Determinants of Psychological Distress of Mothers in Stepfamilies

재혼가정 내 모의 심리적 디스트레스의 예측요인에 관한 연구

The nuclear family is no longer the typical Korean Family. In recent years, stepfamilies have been of the most rapidly growing family forms in Korea. Census Bureau data show that 5.9% of marriage were in 1980, 8.0% in 1990, 10.3% in 1995, 18.0% in 2000. Especially it is remarkable that women's remarriage have been increased. In spite of the fact, the stepfamily is not an urgent issue of social welfare in Korea. The stepfamily is more vulnerable than the first-marriage family in many reasons such as vague family rules, boundary ambiguity, and stepparent role ambiguity, which provides rationale for social welfare services. This study categorizes determinants of psychological distress in remarried mothers into individual, family, and environment level and tries to prove the relationships between psychological distress and determinants. Also, it explores the degree of psychological distress in remarried mothers using Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale. The respondents of survey research are 62 cases. The result shows relatively severe level of depression among the subjects. 46.8% of them are clinically diagnosed as mild, moderate, severe depression. Our findings suggest that the variables of marriage satisfaction, ex-wife's remarriage, role strains, marriage experience, and income are significantly associated with the level of psychological distress in remarried mothers. The most powerful predictor of psychological distress is the variable of marriage satisfaction. According to the result, it is desperately needed to pay attention to social welfare services or programs for stepfamilies.