The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of grandmothers who provide child care services to their grandchildren and employed mothers who utilize child care by grandmothers, with regards to their relationships while exchanging the specific type of intergenerational support. The data for this study came from 42 in-depth, individual interviews with 21 pairs of employed mothers who had at least one child younger than elementary-school age and their mothers or mothers-in-law who had provided child care on a daily basis for their grandchildren. Our phenomenological analysis revealed that the grandmothers felt uncomfortable and overwhelmed when caring for their grandchildren and that they considered this activity to be different from caring for their own children by nature. However, the grandmothers wanted to help their adult children based on their feeling of "boo-mo-ma-eum" (meaning parental heart, i.e., love or care). The employed mothers perceived that they were substantially dependent on the grandmothers by receiving help with child care and housework. Reliance on grandmothers was inevitable and beneficial to these mothers. Dynamic intergenerational living arrangements enabled the dependent relationships. The grandmothers set specific boundaries pertaining to current and future child care so that they would not take on too much responsibility for child care. The mothers used various strategies that contributed to stable child care support from the grandmothers. Providing financial remuneration was an important strategy that had symbolic relational meanings, such as expressing gratitude, rather than financial meanings.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among co-parenting, maternal parenting stress, and preschoolers' anxiety and hyperactivity with a sample of 155 mothers with 3 to 4 year old children (83 boys and 72 girls) living in Seoul. They completed a questionnaire on co-parenting, maternal parenting stress, and preschoolers' anxiety and hyperactivity. The results were analyzed by means of correlations and regressions. Co-parenting was positively correlated with preschoolers' anxiety and hyperactivity but affectionate, integrated co-parenting was negatively correlated with preschoolers' anxiety and hyperactivity. Maternal stress of parental suffering, dysfunctional interaction, and difficult temperament were positively related to preschoolers' anxiety and hyperactivity. Conflicting co-parenting was positively correlated with maternal stress of parental suffering, but affectionate and integrated co-parenting was negatively correlated with maternal stress of parental suffering and difficult temperament. Furthermore, maternal parenting stress mediated the relationship between co-parenting and preschoolers' anxiety and hyperactivity. Especially, maternal stress of parental suffering tended to play a perfectly mediating role between conflicting and integrated co-parenting and preschoolers' anxiety, between conflicting co-parenting and preschoolers' hyperactivity. Maternal stress of difficult temperament tended to play a perfectly mediating role between integrated co-parenting and preschoolers' anxiety and between conflicting co-parenting and preschoolers' hyperactivity. These results clearly indicate that maternal parenting stress plays a crucial role in the levels of preschoolers' anxiety and hyperactivity.

This paper analyzed the implementation process of experts managing the case of grandparent and grandchildren families in the case management process, as the useful approach to strengthen the function of grandparent and grandchildren family. The methodology were the analysis on 6 management cases by step and the analysis on the interview with 3 experts implementing the case management on grandparent and grandchildren families. As a result, major complaints from grandparent and grandchildren families were basic livelihood and economy area, physical and mental health area, child care and education area and culture area. The service goals were set by such classification and support service was provided using the internal and external resources. The case management process was effective for improving the satisfaction on life by positively changing the grandchildren and promoting the psychological and emotional stability. 6 cases were under the post management after the analysis was completed and linked to the program 'Reinforcement of Family Ability of Grandparent and Grandchildren Family.' In accordance with the interview with the experts in case management, the grandparent and grandchildren family case management was characterized by high dependency and difficulty in expressing the desires. They required the long-term approach as well as the approach to restore the relationship with the original family.

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.

The purpose of this study is to investigate if self-esteem mediates the effects of conflict with parents, peer relationship and school adaptation in relation to the satisfaction with life of adolescents in multicultural families. The subjects of the present study are 152 adolescents of multicultural families ranging from 12-16 years of age from the cities of Seoul, and Daegu, and the provinces of Gyeong-gi, and Gyeong-buk, South Korea. The measured constructs are Conflict with Parents, Friendship, School Adaption, Self- Esteem and Satisfaction with Life Scale. The dates were analyzed using path analysis. The major results of this study demonstrate that self-esteem does not mediate the effects of conflict with parents and peer relationship in relation to the satisfaction with life of adolescents in multicultural families. However, self-esteem does mediate the effects of school adaptation in relation to the satisfaction with life of adolescents in multicultural families.

This study aimed to analyze the functionality and healthiness of family rules through a relational analysis of the relationship between the rule frequency by sub-family system and the content properties shown in the 'family constitution', It also aimed to examine the relationship between the perception degree of healthy family elements and the family subsystem rules and prepare the project development plans. As a result, it was a found that there were many dysfunctional rules, and healthiness was not satisfied. Project development plans include specific project plans, delivery systems, an orientation for practitioners, the necessity of evaluation and feedback, family health diagnosis, association with other project areas, and small scale operations.

This study seeks to determine how personality patterns on marital adjustment are influenced by interacting with conflict resolution styles. Data for this study were collected from intermarriage couples comprising 293 pairs (586 patients) who lived in Korea for at least 5years. Snowball sampling was carried out from August to October 2011. SPSS 18.0 was used to analyze the collected data. The results of this study are as follows: (a) The conscientiousness and openness of personality patterns turned out to be common personality factors that represent a positive affect on the intermarried couples' effort to adapt. (b) The extroversions, agreeableness, and neuroticism shown significantly increase and decrease the intermarried husband's marital adjustment, but the same did not have a significant influence on the intermarried wife's marital adjustment. (c) Factors that affect marital adjustment, the conflict resolution styles of intermarriage couples showed different results depending on the gender. (d) The Intermarried wife's personality patterns represented a positive affect on her marital adjustment by interacting with her husband's conflict resolution styles, while the intermarried husband's personality patterns represented a positive affect on his marital adjustment by interacting with his wife's conflict resolution styles. The implications of this study will be discussed in the conclusion.