• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.47-55
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• 2005

The purposes of this study are to examine the economic conditions and parenting of custodial fathers/mothers and to explain their impacts on the children's social adjustment after divorce. A total of 185 custodial parents divorced within the last 5 years completed a structured questionnaire. Children's social adjustment was the dependent variable in this study and was defined as their school performance and behavior problems. Results show that compared with divorced custodial fathers, divorced custodial mothers demonstrate more effective parenting, but there were no differences in economic conditions between them. In addition, children in single-father divorced families have lower school grades and more behavior problems than those in single-mother divorced families. Results also indicate that the economic conditions and parenting have different effects for children across family type. For children raised with a custodial father in divorced families, the economic conditions and the divorce duration are associated with lower school grades and behavior problems. For children with a custodial mother, however, the effective of parenting and the children's age have significant effects on the children's social adjustment after the parent divorced. Based on these results, this study proposes strategies for the improvement of children's adjustment in divorced families.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.181-191
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to examine the social support network for divorced single mother families. The data were gathered through in-depth interviews with seven divorced single mothers who had at least one school-age child. Qualitative analysis of data showed that divorced single mothers evaluated themselves based on other people's perception. There were mainly three different kinds of self-images, which were “a competent divorced woman,” “a bad child to my parents,” and “a socially weak person.” We also found that there were two factors that influenced the everyday lives of single mothers: all of them .;offered hardships in living as a divorced woman with children, and they also had to deal with the weakened solidarity with family of origin, relatives, and neighbors. Single mothers shared common problems yet their lifestyles and adjustment strategies were diverse. Therefore, diverse social welfare policies for education and counseling for single mothers are urgently needed to support and empower divorced single mothers.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.43 no.3 s.205
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• pp.199-219
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine how life-changes after divorce, individual resources, and interpersonal resources affect post-divorce adjustment. Especially it focuses on gender differences. Data were collected from 114 divorced men and 112 divorced women in their 20s and 30s with the inclusion criteria of 1) having hen divorced for at least 6 months but less than 5 years, and 2) not having remarried after divorce. AH divorced men and women were interviewed with self-report questionnaires. The analysis included frequencies, means, t-test, crosstabs, and hierarchical multiple regression models. The major findings were as follows. 1) Divorced women were better adjusted than divorced men. 2) Fnancial satisfaction and health problems were important factors for both divorced men and women. 3) There were gender differences in the variables that affected post-divorce adjustment. Social support and significant others' attitude toward divorce influenced post-divorce adjustment for divorced men. For divorced women, negative change in financial circumstances, their own attitude toward divorce and divorce initiation found significant. This study showed that there were gender differences in the factors affecting Post)divorce adjustment. The findings of this study suggest that a program for supporting divorced men and women should consider gender differences.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.43 no.3 s.205
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• pp.161-183
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• 2005

This study aimed to develop a comprehensive group therapy program for divorced parents and their children for increased self-esteem, problem-solving technique, communication ability and emotional support. This comprehensive program was based on Solution-Focused and Satir's Experiential Family Therapy Models, as well as on therapeutic activities from various sources. Six mothers and 18 children of divorced families participated in this program which consisted of six, two-hour sessions. This program was found to be effective in enhancing the participants' self-esteem and communicative ability in addition to emotional support between mothers and their children, and among participants. Therapeutic activities were implemented in harmony with the Solution and Experiential based values and techniques, which seemed to heighten the fun and motivation for the participants to change their view points and behaviors in a positive way.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.59-75
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• 2013

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how divorced mothers had decided to take custody of their children and became single mothers. The experiences of their lives after divorce were also explored. Data were collected from 17 Korean divorced mothers who were divorced between 2004 and 2009, and were raising at least one minor child. The data were analyzed based on the phenomenological data analysis method. Three main themes were identified: (a) reasons for deciding to have physical custody of the children, (b) mothers' experiences of adjustment after divorce, and (c) mothers' need for a policy concerning the well-being of their families. According to the divorced mothers, they decided to have physical custody of the children since they believed raising children was their natural duty of mothers or they were the most appropriate ones to raise the children rather than the fathers. While the mothers were satisfied with their lives after divorce in general, they also experienced difficulties including child care and financial strain. In particular, most mothers experienced work-family conflict related to the lack of reliable child care. When their family lives and work lives collided, the mothers put their children first and chose jobs that helped them take care of their children at the same time. The divorced single mothers hoped that the social safety net for single parents would expand to support their independence. Implications for single-parent policy are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.46 no.8
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• pp.1-15
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• 2008

