• 가정의 벗
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• v.33 no.11 s.387
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• pp.12-13
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• 2000

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.605-634
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate families' responses and attitudes and the experiences of Korean LGBT individuals after revealing their sexual identity and sexual orientation and to determine how families' attitudes affected the mental health of these individuals. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were performed with 12 male and female LGBT participants, ranging from 19-30 years of age, who resided in Seoul and metropolitan areas, and reported coming out to or being outed by their families. One-to-one interviews were carried out using semi-structured questions, and the data from the interviews were analyzed using consensual qualitative research (CQR). Most of the families had very negative responses and attitudes to the participants coming out and exhibited rejection or avoidant attitudes; only a few of the families responded with receptive attitudes. As a result, the LGBT participants reacted with friction and coping behaviors, such as persuasion, participation in professional counseling, abandonment or avoidance, and running away from home. Most of the effects of the families' attitudes on the participants were negative psychological effects, such as anger, sadness, a sense of alienation, depression, anxiety, fear, trauma, helplessness, lowered self-esteem, alcohol dependence, and suicidal ideation and attempt, while receptive attitudes provided a sense of stability. For all participants, they reported that they were more likely to be hurt by their families' negative attitudes than by social attitudes. This study is significant because it provides framework for specifying families' attitudes and LGBT individuals' experiences after coming out in Korean society. It also outlines LGBT individuals' coping behaviors, psychological difficulties, and the process of coming out and provides suggestions for individuals to overcome. The results are expected to help counselors create practical strategies to better understand LGBT individuals and the psychological difficulties they may experience and provide proper interventions while counseling both the individual and the family.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.381-417
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• 2011

The primary goal of this study is to examine the factors that affect how satisfied sexual minorities are with their lives. This study focuses on how sexual minorities perceive social stigma, the social influences involved in its perception, and the effects this perception has. Using stress-coping theory, this study looks at how social stigma, as a perceived stress, affects social support and self-esteem, how the stigma influences the degree to which individuals "come out" in an effort to cope, and the resultant effects of this coping mechanism on life satisfaction. The data used if from a sample of 478 individuals who self identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. It was collected through an online survey. Using SEM, the quality was evaluated by analyzing the measurement model, and the relationship of the variables included in the theoretical model was verified by analyzing the structural model. The results of this study show that social stigma directly affects the life satisfaction of Korean sexual minorities. It significantly influences the social support they receive(from family and sexual minority peers), and their self-esteem. The degree to which the individual "comes out" is shown to affect life satisfaction as well. In contrast, the mediating effect of heterosexual support is shown to be insignificant. Based on the analyses, practical strategies regarding social stigma, social support, self-esteem, and "coming out" are suggested for sexual minorities. The social stigma should be reduced and society-scaled campaigns promoted in order to improve their level of life satisfaction. In addition, institutional protection should be developed and specialized educational courses on human rights provided which will empower these minorities with self-help mechanisms. Furthermore, issues such as establishing support system and providing a social welfare system for the sexual minority community are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.101-119
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• 2020

The study aims to understand major topics and concerns of gender identity-related questions expressed by the users of the NAVER social Q&A site. To achieve this goal, we analyzed 2,120 questions created from 2010 to 2018 using natural language- and information retrieval-based methods. Results indicated that the major topics discussed by the users include interpersonal relationships, doubts about gender identity, sexual orientation, feelings and relationships, and concerns about gender identity. In addition, users mainly expressed concerns regarding general issues of gender identity; sexual orientation; negative cognition about gender identity; confession, coming-out, homosexuality; future, heterosexual relationships, military enlistment; and causes of gender identity confusion. The present study effectively derives information needs from real-world concerns about sexual identity by employing topic modeling techniques, and by comparing the advantages of exact match and tf-idf-based information retrieval methods extends methodology of Library and Information Science. Further, it has contributed to the academic maturity of the study of information behavior by observing the information needs or information-seeking behaviors of online community users with specific interests.