• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1159-1182
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to examine everyday emotional experience of urban elderly in Korea. Specifically, this study explores gender differences in the effect of place/location of activity and companionship on the daily emotional experience. Data were collected from 148 urban elderly (men=76, women=72) in Seoul, using Experience Sampling Method(ESM). The unit of analysis was the self-report and in total 5,530 self-reports were provided. The statistical methods used for the data analyses were descriptive statistics, t-test, χ² verification, and ANOVA. The major findings are as follows. First, the elderly in Korea spend a quite substantial portion of their time at home, and they spend the largest share of their time in company with their spouse. Second, women report higher intensity of stress and irritation than men in terms of overall emotional experience. Third, the effect of activity location and companionship on emotional experience turned out to be different depending on gender. Emotional experience of daily lives and overall quality of life are shown to be inter-related. Based on these findings, this study provides a significant implication that situational contexts of experience should be considered in order to understand the daily emotional experience of the contemporary Korean elderly.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-30
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to investigate (1) the relationship between gender-role attitude and psychological well-being related to the division of household labor and (2) the effect of congruency between gender-role attitude and the division of household labor on psychological well-being for the elderly. In this study, independent variable is gender-role attitude, mediating variable is the division of household labor and dependent variable is psychological well-being. Psychological well-being consists of depression and happiness. The hypotheses of this study are as follows: 1) Gender-role attitude affects psychological well-being of the elderly. The more egalitarian gender-role attitude, the higher degree of psychological well-being, whereas the more traditional gender-role attitude, the lower degree of psychological well-being. 2) The division of household labor influences psychological well-being of the elderly. The higher degree of division of household labor is likely to show the higher degree of psychological well-being. 3) The congruency between gender-role attitude and the division of household labor affects psychological well-being. As the relationship between gender-role attitude and the division of household labor is more congruent. psychological well-being increases. The results of the study are summarized as follows: 1) There is no relation between gender-role attitude and psychological well-being for the elderly. 2) The division of household labor affects psychological well-being for husband. The higher degree of division of household labor, the higher degree of psychological well-being. The result shows that husbands are involved in household labor involuntarily. 3) Congruency between gender-role attitude and the division of household labor affects psychological well-being. As the relationship between gender-role attitude and the division of household labor is more congruent, the degree of depression decreases. 4) Wives participate in most of household labor. Gender segregation in household labor is found in elderly family. 5) Health, income, network of children or sibling, and community network affect psychological well-being. The healthier, higher income and stronger network are likely to show the higher degree of psychological well-being.

• 한국노년학
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.91-109
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• 2020

This study aims to investigate the interdependence of Korean middle and old-aged couples in the association between exercise and life satisfaction through grip strength trajectory. Data were drawn from the nationally representative Korea Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) collected from 2006 to 2016. The sample included couples over 45 years of age in the first wave and participated in all six waves of the survey (Ncouple=1,997). There were three steps for analyses: correlation, parallel latent growth curve model, tests of indirect effects of the mediation paths. Covariates included in the models were husbands and wives' characteristics (age, education, work status, chronic diseases, marital satisfaction, contact frequency with friends or neighbors) and couple's household income. Results showed husbands' and wives' life satisfaction and grip strength were interdependent upon each other. Also, exercise participation of both husbands and wives was associated with both husbands' and wives' life satisfaction via the initial level of grip strength of husbands. Moreover, exercise participation of only husbands was associated with wives' life satisfaction through the initial grip strength of husbands. These results suggest the aging processes of middle and old-aged couples need to be understood in the context of gender dynamics and couple interdependence.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.62
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• pp.71-102
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to enrich our understanding of the family utilizing childcare by grandmothers and the elderly women by examining the experience of grandmothers who refused to support raising their grandchildren. The researcher focused on grandmothers who have been in charge of caring the family in the main and tried to explore the reasons for their decision not to take care of their grandchildren. For the purpose, Research participants were seven elderly women who have refused raising of their grand-children. Data were collected by in-depth interview and analyzed based on the phenomenological method. As results, it turned out that the elderly women refused caring of their grandchildren due to the burden of parenting and the rejection of an extended mother role, and the fear of family conflicts, but they felt sorry about their refusal of a request for caring support from their adult children. Second. these decisions caused various dynamics of the family members, and they were experiencing psychological difficulties. Third, elderly women perceived raising of grandchildren as a task of adult children or a problem for which the society should be accountable, and felt that the family and the society have shifted the responsibility to them. This research result confirms that a new generation of the elderly women have emerged who have different viewpoints on caregiving. It also presents a necessity to reflect the viewpoints of elderly who are mainly concerned when establishing a policy of caregiving. Based on this finding, this study also presents implications regarding support for family utilizing childcare by grandmothers and support for the elderly women.