This study explored adjustment of school-aged children from low-income divorced families. Specifically, protective factors for children's self-perceived competence and behavior problems were investigated with children's coping strategies, perceived social support, parents' childrearing style, and parental stress. Subjects of this study were 126 children of 4 to 6 grade and their custodial parents(38 fathers, 88 mothers) from divorced families. Children's self-perceived competence and behavior problems were not different neither by children's sex nor custodial parent's sex. When children used more positive and less negative coping strategies, and when parents experienced less childrearing stress, children perceived themselves to be more competent. Similarly, when children used more positive and less negative coping strategies, received more social support, they perceived themselves to be more adequate. Children whose parents had high levels of childrearing stress showed more internalized and externalized behavior problems. Furthermore, children who perceived less supports from peers showed more behavior problems.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.43 no.6 s.208
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• pp.145-169
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• 2005

This study aimed to evaluate Comprehensive Croup Therapy Program developed for children and mothers of divorced families. The research questions were to determine first, any differences between program participants and non-participant in the areas of life wellbeing, attitude towards divorce, self-esteem, and communication skills as a result of this program; and second the durability of these effects three months after implementation of the program. The subjects of this study were 41 children and 14 mothers of the divorced families. Among them, 18 children and 6 mothers, including 5 mother-child dyads were assigned to experimental group, while 23 children and 8 mothers, including 8 mother-child dyads, to control group. Both groups received pre-and post-test evaluation but experimental group additionally received a follow-up test. The data were analyzed by t-test, Mann-Whitney U Test, Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks Test and qualitative analysis. The results showed that therapy Program enhanced the life wellbeing of both child and mother participants significantly, and this effect lasted for at least for three months after the termination of the program. Second, though the effects were not statistically significant, child and mother participants' attitude towards divorce, self-esteem, and communication skills between mother and child changed positively after the program and these effects lasted for over three months.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.17-40
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• 1995

Rheumatoid arthritis is the one of the chronic diseases, one of its major symptoms is a chronic pain. Despite developing medical treatment and surgical techniques, it is suggested that to control the pain is the goal of the treatment. But pain is an inner experience and even those closest to the patient cannot truly observe its progress or share in its suffering. The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine's report on Pain and Disability concluded that there is no objective measure of pain-(exactly) no pain thermometer-nor can there ever be one, because the experience of pain is inseparable from personal perception and social influence such as culture. To explore chronic pain experience is to understand the process and property of the patient's perception of pain through the response to pain, the coping with pain, and the adaptation to pain. Therefore a qualitative study was conducted in order to gain an understanding of pain experience of patients with RA in korea. I used naturalistic inquiry as a research methodology, which had 5 axioms, the first is that realities are multiple, constructed, and holistic, the second is that knower and known are interactive, inseparable, the third is only time and context bound working hypotheses(idiographic statements) are possible, the forth is all entities are in a state of mutual simultaneous shaping, so that it is impossible to distinguish causes from effects and the last is that inquiry is value-bound. Purposive sampling was conducted as a sampling. 20 subjects who experienced pain over 10 years, lived in middle-sized city and big city in Korea, and 17 women and 3 men. The subject's age was from 32 to 62 (average 48.8), all were married, living with their spouse and children, except two-one divorced and the other widow before they became ill. I collected data using In depth structured interview. I had interviews two or three times with each subject, and the interviews were conducted at each subject's home. Each interview lasted about two hours an average. A recording was taken with the consent of the subject. I used inductive data analysis-such as unitizing and categorizing. unitizing is a process of coding, whereby raw data are systematically transformed and aggregated into units. Categorizing is a process wherby previously unitized data are organized into categories that provide descriptive or inferential information about the context or setting from which the units were derived. This process is used constant comparative method. The pain controlling process is composed of behavior of pain control. The behaviors of pain control are rearranging of ADL, hiddening role conflict, balancing treatment, and changing social relation. Rearranging of ADL includes diet management, sleep management, and the adjustment of daily life activities. The subjects try to rearrange their daily activities by modified style of motions, rearranging time span & range of activities, using auxillary facilities, and getting help in order to keep on the pace of daily life. Hiddening role conflict means to reduce conflicts between sick role and their role as a family member. In this process, the subjects use two modes, one is to control the pain complaints, and the other is to internalize the value which is to stay home is good for caring her children and being a good mother. To control pain complaints is done by 'enduring', 'understanding' the other family members, or making them undersood in order to reduce pain. Balancing treatment is composed of two aspects. One is to keep the pain within the endurable level, the other is to keep in touch with medical personnel in order to get the information of treatment and emotional support. Changing social relation is made by information seeking and sharing, formation of mutual support relation, and finally simplification of social relationships. The subjects simplify their social relationships by refraining from relations with someone who makes them physically and psychologically strained. In particular the subjects are apt to avoid contact with in-laws, and the change of relation to in-laws results in lessening the family boundary. In the course of this process, they confront the crisis of family confict result in family dissolution. This crisis is related to the threat of self-existence. Findings from this study contribute to understanding the chronic pain experience. To advance this study, we should compare this result with other cases in different cultural contexts. I think to interpret these results, korean cultural background should be considered. Especially the different family concept, more broader family members and kinship network, and the traditional medical knowledge influences patients' behavior.