• Human Ecology Research
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• 제58권4호
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• pp.613-633
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• 2020

This study identifies consumers' perceived benefits and costs when using Samsung Health (a healthcare app) based on consumer reviews from Google Play Store's app and social media discourse. We examine the differences in the benefits and the costs of Samsung Health using these two sources of data. We conducted text frequency analysis, clustering analysis, and semantic network analysis using R programming. The major findings are as follows. First, consumers experience benefits and costs on several functions of the app, such as step counting, device interlocking, information acquisition, and competition with global consumers. Second, the results of semantic network analysis showed that there were eight benefit factors and three cost factors. We also found that the three costs correspond to the benefits, indicating that some consumers gained benefits from certain functions while others gained costs from the same functions. Third, the comparison between consumer app review and social media discourse showed that the former is appropriate to assess the performance of app functions, while the latter is appropriate to examine how the app is used in daily life and how consumers feel about it. The current study suggests managerial implications to healthcare app service providers regarding what they should strengthen and improve to enhance consumers' satisfaction. It also suggests some implications from the two media, which can be mutually complementary, for researchers who study consumer opinions.

• Human Ecology Research
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• 제56권6호
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• pp.555-571
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• 2018

This study identified the characteristics of fashion rental service users as well as analyzed their purchase decision-making processes. A qualitative investigation was conducted through in-depth interviews with 13 women in their 20s-30s who have experienced renting fashion items due to a high interest in fashion. The results of the study are summarized as follows. The need recognition stage analyzed ventilation by mass media, SNS impact, curiosity, saving shopping time and money, awareness of situational necessity, and creation of various styles. The information search stage analyzed how users obtained information from 2 different sources of nonmarketer-dominated sources and marketer-dominated sources. The pre-purchase stage analyzed the evaluation of alternatives in which study participants used 2 evaluation criteria for fashion rental services and fashion rental items. The purchase stage analyzed how participants wait and select desired items (when receiving the notification of rentable items) or select alternative products. The consumption stage examined the usage frequency and usage method. The study divided the post-consumption evaluation stage into 2 categories for evaluation: personal feelings and service. The post-consumption behavior stage analyzed how participants displayed WOM, eWOM and purchase rental product behavior. Clothing shopping orientation of study participants is displayed in 5 dimensions of brand-seeking propensity, individuality-seeking propensity, economic efficiency-seeking propensity, rationality-seeking propensity, and pleasure-seeking propensity. This study identified three main characteristics in the study participants: interest in the fashion, favorable attitude toward used fashion items, consciousness of others.

• Human Ecology Research
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• 제61권4호
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• pp.687-707
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• 2023

This study was conducted to obtain useful information on the development of the future second-hand fashion market by obtaining information on the current situation through unstructured text data distributed as news articles related to 'purchase of second-hand clothing' and 'purchase of second-hand luxury goods'. Text-based unstructured data was collected on a daily basis from Naver news from January 1st to December 31st, 2022, using 'purchase of second-hand clothing' and 'purchase of second-hand luxury goods' as collection keywords. This was analyzed using text mining, and the results are as follows. First, looking at the frequency, the collection data related to the purchase of second-hand luxury goods almost quadrupled compared to the data related to the purchase of second-hand clothing, indicating that the purchase of second-hand luxury goods is receiving more social attention. Second, there were common words between the data obtained by the two collection keywords, but they had different words. Regarding second-hand clothing, words related to donations, sharing, and compensation sales were mainly mentioned, indicating that the purchase of second-hand clothing tends to be recognized as an eco-friendly transaction. In second-hand luxury goods, resale and genuine controversy related to the transaction of second-hand luxury goods, second-hand trading platforms, and luxury brands were frequently mentioned. Third, as a result of clustering, data related to the purchase of second-hand clothing were divided into five groups, and data related to the purchase of second-hand luxury goods were divided into six groups.

