• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.733-749
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• 2011

The purpose of this research are as follows. The first is to investigate the mediating effect of interpersonal skill on the relationship between the ability to use Internet and social activity among the 50's and 60's. The second is to compare 60's latent mean of core variables with 50's ones in terms of information gap. The data was Seoul welfare panel data made by Seoul welfare foundation in 2008 and the total subject was 941(50's=644, 60's=297). When it comes to the research methods, structured equation analysis for verifying the mediating effect and latent mean analysis for comparing the two groups were practiced. The results of this research are as follows. First of all, interpersonal skill did function as partial mediator. Second, according to the latent mean analysis, the group of 50's showed a more higher level of the ability to use Internet. On the other hand, the group of 60's revealed a more active social participation. In conclusion, Information educational programs should focus on Internet communication skill for enhancing social activities of the elderly and consider the differentiations among the elder generations.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.49-63
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• 2013

This study is conducted to activate the education of leisure activity for the old age so as to improve the qualities of the lives in the prolonged elderly lives. The method is examined to see how the level and types of leisure activities and life satisfaction for elderly. The target of the survey for this study was the 280 male and female elderly living in S city and C city. the statistics used for data analysis were reliability, frequency, percentage, mean standard deviation, t-test, one way ANOVA and correlation. The results of study were as follow; First, the result investigating the degrees of old people's participation in the pattern of leisure activities and life satisfaction showed pastime activities and family centered activities as the most participating leisure activity pattern, self developing activities and religious social service activities as the least participating one. Second, in comprehensive social demographic characteristic of the elderly participating in the leisure activities pattern, it was shown that the higher their level of lives was, the better their family atmosphere was, the healthier they were, they participated more in their leisure activities. Third, when the life satisfaction were reviewed to find what relation there were according to the pattern of leisure activities, it was shown that the more they participated in recreation and social activities, the more they participated in self developing activities, the more they participated in family centered activities, their life satisfaction was higher. and the old people who did the pastime activities showed high life satisfaction too. Considering this result, we need to develop systematic programs suited to our culture. In addition, Home Economics Education has to support the ideas and leisure experts have to be cultivated.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.121-130
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• 2024

This study utilized data from 1,068 women aged 40-59, drawn from the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) conducted in 2020, to investigate factors impacting subjective health perception and health-related quality of life. Methodologically, STATA 15.0 was employed for complex sample mean and standard deviation calculations, complex sample weighted percentages, complex sample t-tests, and multiple regression analyses. Common factors influencing both subjective health and health-related quality of life included education level, household size, depression, and stress. Age, binge drinking, and physical activity were identified as factors influencing subjective health perception. Insurance type, employment status, and sleep disorders emerged as factors impacting health-related quality of life. Recognizing middle age as a crucial transitional phase into old age, the development of health policy programs aimed at enhancing subjective health and health-related quality of life during this period is deemed essential.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.669-686
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate types of neighborhood environments and to verify whether the types of neighborhood environments are directly related to life satisfaction of older adults. To achieve this goal, I used'2014 National Survey on Older Koreans' data which surveyed the older adults aged 65 and over living in the community and a total of 10,281 respondents were analyzed. To determine the types of neighborhood environment, the time taken by walking from community organizations or places such as grocery stores, medical centers, administrative agencies, welfare centers, public transportation was used as an neighborhood environment indicators. As a results, there were six types of neighborhood environment: a leisure-welfare walk-limited type(20.3%), a leisure-welfare long-distance type(15.5%), a balanced proximity type(7.8%), a store-traffic type(35.8%), a traffic proximity type(10.1%), and a marginalized area type(11.3%). Compared to the balanced proximity type, older adults living in a store-traffic type and a marginalized area type were more likely to have negative life satisfaction. older adults who have higher life satisfaction were more likely to be female, more educated, get higher household income, and have a spouses or partner. Moreover, the better the health conditions, the higher the frequency of contact with children, siblings, friends and neighbors, the higher the satisfaction of life. Finding from the study highlight the importance of neighborhood environment in late life and provide implications for building age-friendly community.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.589-612
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• 2019

