's level of self-esteem increased. On the other hand, the negative effect of friends' antisocial behavior on adolescent prosocial behavior decreased as adolescent's level of empathy increased. Based on the findings, both the peer influence model and the individual characteristics model were considered valid in explaining prosocial behavior of Korean adolescents. Finally, implications of this study for positive youth development were discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.265-276
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• 2020

This research is to study about the extrinsic characteristics of imaginary friends in the picture books which are published in Korea and its publishing trend. At first, the pioneering country which is publishing picture books telling about the imaginary friend belongs to the western countries, and some part of them are printed in Japan and Korea among east asia, and its story is most likely fiction, since 2000, the picture books about the imaginary friends have been steadily published. Secondly, its extrinsic characteristics among them are the gender, name of the main character and his/her imaginary friends, and whether the imaginary friend present themselves, their physical types, and the numbers of imaginary friends in the picture books. The percentage of gender between man and woman who is more likely to have the imaginary friends in the picture books are higher to girls than boys, and their imaginary friends are to be called by the intimate or unique name rather than the its general name and/or the name reflected by it appearance, and the imaginary friend are only visible to the main character, and its type are widely ranged from animal, human, and others in frequent order, and the main character tend to have only one imgainary friend rather than to have multiple ones.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.54-67
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• 2021

Purpose: The aim of this study was threefold, to longitudinally examine the risk of habitual smoking onset in adolescents, to delineate the effects of neighborhood characteristics and friends' smoking status on the habitual smoking onset, and to investigate whether the association between friends' smoking status and habitual smoking onset was moderated by neighborhood characteristics. Methods: This study conducted multilevel discrete-time survival analysis, using cohort data from the 3rd to 6th waves of the Korean Child and Youth Panel Survey, which excluded habitual smokers, matched with 2010 census data on respondents' residence. Results: Habitual smoking onset risk increased from the 8th to the 11th grade, and then slightly decreased from the 11th to the 12th grade. Friends' smoking status (B = 0.60, p < .001), smoking rate (B = 0.06, p = .038), and the number of tobacco outlets in the respondents' neighborhood (B = 0.51, p = .003) were positively associated with habitual smoking onset risk. Furthermore, the association between friends' smoking status and habitual smoking onset risk was moderated by the number of tobacco outlets in the neighborhood. Specifically, the association was stronger in neighborhoods with more tobacco outlets (B = 0.58, p = .048). Conclusion: Friends' smoking status and living in neighborhoods that are more susceptible to smoking increase the risk of habitual smoking. The number of tobacco outlets in the neighborhood enhances the peer effect of adolescent's smoking behavior. Therefore, policies or interventions designed to reduce youth's tobacco use should focus on not only on reducing peer smoking, but also restricting smoking by adults and the number of neighborhood tobacco outlets.