• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.37-61
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• 2009

The diagnosis of breast cancer can have a significant impact upon all family members in psychological and practical aspects. The impact of breast cancer may have a particularly strong impact on the spouse and the marital relationship. Breast cancer can alter the couple's emotional balance, finances, division of responsibilities and social activities. However, little empirical evidence exists investigating support-related exchanges between patient and spouse in Korea. Therefore, it is meaningful to address psychosocial effect and change of marital relationship in context of breast cancer. This article reviews 34 studies (1987-2009) on marital relationship in the context of breast cancer. Results indicate that the psychosocial impact of breast cancer on the healthy spouse and patient, spouse's effects on quality of life, adaptation, distress of breast cancer patients, and impact of breast cancer on marital relationship. Several recommendations can be made for oncology health professionals working with families of cancer patients such as the need for longitudinal and comprehensive study

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.53-72
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• 1996

This article reviewed the research on factors associated with marital quality and stability. Three major categories of factors were described, including background and context, individual traits and behaviors, and couple interactional processes. This review highlighted findings from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of the prediction of marital quality and stability. Particular attention was given to marital instruments and procedures that had a solid empirical foundation for understanding the concepts related to measure of marital quality and stability. Also, empirically based intervention programs that had been designed to prevent marital distress and divorce were investigated to figure out the relationship between communication factors and conflict resolution styles. Finally, three theoretical frameworks were drawn from empirical literatures, marital measurment instruments, and programs for marital strength to predict factors associated with the marital quality and stability. Recommendations for future research and implications were described.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.109-128
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• 2018

Objective: This study examined the relationships among mothers' marital satisfaction, parenting behavior, and preschoolers' sleep problems. Methods: Three hundred mothers of preschoolers completed questionnaires on three research variables. Data were analyzed by correlation analyses and regression analyses. Results: First, mothers' marital satisfaction was negatively related to preschoolers' sleep problems. Second, mothers' marital satisfaction was positively associated with warmth and reasoning, while mothers' marital satisfaction was negatively associated with intrusiveness, coercion, and neglect. Third, mothers' warmth and reasoning were negatively linked to preschoolers' sleep problems, but mothers' coercion was positively linked to preschoolers' sleep problems. Lastly, mothers' warmth partially mediated the relationship between mothers' marital satisfaction and preschoolers' sleep problems. Conclusion/Implications: This study confirmed that mothers' marital satisfaction and parenting behavior had an influence on preschoolers' sleep problems. These findings highlight the importance of the family context for preschoolers' healthy sleeping habits.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.637-646
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between parental strain and marital adjustment of employed mothers after their transition to the parenthood, and to investigate buffering effect of social support on the relation. The parental strain variables (physical strain and emotional strain) appear to be significant predictors of marital adjustment for employed mothers with first baby. The analysis on interaction effect indicates that social support can be a positive buffering indicator. A comparison reveals that mothers with high physical strain have significantly higher marital adjustment than those with low strain. But in the context of high social support, the difference of marital adjustment between the two mothers is reduced.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.59-68
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• 2009

External social support for family can be an important resource for families to overcome economic pressure, and can be a way to understand the concept and process of family resilience in the context of Korean economic crisis. To explore the role of external social support that alleviates the negative effects of economic pressure on marital satisfaction, the buffering effects were tested in two ways. First, the interaction effect between external social support and economic pressure on marital satisfaction was tested using hierarchical linear regression model. Second, the scores of marital satisfaction were plotted by the median scores of economic pressure and external social support. Results from the analyses of 191 couples (382 husbands and wives) indicated that external social support help families by buffering the negative effects of economic pressure on marital satisfaction by interacting with economic pressure.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.361-374
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• 2015

