• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.99-108
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• 2003

This study was based on theories of the culture of poverty and the causes and consequences of poverty. The strong relationship of family income to mother's education presents the possibility of an intergenerational education cycle. Using a longitudinal approach, parental poverty status was measured by family income, welfare assistance, single parent, and occupation when children were 2 years of age; children's school performance was measured by teacher reports of their reading, mathematics, writing, and overall ability at grade 1. Data were analyzed by structure equation modeling. Results showed that mother's pre-childbearing level of education predicted child school performance in grade 1, confirming an intergenerational cycle. In addition, the results indicated that parental poverty acts as a mediator between the cycle.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.303-330
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among poverty, family structure and functioning, burdens of adult roles and socio-emotional problems. It was especially focused on the relationship between the burden of adult roles and socioemotional problems among children in poverty. The Structural Equation model was employed for analyses. The Theoretical model was established based on previous researches related to poverty and adult roles (for example, parentification and parentified children). Data came from the first wave of 'Seoul Panel Study of Children; SPSC' and subjects consisted of 1,807 4th grade elementary school students and their parents who were located at K-Gu in Seoul. The survey was carried out from October 25th to November 20th in 2005. The Results of the Structural Equation model were congruent with the theoretical expectations. To find a more appropriate model, three kinds of structural models were hypothesized and analysed. In the most appropriate model which had a good model fit, poverty and family structure impacted on socio-emotional problems directly and indirectly. The relationship between poverty and socio-emotional problems was mediated by family functioning and burdens of adult roles. The same mediation process existed between family structure and socio-emotional problems also. In brief, children in poverty or those who have a single parent are more likely to have impaired family functioning, which is likely to cause higher burdens of adult roles. In turn, those who have higher burdens of adult roles are more likely to have socioemotional problems. In conclusion, various theoretical and practical implications for social work practice focusing on the burdens of adult roles or caretaker roles among children in poverty were discussed.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2021

The number of single-parent families in South Korea increased since 2000, related to a sharp rise in the divorce rate of 50s and an increase in male mortality rates among those aged 40s-50s. Middle-aged single mothers experience a critical period realizing self-actualization needs, while being in the middle adulthood from the lifespan developmental perspective. In this respect, it is significant to study self-actualization of middle-aged single mothers through guided imagery and music (GIM) in order to provide them with psychological support. This study was conducted from September 2018 to June 2020, and the GIM sessions were conducted at least 10 times. Four participants were selected among the middle-aged single mothers. The imagery experiences of participants in the GIM sessions were classified into four sub-elements: physicalness, emotion, memory, and sense. Within those sub-elements, eight semantic units were categorized into 46 elements. Finally, 152 semantic units were derived. Moreover, the self-actualization which participants experienced through GIM presented three archetypal images: shadow, persona, and the self. In the GIM sessions, experiences of putting their negative emotions associated with family into words and changing passive self-imagery into active one enabled participants to bring the shadow into their consciousness, there by recognizing their positive and bright internal self. Furthermore, participants could map that their current status as people marginalized by siblings and parents, enraged and holding double standards for others, was suppressed by their 'good daughter' and 'religious' personas. This realization lead them to realize and restore their persona. The use of GIM in the study allowed participants to elicit re-experiences of the negative events, while experiencing various imagery and music. This process helped participants achieve self-actualization.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.206-223
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to discuss the nature of pregnancy experience among unwed Korean mothers and to figure out what it meant for them, by asking some of them to reflect on themselves in a written form from interpretative and phenomenological perspective, based on van Manen's research method of the same approach. The subjects in this study were seven unmarried mothers in Korea. The data were collected from July through December 2000 through in- depth interview and observation. The statements of the participants were taped, recorded, analyzed and select essential themes. To have a phenomenological understanding of the pregnancy unmarried mothers, literary works, including essays and novels, were reviewed. The findings of this study were as below: The selected substantial themes about the pregnancy and birth experiences of the single mothers included 'hatred for boy friend,' 'hatred for the fetus,' and 'hatred for myself.' The unmarried mothers met their boy friends through the introduction of friends. At first, they were good friends, but they soon went on a date and had sexual relation with no common knowledge about sex. Most of them were aware of their pregnancy after they felt fetal movement, but they put off taking the test because they didn't want to accept the fact and feared it. Such an attitude was rare among married pregnant women, and being pregnant with no prior preparation or sexual knowledge is not common in Western countries. They felt guilty and informed their boy friends of the fact, but the boy friends didn't admit their responsibility and rejected the babies. This made the poor girls hate them, and it turned into severe abhorrence. They thought their lives were ruined by the babies, and wished they would disappear. They reproached the babies, hitting their own bellies or making a kick. They considered themselves to be abandoned and didn't want to live any more. Giving themselves up to despair, some attempted to commit a suicide. They hoped to die, thinking their death would solve the problem. When they lost a chance of abortion and were about to have the babies adopted, they felt sorry for them. The unwanted pregnancy gave them a pain, but they keenly felt they were loved by their mothers, and learned the value of family. It's attempted in this study to clearly show how much unmarried Korean mothers suffered from pregnancy, and this effort paved the way for seeing unwed mothers in a new light and having a better understanding of them, instead of sticking to general perception.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.39-55
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• 2001