Korea has undergone rapid modernization and globalization process in the last few decades. The purpose of this study is to explore how shifting traditional values are impacting Korean elderlies and their perceptions of aging experience. In order to understand how changing social and cultural practices are affecting older adults, the similarities and differences among Korean elderlies living in three different geographical locations are examined in a multidimensional comparative framework. Life story interviews were conducted with 30 Korean elderlies (10 urban residents in Korea, 10 rural residents in Korea, and 10 residents in the US). Paying attention to within-group variation, this study particularly focused on analyzing the psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual experiences that made lives meaningful and resilient in old age in spite of physical decline. Based on analysis of narrative, the following major areas were identified as having positive or negative influence on aging experiences: physical health, emotional health, family relationship, work, leisure/social activity, and spirituality. Common themes of aging well across all settings included: "life not indebted to their offspring," "physical and mental health," and "dying well." Spirituality played a critical role in cultivating perspectives on life and accepting aging process, which were rooted in specific religious traditions participants identified (e.g., Christianity or Buddhism). Interesting differences in the meaning of work and leisure were also found between elderlies residing in Korea and the US immigrant context. One unique factor continuing to negatively affect Korean elderly in rural community was related to shame of not obtaining higher education. Implications for future research are also addressed.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.13-25
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• 2024

The rate of single-person households has been increasing all over the world, and there has been a particularly rapid increase in them in Korea. Single-person households show unique and various characteristics related to the reasons for becoming a single-person household, gender, life cycle, and so on. Thus, research needs to focus on the specific groups of single-person households in order to provide tailored policies and programs. This study segmented single-person households in three groups based on life cycle: young, middle-aged, and older adults. Differences in the level of healthy lifestyle, as well as factors affecting that, were investigated according to the groups. The data were collected in 2022, with 237 respondents from single-person households in Kimpo. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis were conducted. The overall level of healthy lifestyle was found to be significantly higher for young adults compared to older adults. Results from multiple regression show that significant factors related to the healthy lifestyle of single-person households were gender, educational attainment, whether becoming a single-person household was voluntary, and whether the respondents had experienced discrimination as a single-person household. Significant factors differed by the sub-categories of the healthy lifestyle scale. This study has implications related to discovering differences in the level of healthy lifestyles of single-person households through examining the factors affecting it according to life cycle.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.927-939
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze motivations, benefits, and satisfactions of the college student volunteers. We carry out the pre-to-post survey with 615 college student volunteers (male 245, female 367) who have participated in the mobile education program for the elderly funded by a Telecom. The instruments consist of VFI (Volunteer Functions Inventory) developed by Clary & Snyder (1999), including 30 items for motivations, 12 items for achievements, and 5 items for satisfactions of volunteering. The items for motivations and achievements are comprised of 6 subcategories: career, value, understanding, protective, enhancement, and social. The results of this study are as follows: (1) Enhancement motivation is the highest, followed by understanding, value, career, protective, and social motivation. (2) Social benefit is the highest, followed enhancement, career, understanding, value, protective benefit. (3) The difference between motivation and benefit in social category is the largest, followed by career, enhancement, value, protective, and understanding category. While benefit is higher than motivation in all other categories, motivation is higher than benefit just in value category. (4) High motivation-high benefit, high motivation-low benefit, low motivation-high benefit, and low motivation-low benefit groups are dichotomized by the median of each motivation and benefit. In all six categories, high motivation-high benefit group shows the highest satisfaction, but low motivation-low benefit group shows the lowest. In short, benefit shows stronger correlation with satisfaction than motivation does. Finally, we suggest several implications for future research and policy of college students' volunteering based on these results.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.329-352
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• 2009