• Human Ecology Research
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• 제62권1호
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• pp.181-196
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• 2024

This study examined the influence of perceptions of food risk and food labeling on the purchase of labeled food items and the intention to pay higher prices for safe food. Data were obtained from the Korea Rural Economic Institute's Consumer Behavior Survey for Food 2020. The analysis focused on the responses of 6,355 consumers, all of whom were mainly responsible for food purchases. The analysis investigated the moderating effect of food risk perception on the relationship between food labeling perception and the purchase of labeled food. Regarding the purchase of labeled food, statistically significant effects were noted for gender, educational level, perception of food labeling, and perception of food risk; however, the interaction effect of perceptions of food labeling and food risk was not statistically significant. With regard to the intention to pay higher prices for safe food, except for age, statistically significant effects were observed for gender, educational level, food expenditure, perception of food labeling, and perception of food risk; moreover, the interaction effect of perceptions of food labeling and food risk was significant. The results indicate that consumers reporting low food labeling perception and low purchase of labeled food were most vulnerable regarding food safety; therefore, it is necessary to provide such consumers with food label provision methods and specified education programs.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.1-9
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two kinds of underwear material on subjects exercising and resting in an ambient temperature of $20^{\circ}C$, a relative humidity of 60% and an air velocity of 0.13m $see^{-1}$. Two kinds of underwear ensemble were tested, differing in their hygroscopic properties: 100% wool (W) with higher moisture regain and 100% cotton (C) with lower moisture regain. Five young females served as subjects. The experiments comprised two repeated periods of 15 min exercise on a treadmill with a speed of 6km $h^{-1}$ followed by 10 min rest. The main results were as follows: 1) Mean skin temperature was significantly higher in W than in C throughout the whole experimental period (p<0.05). 2) The temperature and humidity of the microclimate between the skin and underwear provided by the first layer of clothing was higher in W than in C (p<0.1 and p<0.05, for temperature and humidity, respectively). 3) Heart rate was significantly higher in W than in C (p<0.05). 4) Subjects felt warmer during the second exercise session when wearing wool rather than cotton (p<0.05), and they also reported more increased wetness during the second exercise and rest periods in W than in C (p<0.05). These results suggest that underwear made of wool with higher moisture regain might not act as effectively as cotton to transfer exercise-induced heat from the body to the surrounding air when light exercise is taken in a thermally-neutral environment.

• Human Ecology Research
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• 제52권4호
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• pp.405-414
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of organizational culture and childcare teachers' job satisfaction on their intention to change jobs. The participants of this study were 290 childcare teachers from the Busan and Gyeongnam areas. The instruments used in this study were the Organizational Culture Scale (4 factors with 16 items), Childcare Teacher's Job Satisfaction Scale (6 factors with 40 items), and Childcare Teacher's Intention to Change Jobs Scale (1 factor with 7 items). The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's product moment correlation, and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS ver. 21.0 software. The results were as follows: First, the higher childcare teachers' intention to change jobs, the lower was their monthly income, age, and career level, and the total number of children that they had to serve. Second, there were significant positive correlations between childcare teachers' intention to change jobs and their innovative, collective, and rational organizational culture. Further, there were significant negative correlations between childcare teachers' intention to change jobs and hierarchical organizational culture. and between childcare teachers' intention to change jobs and their job satisfaction. Finally, childcare teachers' intention to change jobs was found to be 46% about job satisfaction and organizational culture and was explained the most by the director's childcare center management. This study primarily suggests that a director's role is important in the lowering of childcare teacher's intention to change jobs.

• Human Ecology Research
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• 제51권5호
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• pp.537-549
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to develop an objective Ego Strength Scale for Children useful in research and clinical fields for measuring the ego strength of 3rd-6th grade children and to test its validity and reliability. For these purposes, we conducted a two-stage study. First, the scale was developed through data collection, composition of components and questions, a preliminary survey, and a main survey. The main survey was conducted with 1,185 3rd-6th grade children in Seoul and Gyeonggi province, and analyzed through exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis. Second, the scale we developed was validated through confirmatory factor analysis and convergent-discriminant validity analysis for testing validity related to internal structure. The secondary survey was conducted with 5,494 3rd-6th grade children in Seoul and the province of Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, Gangwon, Jeolla, Gyeongsang, and Jeju. The study concluded the following: First, the scale was designed to measure 4 factors: competence, initiative, elasticity, and sociability using 26 questions. Second, the Ego Strength Scale for Children was found to be highly valid through validity tests. In addition, it showed high reliability in an internal consistency test and split-half reliability test. As this study developed and validated the Ego Strength Scale for Children in the current situation in which there are few objective instruments to measure children's ego strength, it is meaningful in that it laid the basis for broader future research on ego strength.

