• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.12-21
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• 2015

In an effort to expand working opportunities for women and encourage childbirth, the government of Korea introduced the free infant care policy in 2013. This policy, however, was controversial with regard to issues, such as budget shortages and dissatisfaction based on socioeconomic status. In addition, the lack of evidence-based data regarding adequate age criteria for the entry of children into childcare facilities was noted as a challenge. As child development professionals who are concerned with mental health issues, we investigated the influence and challenges of the free infant care policy with regard to infant mental health. In this review, we examined the policies enacted by developed countries, such as the United Kingdom (UK), and compared them with those in Korea. The childcare systems in Korea and the UK differ historically and socially, but show some similarities, such as maternal responsibility for parenting and household issues. Like Korea, the need for UK childcare facilities increased in the 1990's in response to market recovery and associated increase in female employment. Among the new policies in the UK, the Sure Start program has begun to provide integrated services for infants, particularly to those 0-4 years of age, who are vulnerable to social exclusion. Similar to the Dream Start program in Korea, it has been successful in providing family-related services, resulting in improvements in problematic behaviors of children, enhanced parenting skills, and decreased rates of severely injured children.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.527-556
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• 2019

In Korea, nearly 100 billion won is spent annually under the name of energy voucher on 600,000 households for the last five years, and this is a unique case and hard to monitor worldwide. Therefore, no studies have been conducted to assess impacts of the energy voucher on energy consumption and cost burden alleviation for beneficiaries. This paper aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of energy vouchers in terms of energy expense. The propensity score matching was conducted on samples of low-income households based on the Korea Welfare Panel. Then, simple Difference-In-Differences and Fixed-Effect Difference-In-Differences models were applied to estimate the effect of energy vouchers. In results, the beneficiaries of energy vouchers would spend an additional 4,371~4,870 won per month on energy consumption. The ratio is equivalent to 51.9~57.7 percent of the aid, which is also the highest when compared with 23~56 percent of U.S. Food Stamp. In terms of energy welfare, voucher payment could become one of the best management practices. However, identifying the blind spots as non-reciprocal households and expanding the differential support mechanism that reflects the energy consumption environment should be solved in the future.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.449-465
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• 2017

Small and medium-sized company workers are ill-prepared for retirement due to low wages and poor working conditions, as result, are likely to get into poverty in retirement. The purpose of this study is to conduct a case study on the current status of financial and non-financial retirement preparation of the small and medium-sized company workers. The main findings are as follows. First, the small and medium-sized company workers show the anxiety about retirement. Many pre-retirees worry that their retirement savings may not generate enough income in retirement, and the level of benefits paid in public pension is inadequate. Second, they are preparing for retirement in the areas of finance, health, working after retirement and social activity. Third, they are realistic and practical in retirement decisions makings. they are considering household budget downsizing, cutting education costs, the low-waged job choice and cash flow preference in retirement. The safety and reality in preparation for retirement are top considerations. In conclusion, this case study shows that pre-retirees of small and medium-sized companies are seeking diverse retirement solutions. We need to design integrated and practical retirement planning programs to support their specific retirement needs.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.195-232
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• 2013

Child care cash benefit policy in Korea started in 2009 limited to the those under 2 years old in the poverty group entitled to National Basic Living Security Act and the near poor group (100,000 won a month). However, in 2013 the coverage has been expanded to everyone under 5 (200,000 won for those between babies in their first year, 150,000 won for the second year and 100,000 won for those between 2 to 5 years old) regardless of the household income level. The policy change between year 2012 and year 2013 requires a rapid increase in child care budget - 760% increase. This paper examines this exceptional expansion in child care cash benefit using policy network analysis. We found that local election as well as general election immediately effect the interaction between policy actors and the types of networks. This suggest that policy actors recognize child care cash benefit to be more directly related to the election result compared with child care services. Also conflictive interaction between the parties and government bodies with budget restraint also facilitated the diversification on the child care cash benefit discussion. The policy making process of child care cash benefit was led to policy adoption immediately after the presidential election suggesting that policy formation process and the policy adoption had an close relationship in the Korean child care cash benefit policy process.

• Survey Research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.127-147
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• 2017

Despite the importance of questionnaires, little survey methodology research on questionnaire design has been conducted in Korea. The purpose of this study was to explore whether two questionnaire forms (close-ended vs. open-ended questions) about 'the most important problem in Korea' elicited similar responses. During the 2016 Korean General Social Survey (KGSS), a random half of respondents were asked the open-ended question form and the remaining half were asked the close-ended question form. While the economy is the most mentioned response (35% vs. 33.2%) to both close-ended and open-ended question forms, there is similarity in the order of highly mentioned responses if we consider that 'politics' is not provided as one of response categories in the close-ended question form. The order of second to fourth response category is crime (24.4%), education (15.4%), and poverty (6.3%) to the closed-ended question form, and politics (10.8%), crime (9.5%), and education (7.6%) to the open-ended question form. Also, the characteristics of respondents who responded with the economy as being the most important are slightly different between the two halves in terms of age, household income, and satisfaction with economic condition. Our findings suggest that we need to be careful when we adopt questions developed in other countries and to consider using survey experiments in pre-testing questionnaire items.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.179-201
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• 2013

