• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.27
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• pp.471-496
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• 2012

Since Takeo Toi's discussion in The Anatomy of Dependence (1973), the concept of amae has generated considerable interest in the fields of psychology, anthropology, communication and other fields. However, there have been few agreements on the definition and functions of amae (Behrens, 2004). Furthermore, it has rarely drawn interest from linguists in general and has rarely been discussed in the context of social interaction. This study aims to examine the concept of amae in Japanese and the corresponding phenomena in Korean, and attempts to explore the similarities and differences between them. The prototype of the amae relationship is the mother-infant relationship (Doi,1973). Even an adult can assume the role of a baby, showing his or her need for dependence on others and expecting to be accepted. It turns out that amae-like phenomena frequently occur in everyday life in Korea as well (Lee, 1982). There is no single term for the concept, but it can be translated in many different ways in Korean, for example, aykyo, ayang, ungsek, erikwang, etc. It can have either positive or negative connotations depending on the situation. It seems that the psychological system that causes dependent behaviors such as ungsek in Korea is cheong, one of the key terms characterizing the Korean culture. Cheong, like amae, starts in the mother-infant relationship extending to familial and to other relationships. A corpus-based analysis shows that cheong is conceptualized as gluing people together, growing over time, and also potentially fatal because it assumes illogical, uncalculated, and personal relationships. In conclusion, unlike some Japanese scholars' claim that amae is the Japanese concept that exists only in Japan, it seems that similar phenomena do exist in Korea as well, but that Korean has no single term corresponding to amae in Japanese. It seems that cheong can be posited in Korean as the inner emotional system that makes amae-like behaviors possible, and that there is not single term, but many, designating the behaviors, possibly because the behaviors have a negative connotation and are not encouraged in Korean society.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.28-43
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• 1995

The relationship between perceived social support and adaptation to maternal role for first-time mothers was investigated in this descriptive correlational study. A nonprobable sample of 90 first-time mothers were selected, who had uncomplicated perinatal experiences and delivered healthy and term newborns as well. The data was collected during a home interview at 4-6weeks postpartum. The outcome of adaptations was defined as the level of sensitivity in parent-infant interactions and of the self confidence in infant care. The perception of social support in the primiparous was assessed by the NSSQ during the postpartum. The results obtained from this study are summarized as follows : 1. The mean score of the perceived total functional support was $116.6{\pm}37.5$ points (affective : 38.1 affirmative : 39.3, aid : 39.3), and the score of the total network support was $45.2{\pm}13.9$ points (size : 4.9, duration :19.8 frequency : 20.4). These scores tended to be slightly low. 2. The mean score of the self confidence on the infant care activity as the subjective aspect of the maternal role adaptation (MRA) was 56.5 points (86.9%), whereas that of the sensitivity of the mother-infant interaction of the MRA was 78.9 points (63.2%). 3. The subjective aspect of the MRA has showed a positive relation ship with the aid dimension of the functional support. And the objective aspect of the MRA also showed a positive relationship with the total functional support and the total network support. However the correlating degrees were slightly low. In conclusion, the primiparous mothers perceived that they had received a small amount of social support during the postpartum period, suggesting the need of various kinds of social support to promote the MRA for the primiparous.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.798-809
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• 2005

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the quantities of three neo-maternal exposures; visiting frequency, auditory contact and physical contact, and to examine the relationship between the quantities of each exposure and maternal attachment, maternal self-esteem and postpartum depression in 40 mothers of NICU babies during the first week in the NICU. Method: Each neo-maternal exposure was counted at every mother's visit to the newborn and maternal attachment, maternal self-esteem and postpartum depression were measured using the maternal attachment inventory, the maternal self-report inventory and Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) on the first and seventh day in the NICU. Result: The Mean of each neo-maternal exposure was 8.77(2.81) for the visiting frequency, 5.82(3.66) for the auditory contact and 5.60(2.89) for the physical contact during 7 days in the NICU. No significant changes were found in the scores of maternal attachment, maternal self-esteem and postpartum depression between the first and the seventh day in the NICU. The quantities of neo-maternal exposures were positively related to the scores of maternal attachment and maternal self-esteem but not related to postpartum depression. Conclusion: The results of the study suggest the lack of early neo-maternal exposure in cases of NICU hospitalization negate its beneficial effects on maternal psychological well-being in increasing maternal attachment and self-esteem. More efforts are neededfor the neo-maternal interaction and the reevaluation of NICU visitation hours in order to promote maternal-infant interaction.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.116-127
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• 2006