This study examined life in old age and images of the aged perceived by middle-aged and old-aged generations through indepth interviews with 30 persons aged 40s through 80s residing in three areas (city or county) in capital region in Korea to use it as basic information in planning social welfare policy and reorganizing social services in response to population aging in capital region in Korea. In terms of economic life of the middle-aged and olde-aged generations perceived older people's opportunities for work were rarely given to the aged due to ageism and negative stereotypes of aging and the aged, and the aged tended to regard themselves less able or unable to work. In terms of social life of the aged both middle-aged and old-aged generations perceived that the frequency of social participation was low, and the daily life of the aged was found mostly aimless, unorganized and unplanned. In terms of psycho-social life of the aged both generations still felt that they were not alienated from the family, neighbors, and the society. In terms of social welfare services both generations thought the aged needed basic services such as income maintenance, health care, housing services, and particularly they felt lack of social services. The old-aged generation was willing to travel to the distance taking more than one hour to receive social services that they would need. Both the middle-aged and the old-aged agreed upon the necessity of preparation for old age and the benefits of earlier preparation, however, they said that they could not prepare for their old age due to lack of social programs to help preparation for old age and due to spending for rearing and education of their children. In terms of perceived life in old age both middle-aged and old-aged generations tended to be slightly positive, but the degree of positiveness differed between respondents from urban area and those from rural area regardless of generations. Images of the aged were perceived to be overwhelmingly negative while positive images were very few in number regardless of generations. This finding may suggests that negative stereotypes on aging and the aged are also prevalent in Korean society like in Western societies. Based on findings of this study some implications for social policies in response to population aging in capital region were suggested.

• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.611-632
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• 2016

Solutions for elderly health issues need to be found that take into account not only a medical perspective, but also interactions with social conditions such as socioeconomic status. With this in mind, this study aims to understand how socioeconomic status leads to health inequalities for the elderly. Specifically, this study investigates the mediating effects of socioeconomic status(income and education levels), health activities as an intermediary of the three dimensions of physical health(medical health, functional health, subjective health), accessibility of medical facilities, social participation, and social network. To test the research model, a secondary data analysis was conducted on the 2014 National Survey of Senior Citizens. The participants of the study were 10,451 elderly men and women aged 65 and above. To test the mediated model, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted following the procedures suggested by Baron and Kenny(1986). In addition, a Sobel test was conducted to test the mediated model's significance. According to the analysis, the effects of income and educational levels on the health of the elderly were not the same. Additionally, different results were found depending on health dimensions. However, the overall direction of the results showed that the socioeconomic status of the elderly creates health disparities, and health behaviors, accessibility of medical facilities, social participation, and social network had significant mediation effects between socioeconomic status and physical health. Study findings especially worth noting are as follows: education was shown to have a stronger effect on health than income; effects of social integration factors such as social participation were highlighted; and significant mediating effects on the accessibility of medical facilities remained even after taking residential area into account. Results of this study shed light on health inequality mechanisms due to socioeconomic conditions and the need to find alternatives to alleviate these problems.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.54
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• pp.221-243
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• 2003

Activity theory explains that the old people participate in social activity as a role-substitute from loss of roles given by work and family. It is possible to enhance their life satisfaction through these activities. Based on this activity theory, this study aims at explore the role substitute of voluntary activities and to analysis whether volunteering commitment has an effect on life satisfaction. Data were collected by using survey questionnaires to the elderly over 55 years old who participated in voluntary activity at 25 Volunteer Centers in Seoul. The Activity theory was operationalized by job or joblessness, family type, achievement type obtained through voluntary activity The results are as follows. (1) Job or joblessness has effect on the activity frequence and activity time. (2) Social achievement after voluntary activity has effect on the duration only (3) And the family type did not have any effect. These three variables of activity theory do not have an effect on life satisfaction. The elderly volunteering commitment was explained by variables other than activity theory such as reward, health, education, sex. And the elderly volunteer's life satisfaction were affected by the family types and their economic status. These results imply that the Korean elderly voluntary activities could be expained partially by Activity theory. Also for these elder volunteers's life satisfaction, qualitative respects such as achievements through voluntary activity, and concerns and support by agencies are more important than the time they imput in voluntary activities.