This study explores the relationships between the division of housework, perceived marital fairness, communication, and marital satisfaction in elderly households. Although the marital relationship is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of life, few studies have focused on marital quality, particularly in the context of older adults. Data were obtained from the 2nd National Korean Family Survey in 2010. The results based on a total of 410 elderly households with couples aged 60 and over indicate significant differences in housework participation between men and women. Women were responsible for most of the housework. According to the regression analysis, the division of housework, perceived marital fairness, and communication independently predicted marital satisfaction, but there were no significant relationships between sociodemographic factors and marital satisfaction. There were significant interactions between the division of housework, perceived marital fairness, and marital satisfaction through communication as a moderator of effects of the division of housework and perceived marital fairness on marital satisfaction. The higher the satisfaction with communication, the stronger the relationship between marital satisfaction and satisfaction with the division of housework was. On the other hand, the lower the satisfaction with communication, the greater the effect of perceived marital fairness on marital satisfaction was. These results suggest that the way in which elderly couples perceive their marital relationships and the level of their satisfaction in interacting with each other play important roles in enhancing their marital quality.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.121-133
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological wellbeing as applied to the bioecological family life welfare model, concerning individual attributes, family backgrounds, and family processes across the family life cycles. Based on Bronfenbrenner's bioecological perspective, the "bioecological family welfare model", which includes person (individual attributes), context (family background), process (mechanism - family process), and time (the family life cycles), was applied as a research paradigm for this study. The sample for the questionnaire study comprised for 900 families, considering the family life cycle in Busan and the Kyungnam area. The families were categorized into 6 family life cycles based on Duvall and Hill's family life cycle. For the final analysis, 628 families were used. According to the path analysis results, the length of commitment before marriage and self-esteem had significant effects on the stress coping ability. Several individual attributes and family backgrounds such as age, length of marriage, family life cycle, self-esteem and stress coping ability had significant effects on marital adjustment. The family life cycle and age were significant variables on family function. The significant variables on psychological wellbeing were monthly income, length of commitment before marriage, stress coping ability and marital adjustment. The regression model showed that the variables of the individual attributes, context and family process accounted for 51% of the psychological wellbeing. The results show that the suggested research model was significant and effective to explain the mechanism of psychological wellbeing. Individual attributes and family context have an impact on stress coping, marital adjustment, and family function, which in turn affect psychological wellbeing.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.13-27
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• 2008

The advancement of information and transportation technologies in the context of economic and cultural globalization facilitates international marriages. However, it is ironic that image and fantasies play a significant role in the actual process of these marriages. Using data from a national survey conducted in 2006 (Survey for the Conjugal Life of the International Marriage Families) this study examines the experiences of Korean men and foreign wives. The findings confirm the negative impacts on marital satisfaction of the spousal image of hypergamy (i.e., imaginings of a high-earning husband and a submissive wife) and abbreviated marriage processes (i.e., broker-mediated marriage and incorrect information about a future spouse), but the detailed patterns differ by gender and by the ethnic origin of the wife. Korean Chinese (and to a lesser extent Han Chinese) wives are more negatively affected by the marriage process and spousal imaginings than are Southeast Asians and 'other' wives. While Southeast Asian wives are more likely to have received incorrect information about their husbands, they show significantly more flexible attitudes toward the marriage and spouses. Unification Church members are excluded from the analysis because their marital lives are distinctive enough to warrant separate research. As previous qualitative findings suggested, some Korean Chinese wives seem to perceive that returnees to the home country deserve an improvement in economic status as opposed to the disappointing reality. Imagining a submissive wife hurts the marital satisfaction of husbands regardless of the ethnic origin of the wife.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.33-48
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore factors related to marital satisfaction among immigrant wives compared to Korean wives of Korean men. Participants included 409 immigrant wives married to Korean men and 474 Korean wives married to Korean men, both currently living in Korea. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that there were different sets of variables that predicted marital satisfaction for each group. Egalitarian decision-making was a significant predictor of marital satisfaction for immigrant wives only, whereas for Korean wives, it was the level of their depressive symptoms that was significantly but negatively associated with marital satisfaction. A wife's positive perception of her husband's communication style emerged as the strongest predictor of marital satisfaction for both Korean and immigrant wives. In addition, indicators of the cultural context of immigrant women (i.e., longer stay in Korea and greater frequency of experiencing discrimination in the past year due to their foreign appearance or status) emerged as significant predictors of immigrant wives' marital satisfaction even after taking demographic factors, depressive symptoms, and couple-level factors into account. The findings of this study contribute to existing research by (1) comparing the models of marital satisfaction for Korean wives and immigrant wives, identifying unique predictors for each group, and (2) examining the effect of cultural adaptation on the martial satisfaction of immigrant wives.

• Journal of Family Relations
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.3-25
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• 2017

Objectives: We examined which socioeconomic and intergenerational characteristics were associated with the level of intention to marry among Korean men and women in young adulthood. Method: Data came from 351 men and 391 women who were 25-34 years old, had never been married, and had at least one living parent. We conducted multiple regression analyses by gender after controlling for age and current romantic relationship. Results: Among the socioeconomic characteristics, more years of education was linked to both men's and women's higher levels of intention to marry. For women, having a secure, full-time job was related to greater intention to marry. For men, the higher their subjective socioeconomic status, the greater their intention to marry. Among intergenerational characteristics, both men's and women's positive attitudes toward supporting elderly parents were related to a higher level of intention to marry. For men, the frequency of providing instrumental support for their parents was negatively associated with the men's intention to marry. For women, higher levels of agreement with parents' responsibility to support their adult children as well as greater affection for their parents were positively related to greater intention to marry. Conclusions: The findings suggest that young adults' socioeconomic resources and the family context are important predictors of young adults' marital intentions. The results also reveal gender differences in the factors associated with young adults' marital intentions.