• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.683-699
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• 2009

Family caregiving to the elderly is one of the most important social issues in recent Korea. Among various kinds of family caregivers, spouse caregivers particularly constitute a special group, generally characterized by continuous intimate association with the care recipients at many levels and by special commitments and responsibilities associated with the marriage bond. And the number of spouse caregiver is expected to increase in the future. Moreover, since a conjugal relation is consisted of husband and wife, their caregiving experiences and caregiving burden may vary by gender. Thus, the present study was to examine the effect of caregiving experience, especially caregiving motivation and social support focusing on the gender differences. We analysed 「2001 Survey of Care-giving Status and welfare Needs of Older Persons in Korea」 data by performing descriptive statistics, t-test and logistic regression. As a result, we found that the husband was likely to feel more burden when he started caregiving because of few alternatives. For wife caregivers, the less awareness of social support they had, the more possibility of economic burden they felt. With these results, we suggest the necessity of having gender-sensitive perspective in research and policy making for caregivers.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.657-689
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop a substantive theory on 'eating alone'(honbob)and the process of maintaining the lifestyle of eating alone for the need of a non-judgmental understanding on the new 'honbob' lifestyle. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 10 male and female workers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, who voluntarily eat alone over 70% of their meals per week with the minimum duration of 5 years. Data analysis was performed using grounded theory proposed by Strauss & Corbin (1998) in the qualitative research method. As a result, a paradigm model on the process of maintaining 'honbob' was derived. Based on categorical analysis, the causal condition was 'not trying to tune' and the central phenomenon was 'following the desire to set efficiency as the top priority. Contextual conditions were 'the atmosphere of fierce competition', 'weakening of organizational culture', 'diffusion of individualistic culture'. The intervening conditions were 'personal trait and emotional experience', 'job characteristics of less organization culture'. The action/interaction strategies were 'accepting internal conflicts', 'acting in autonomy', 'finding relationship through media', and 'distancing from superficial relationship'. The consequences were 'enjoying time for self-exploration', 'valuing self-care', 'becoming a epicurean conventionalist', and 'becoming aware of the need for balance'. The core category has been shown as 'self-oriented in accordance to priority of efficiency and being able to appreciate the importance of social group'. The Such phenomenon passes through four different stages - first, the stage of weighing time efficiency while beginning hon-bob; second, the stage of conflict when one feels nervous and not free from others' view; third, the stage of adjustment to justify his/her 'hon-bob'; and the final stage of balance to perceive the importance of social group while going on 'honbob'. The study had the aim of increasing the understanding and acceptance of the new 'honbob' lifestyle through an in-depth exploration of office worker's 'honbob' experience and the process of maintaining 'honbob' so the society can better accept it and, further, to embrace co-existence of various cultures.