Since the 1960s, Korean welfare regime has been characterized by developmental welfare regime, of which invisible welfare programs like relation-based welfare are one of core elements. Developmental welfare regime of Korea has been dismantled after 1990s by the internal and external pressures. Focusing on the declines of relation-based welfare, this study examines the dismantle of developmental welfare regime of Korea. Since the late-1990s, the roles of inter-family income transfer and public income transfer are significant changed in terms of each share of total household income and each contribution of poverty alleviation. In other words, the role of public welfare has been growing while that of relation-based welfare has been decreased in the last twenty years. For the sake of a successful welfare regime transition in Korea, redistributional function of public welfare is quite important, but the development of reciprocal social economy and open community are also needed. Because, at this time and in this place, traditional welfare state building strategy is not proper in many aspects. However, it is impossible to achieve the development of reciprocal open community by restoration of relation-based welfare which has been already declined. This study regards enlargement of social economy or third sector as a development of reciprocal open community, and insists that cooperatives are especially worthy of notice.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.635-640
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• 2018

The study conducted a Focus Group Interview (FGI) on college students to identify single-person households and Solitary Deaths of single-person households recognized by college students. This can be provided as basic data to address problems in single-person households and social problems such as future youth solitary death and will contribute to building a social safety net. This study conducted FGI to analyze data for five fourth graders majoring in social welfare. In the case of involuntary independent living, the high poverty and unemployment rate of single-person households was cited as the cause of economic instability, housing problems and emotional relationship formation. He said that he thinks about young loneliness because he has vague fears about what happens in the media and what can happen to them. As the number of young single-person households will inevitably increase in the coming months and economic difficulties are the biggest problem and the biggest cause of young solitude, institutional support is needed first, especially for housing costs.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.518-535
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• 2001

Nursing practices should be based on the understanding of human beings. In order to understand human beings, it is important to study the lifestyles and thoughts of people in their natural environment. In this sense, the cultural aspects of a society need to be studied for a culture-bound nursing service. Child care, which is an important element of nursing, is also strongly influenced by the culture of a society. Therefore, a cultural study is necessary to understand the child-rearing practices of any society. The major purpose of this dissertation is to provide basic foundations for developing a culture-based theory for nursing intervention through studying traditional cultural elements of child care in Korean society. The study examined child-rearing practices in a small village on Koje Island in the southern part of Korea. It utilized ethnographic methodologies including participatory observations and in-depth interviews. The study participants were 9 Korean mothers living on Koje Island. The average age was 52. The data were collected between July in 1998 and December in 1999. The average number of interviews per person was 7-8, and the duration of each interview was approximately 2 hours. The data were analyzed using the Spradley Analytical Method. The following 9 major child-rearing aspects of mothers on Koje Island were discovered as a result of the study: 1. Firstly, mothers on Koje Island were mostly concerned about the "Old Birth Goddess' Curse", especially during their child's early years. This concern was evidenced by their careful behavior when their child was very young and by their praying to the Old Birth Goddess not to be jealous of their babies. 2. Secondly, they wished their children to live a different and better life than themselves. It was represented by their strong motivation toward their children's education as well as their expectation for their children's success. In traditional Korean culture, Korean people think that the rise and fall of the household depend on their offsprings. Therefore, Korean mothers wish their children attain to a higher level of social status through education. 3. Third, mothers are concerned about their children's righteousness. Mothers on Koje island expect their children to live with discretion, justice, strength, respect, harmony, and to do their best in life. 4. Next was an 'anticipation of their children's happy marriage'. The attributes of this category were an 'anxiety about their children's married life', and 'an expectation of a good spouse for their children'. Because Korean people believe that only a son can continue the bloodline of a family, especially Korean mothers have a great concern of the possibility of their daughters not having a son after marriage. Also they have different expectations toward their daughter-in-laws than son-in-laws. 5. Korean mothers also derived their satisfaction from their son. It was characterized by 'excessive affection toward their son', 'dependency on their son', and 'being afraid of their married daughter having a girl like themselves'. Korean society has been a patriarchy. Therefore, a son is beloved as someone who will take care of his old parents, be in charge of ancestral rites, and provide a daughter-in-law who can conceive a son. 6. The sixth category concerned 'the differences in their expectations for their children'. The attributes in this category were 'different expectations depending on their children's gender', 'different expectations depending on their children's ability', and a 'great sympathy toward children with low abilities'. Korean mothers expect their son to become better than their daughter. 7. The seventh category was related to their 'roles in child-caring practices'. Traditionally a child was raised in an extended family system in Korea So it was not the sole duty of a mother to bring up the child. Korean mothers used to receive much help rasing children from their in-laws, and family members. On the other hand, many children grew up by themselves, because their mothers were very busy taking care of housework. Furthermore, many children also grew up in poverty. 8. Mothers also had issues related to 'conflicts in child rearing'. They were characterized by 'lack of understanding', 'rudeness of children', and 'giving vent to one's anger'. 9. Finally, mothers regretted not doing their best in child-rearing practices. It was characterized by a 'bitter feeling of repentance', 'feeling irritated', and 'feeling of unsatisfaction'.