Concerns about paid-facilities for the elderly with dementia from middle and upper class families have been discussed lately in Korea. Small-scale, home-like group homes for the elderly with dementia were developed in Sweden in the 1980, but they have not been effectively introduced in Korea where they remain a comparatively new concept. The group home, however, would provide a good alternative to Koreans who feel guilty when they have to leave their frail parents in large-scale facilities or hospitals instead of caring for them at home. The aim of this paper is, first, to define the care of the demented elderly who come from upper and middle class families in Korea and, secondly, to discuss the need for group homes to help care for them. A survey was done by questionnaire and was answered by 577 respondents who belonged to middle and upper class families living in Korea in December 2000. Methods of analysis were frequency, mean, and Chi-square. The results of this study were as follows: 1) the traditional notion that the eldest son should be burdened with the primary responsibility for a demented parent has weakened remarkably; 2) a small-scale long-term care facility was considered the most desirable living environment for the demented elderly; 3) the facilities families needed for professional hospitals for victims of dementia, senior citizen centers, large and small-scale long-term care facilities, day-care centers, and short-stay and service housing. The study also revealed that there was low awareness of the group home. The most preferred type of structure for group homes was a single-family detached house, and the most preferred management system was small-scale that could create home-like atmosphere. Additionally the respondents wanted group homes to consist of 6-8 residents with 2-4 persons per room. The results of this study strongly suggest that policy makers should encourage the development of smallscale group homes as an alternative form of housing for the elderly with dementia.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.49-56
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• 2013

The goal of this research is to explore quantitative and residential features and spatial patterns of two-person households to suggest policy implications for housing supply and development in Seoul. Major findings of this study are as follows. First, the number of two-person households has increased rapidly mainly due to the growth of the elderly and single-parent households. They are mainly composed of the elderly over 60s and the youth of 30s of householder age. They are less likely to have well-paying jobs, and thus more likely to suffer from poverty. They are also inclined to live in rental and small-sized residential units and spatial segregation between the youth and the elderly became serious. In addition, their residential area can be classified into four types: area adjacent to employment centers, hinterland of urban centers, affordable multi-family housing area and redeveloped apartment area. It is necessary to change the current housing policy directions to take changing population and household structure into consideration. Also, diversified housing strategies and programs should be prepared to consider various household types and their needs and demands. Place-based strategies for housing supply and development are needed in consideration of spatial patterns and locational attributes of two-person households. Attention needs to be paid to resolving the social issue of residential segregation between different generations.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.2
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• pp.55-66
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• 1981