• Human Ecology Research
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• 제52권5호
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• pp.483-494
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the causal relationship of early adolescents' personal variables and social support on their self-esteem by grade. Information on 226 6th graders from elementary schools and 226 1st year students from middle schools in Busan was collected. Early adolescents' prosocial behavior, academic achievement, social support, and self-esteem were assessed using their self-reports. For the data analysis, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, t -test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression were used. The collected data were analyzed by the SPSS ver. 21.0 program for Windows. The major findings were as follows: first, early adolescents' prosocial behavior, academic achievement, social support demonstrated a significant difference between grades. Second, peers' social support was the most powerful determinant of self-esteem in both the 6th graders from elementary schools and the 1st year middle school students. Third, prosocial behavior had the greatest total effect on self-esteem in the case of both groups of students. The middle schoolers' academic achievement had no causal effect on their self-esteem. The findings from this study indicate that early adolescents' personal variables and social support are important elements that affect their self-esteem differently depending on their grade. Further, the findings of this study can be used as fundamental data to develop a teaching plan and provide counseling for early adolescents in order to increase their self-esteem.

• Human Ecology Research
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• 제53권5호
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• pp.475-488
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• 2015

Economic activity and social participation by women has recently increased; however, working mothers raising young children are under new stress due to the simultaneous combination of job and parenting responsibilities. This stress has resulted in social problems of career break and low fertility. This study investigates the effect of clinical art therapy on occupational stress and parenting stress of working mothers. We analyzed 34 working mothers in full-time employment (over 8 hours a day) who have preschool children (0-6 years old). They were divided into 17 subjects in the experimental group and 17 subjects in the control group. For the experimental group, 10 hours and a half sessions of group art therapy were participated in once a week from April to August in 2014. We perform Dan Occupational Stress Index by Ivancevich and Matteson, Parenting Stress Index/Short Form and salivary cortisol test before and after the group art therapy. For qualitative analysis, Kinetic House-Tree-Person (KHTP) drawing test was used. Using SPSS ver. 19.0, paired t -test or Wilcoxon signed rank test compared the pre and post analysis results. The results of this study are as follows. First, scores of 'occupational stress factor' subpart showed significant improvement in the Occupational Stress Index after the clinical art therapy. Second, scores of 'parental distress,' 'parent-child dysfunctional interaction,' and 'difficult child' subpart in Parenting Stress Index also showed a significant improvement. Third, a positive change was observed after the clinical art therapy in the KHTP drawing test. In conclusion, this study suggests that the clinical art therapy can be effective for occupational stress factors and the parenting stress of working mothers.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.133-146
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• 2011

This study evaluates common activity and quality of life in Swedish cohousing units to examine whether Swedish cohousing functions properly or not. A questionnaire survey was fulfilled during the autumn of 2010 in G$\ddot{o}$teborg Sweden. The subjects of study were 12 of 44 cohousing units in Sweden that included 4 of the +40 cohousing and 8 of the mixed-age cohousing. A total of 242 of 353 distributed questionnaires were collected (68.6%) and analyzed by SPSS statistical program. The findings are as follow: 1) General characteristics of the respondents are that they are mostly healthy, evenly aged from age 50s to 70s and highly educated with significant proportions of academics and civil workers. There are more females than males and more singles than cohabitants. 2) The most frequent and preferred common activity is a common meal followed by a coffee meeting. A common dinner, the 'hub of living together' is held almost every day or at least a few times a week. A common meal is considered one of the most important activities because of practical and social advantages in that residents can save time and cooking costs as well as engage in social contact. Referring to evaluation of frequency and content of common activity, more than a half of the respondents prefer the current situation. 3) All of the variables (except health conditions and education level) affect participation in common activity with statistical significance. 4) Most of the respondents indicate a high level of life satisfaction and are willing to recommend others move to cohousing. They agree that there is more mutual support among residents in cohousing units than in a conventional community. In conclusion, Swedish cohousing units function successfully as they have pursued intentional community ideology and most of the residents are proud of their current living situations.