• 한국노년학
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.593-605
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• 2018

This study examines factors that influence older drivers to consider stopping driving in advance and whose advice plays an important role in the driving cessation decision. Data came from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of community-dwelling older adults (N=2,076). About two thirds reported that they have considered stopping driving (62.8%) and they preferred to decide by themselves (66.0%). Logistic regression results showed that women and residents in urban areas were twice as likely to consider voluntary driving cessation compared to their counterparts. Each one year increase in age contributed to the probability that respondents would consider driving cessation by five percent. Those with greater difficulties in ADLs due to chronic illnesses were also more likely to consider driving cessation. No sociodemographic and health factors were related to whether older drivers preferred to decide by themselves or listen to others. These results imply that policies to promote self-motivation to stop driving among older drivers would be effective. Furthermore, they suggest it could be important to help older drivers plan their driving cessation in advance while still at a young-old age, and that more attention needs to be paid to men and those living in rural areas among older drivers.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.1189-1208
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors related to social participation of Korean young-old adults residing in urban area with a focus on the effects of various motivations. In addition, this study examined gender differences in the relationships between social participation and motivations of social participation. Self-oriented motivation, network-oriented motivation, and society-oriented motivation were considered as motivations of social participation. The study subjects were 836 men and 877 women aged 50-69. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires in 2009. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationships between motivations and the level of social participation using the SAS program. Main results were as follows: 1) The network-oriented motivation and society-oriented motivations were significantly related to the level of social participation; 2) Although men and women significantly differed in the patterns of social participation, gender differences were not found in the relationships between the social participation and motivations. These findings imply that network-oriented motivation and society-oriented motivation are important for facilitating the social participation of Korean young elderly. Further implications were discussed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.83-102
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• 2017

Expending on a life course perspective, this study explores the long-term and short-term reciprocity in parent-child relationships in Korean context. Since the reasons for providing filial support are believed to differ by gender, we focused on how a child's gender affects both types of reciprocity. Data were collected from middle-aged sons (N=726) and daughters (N=883) with at least one surviving parent. Logistic regression was then conducted in order to examine the relations between the support a child currently provides to parents and the current or previous support received from the parents. Dependent variables are financial and instrumental support that middle-aged child currently provide to the parents. The financial and instrumental support a child received from the parents within a year are included in the model as an independent variable to assess short-term reciprocity. The level of financial support a child has received during the transition to adulthood process is included in the model as a independent variable to explore long-term reciprocity. Result supports the existence of gender differences in the long-term reciprocity. Daughters provided instrumental support in response to the financial support that they had received from parents during the transition to adulthood process. However, for sons, this tendency was not found. When it comes to financial support, long-term reciprocity was observed neither for the sons nor for the daughters. Both sons and daughters are prone to provide financial support to the aged parents regardless of the level of financial support they had received during the transition to adulthood process. Short-term reciprocity was found both in sons and daughters. when they have been receiving a financial or an instrumental support from the aged parents within a year, they tend to provided instrumental support to the parents. This study shows that the aged parents still fulfill the reciprocal relationship to a certain degree. Secondly, we can conclude that the norm of reciprocity interplays with the norm of filial responsibility in contemporary Korea.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.41-76
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• 2013

Based on an analysis of the Japanese animation director Kamiyama Kenji's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series, this paper discusses two important subjects in modern technoscience-cyborg and old age. In fact, age has been an important social and political category in the modern world, along with gender, race, and class. However, age has not been a significant research topic for STS scholars. Even though many of these investigators have extensively explored the complex relationship between gender and technoscience, especially after the publication of Donna Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto" (1991), few of them have been interested in how age is reconfigured by modern science and technology. If women, as Haraway has claimed, can have a different political and cultural outlook by becoming cyborgs, then, can we expect a similar socio-cultural transformation with regard to the interaction between cyborg and old age? Do the elderly experience lesser age discrimination through the growth of biomedicine and technoscience? Indeed, it is believed that seniors are increasingly becoming cyborgs with advancing age, since their declining bodily functions are consistently replaced and assisted by various biomedical technologies. Does this enable them to overcome ageism and age discrimination as well as their alleged physiological and mental limitations? As an answer to this question, Mike Featherstone has asserted that becoming a cyborg in old age could make the wrinkled skin a mere mask and create diverse new possibilities that were hitherto unavailable to an aging person. Based on my reading of Ghost in the Shell, however, I analyze a more complex set of problems when the senile cyborg is created through the encounter between the elderly and technoscience. I argue that while the senile cyborg could challenge traditional family ideology and nationalism it would leave ageism intact and define a new individualistic life form through a body controlled within the globalized internet and capitalist economy.