Research on children should be perferably made in reference with the past thinking if it is to be affirmed by the present and to predict the future. In this respect, Buddhism, which is one of the major original thinkings in the Orient as well as the most influential religion upon Koreans daily lives and attitudes, deserves to be researched in the light of education of children. In this thesis, I have made a trial to delve into the original Buddhistic scriptures to find out Buddha's outlook on home children and arrived at the following conclusions: 1. Concerning human development stages, Buddha regarded the starting point of human life from fertilization instead of birth, even at that ancient time, and the fetal life was devided into 4, 5, or 8 stages. 2. In spite of the numerous scriptures by Buddha, very little is written about children, and even these teaching did not regard the child as an independent entity. In addition, since Buddha was a person of superior enlightenment, he did not regard the age of human beings as of great importance. 3. On the relationship between parents and children, Buddha warned the extra ordinary attachment of parents toward children, because such attachment would be an obstacle in the search of truth. This idea was originated from his thought that the relationship between parents and children was not a single fixed one but of unlimited variation through numerous life times of reincarnation. This idea gives some illumination upon the problems of today's education where parent's exclusive attachment to their children and over-protection are hindrance for successful education. 4. Buddha put emphasis on parents' social duty, by which he meant that parents should care and accept not only their biological children but all children and all living things as if they were their own children. 5. Regardeding the children's role to their parents, Buddha taught that children should respect and support their parents under any condition. Buddha also emphasized that true filial piety was to help parents to improve their religious status by helping them attain the truth, morality, and wisdom. It is my intention to investigate Buddha's View tin children of entering pristhood.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.642-651
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• 2003

This study was performed using mealtime atmosphere to characterize the food ecology of Korean children residing in different regions of Korea. A total of 705 elementary school students, 347 girls and 358 boys, were divided into three groups according to the areas where they lived, which included Seoul (n=230), provincial cities (n=273) and rural areas (n=202). The subjects were asked to fill out questionnaires which were categorized to determine various factors related to food ecology, life styles, and health related symptoms. The average age of the study subjects was 11.5 years. The results showed that the average height (p<0.01), weight (p<0.01) and body mass index (BMIs) (p< 0.01) of the rural group were significantly lower than those of the Seoul and provincial city groups. A significantly higher proportion (10.4%) of the rural group was from disfunctional families, including single parent families, than those of the Seoul (1.7%) or provincial city (4.4%) groups. However, a larger number of children from Seoul ate alone, did not enjoy their meals, and hardly talked to each other during breakfast time, compared to those from the provincial city or rural areas. Also, the proportion (33.0%) of ‘good’ in balance of meal was the lowest (33.0%) in Seoul of the three areas (p<0.01). Most of the children answered that they liked having breakfast and dinner with the whole family. In conclusion, the food ecology of elementary children differed according to the regions in which they resided. Although children from Seoul had higher BMIs, their nutritional intake was not satisfactory, and their undesirable food ecology could be a contributing factor.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.167-194
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• 2006

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of marriage and parenthood on the physical and mental health, in consideration of gender differences. We have retested various theories including Gove's inequality theory to explain how marriage and parenthood affect the contemporary Korean men and women. This study tries to answer these questions by analyzing the data from ${\ulcorner}$Successful Midlife Development: Survey on Mental health and Work/Family Life Course in Korea and the United States (Han et at., 2001)${\lrcorner}. The data were collected from the survey of 1696 adults (women: 49.5% (n=839)) at the age of 27 to 60. In this survey, physical and mental health were evaluated in three dimensions, respectively: depression, perceived physical health and illness symptoms. The results were that occupying both marital and parental status showed better health profile than possessing other role combinations(single parent/married but no child/never-married). Gender differences and other findings have been discussed further.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.17-28
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• 2024

Background & Objectives: This study aimed to examine the relationship between subjective health perception and health behaviors among adolescents, utilizing raw data from the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2019-2021) while distinguishing between genders. Methods: The study employed data from the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2019-2020), recruiting students from 1st to 3rd grades in middle and high schools nationwide. Through population stratification, sample distribution, and sampling stages, a final sample of 1,065 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years was selected. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 28.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) at a significance level of .05. Results: Regarding the general characteristics of the subjects, no statistically significant differences were observed among male students based on school, family structure, and income. However, among female students, a significant difference in subjective health perception was noted, with higher perception among high school students compared to middle school students (p=.001). Significant differences in health behaviors were identified based on family structure for male adolescents, where those living with both parents exhibited more health-promoting behaviors than single-parent adolescents (p=.011). However, no significant difference was observed among female adolescents. In terms of health behaviors related to gender, regular exercise was found to significantly impact subjective health perception in male adolescents (p=.013), while breakfast habits were identified as significant influencers for female adolescents (p<.001). Conclusions: This study revealed gender differences in subjective health perception and health behaviors among adolescents. Based on these findings, there is a perceived need for the development of health promotion programs tailored to the unique needs of male and female adolescents.