Purpose: Assessment of mothers' neonatal perception is important in understanding early mothering experiences and in planning future care. The purpose of this study was to identify the differences of mothers' perception and caring-confidence between normal and high-risk newborn during the early postpartum period. The ultimate goal was to contribute to healthy mother-infant relationship and development of infants. Method: The data was collected for this study at one university hospital in Daejeon from May 13, 2005 to December 20, 2005. The subjects were 53 of mothers who had normal newborn and 46 of mothers who had high-risk newborn. The instrument was the 'Neonatal Perception Inventory' by revised Ja-Hyung, Lee (1986), and the 'Caring-Confidence Scale' by revised Hyun-Joo, Oh(2000). The data were statistically analyzed by using an SPSS program and include percentage, mean, SD, t-test. Result: There were significant differences in the perception of the newborn between the mothers of normal newborn and the mothers of high-risk newborn (p<.05). There were no significant differences in the perception pattern of the newborn between the mothers of normal newborn and the mothers of high-risk newborn. There were no significant differences in the caring-confidence between the mothers of normal newborn and the mothers of high-risk newborn. Conclusion: The nursing care in the nursery have needed to various interventions for normal and high-risk newborn mothers in order to improve the interaction and caring-confidence between mother and newborn.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.588-600
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• 1997

Postpartum depression is one of the most serious problems in maternal health because it affects not only the mother but also her family. Postpartum depression disturbs the maternal-infant interaction and attachment. However, most postpartum depression patients ignore this problem and do not seek treatment. Many clinicians and researchers realiza there is a need to develop a postpartum depression scale. Thus, this study has been designed to development of a postpartum depression scale. Data were collected through a survey over a period of three months. Subjects who participated in the study were 167 Korean mothers in their postpartum period. The author used a convenience sampling method. The analysis of the data was done with SPSS PC/sup ＋/ for descriptive statistics, item analysis and factor analysis. Initially 62 items were generated from the interview data of eight postpartum depression patients and from a literature review. This preliminary scale was analyzed for reliability and validity. The results of this analysis are as follows. 1. Initially 62 items were analyzed through the Index of Content Validity(CVI) and 48 items were selected. 2. Seven factors were extracted through the principal component analysis, and these contributed 61% of the variance in the total score. Finally 46 items in the scale loaded .41∼ .84 on one of seven factors. 3. Each factor was labeled. Factor 1 was labeled 'emotional phenomena-emotional upset' and included 13 items, factor 2 was labeled' cognitive phenomena-self concept disturbance' and included seven items, factor 3 was labeled 'relationship to baby-negative feeling' and included six items, factor 4 was labeled 'relationship to baby- overload' and included eight items, factor 5 was labeled 'negative maternal identity' and included five items, factor 6 was labeled 'biophysiological phenomena-disturbance of physical functioning' and included four items, and factor 7 was labeled' interpersonal relationship phenomena-blamed others' and included three items. 4. Cronbach Coefficient Alpha for internal consistency was .95 for the total 46 items. Finally, the author suggests that this scale could be adequately applied in assessing the postpartum depression of mothers during the postpartum period. The results of this study can contribute to designing an appropriate postpartum depression prevention strategy.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.369-389
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• 2013

The main purposes of this study were to analyze the moderating effect of parenting knowledge in the relationship between socio-demographic factors and parenting style. This study was conducted with the data from 'Panel Study Korean Children(2009).' Among the original data, a sample of 1,637 mothers with infants ranged from 13 to 18 months old was selected. The results of this study were as follows. First, there were significant differences in child's birth-order, mother's education level, and monthly family income. Second, there was a statistically significant difference in the parenting style of mothers in their parenting knowledge. That is, the mother with a high score in parenting knowledge reported more positive parenting style. Lastly, the interaction effects between socio-demographic variables and parenting knowledge on parenting style were statistically significant only with the variables such as child's birth-order and mother's education level. The mothers who cared for their first child and got a high score in parenting knowledge showed the most desirable parenting style, and the mothers whose educational level was under high school graduation and parenting knowledge score was low reported the lowest score in parenting style. These results suggest parenting knowledge should be subject-specifically provided as the differences in socio-demographic variables.