• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.81-107
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• 2009

This study is to understand, in the view of resilience, the experience of military widows, whose husbands died while on active military duty and have lived as single mothers for a long time. This study using a qualitative research method based on Phenomenology, especially using Colaizzi's process of data analysis. 99 meaningful sentences, 26 themes, and 10 theme clusters has been categorized from the interview of 9 military widows, who has been participated a self-help group for them. The 10 theme clusters are 'denial and grief over the death of spouse', 'ambivalence over the duty of their husbands', 'acceptance of the helpless fate and arduous fight to live', 'sorrow in the social and historical context', 'responsibility and endeavoring of parenting', 'self-existential challenge', 'immanent belief system as a military widow'. 'effort to find self-identity in the outer systems', 'wish to reassure their existence', and 'to find the meaning of life after husband's dead'. These their self respect and feeling of honor have become their belief system in their life, which they have raised their children and take their responsibilities with their best effort. The self-help group has helped them to find their self-identity and has sustained emotionally healthy. This group has been also empowering them through their voices being heard to the outside society. They have made an effort which their existence is recognized by the country and the military system. The findings of this study can be used as a system to gather opinions and to provide information and program which may be accepted politically and then applicable and integrated social work service through the social support system and networking.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.127-153
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• 2004

In the absence of a male provider the state must decide how far and under what conditions it will provide for the mother and her children. In the case of lone mothers, there are three main possible sources of income: the labour market, the absent father, and the state. However, the relative proportions of these three sources vary significantly from country to country as well as from individual to individual within the group of lone parents. Until very recently the UK has been alone among countries of the EU in allowing lone parents to draw benefits without making themselves available for work so long as they have dependent children. However, in the 1990s, the UK government introduced major changes to his policies regarding lone parents. The UK government attempted to restrict the role of the state as a source of income for lone parent families. At the beginning of the 1990s, the emphasis in the UK was put on securing more money from 'absent fathers' to maintain. However, the policy was unsuccessful and by the mid-1990s attention to the only other possible source of income for lone parent families, the labour market, was stepped up, notwithstanding the ambivalence of politicians about the desirability of women with young children entering employment. From 1998 the Labour government introduced a series of reforms aimed at reducing both worklessness and poverty by raising welfare payments to families both in and out of work, improving financial incentives to work and introducing a more proactive welfare system. The results presented here suggest that these policies have raised the employment rates of lone parents by around 5 percentage points, or 80,000. These employment gains have come from a welfare reform package that does not require lone parents to search for jobs, or uses time limits in welfare programmes. In addition these gains have been achieved despite generous increases in welfare payments for lone parents who do not work. These earnings gains combined with the more generous welfare are making rapid progress in reducing lone parents' poverty.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.121-140
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to understand how the economic conditions and needs of single-parent families are different between single-mother and single-father families, and also how they are dependent on household composition. The data for this study were drawn from the 1st Korea Welfare Panel Study and analyzed by frequencies, means, ${\chi}^2$, t-test, F-test, and logistic regression with the STATA 9.1 program. The major findings are as follows: (1) Single-parent families are more likely to live in a three-generation household than married couple families. (2) The composition of a three-generation household of single-parent families is affected by sex, age, education, type of marital disruption, the type of employment of single parents and the age of the last-born child. (3) The income-to-needs ratio is not significantly different depending on the sex of the single parents and their household composition. However, material hardship is significantly low in three-generation household single-parent families. (4) There are differences between three-generation single-parent families and independent single-parent families in income sources: The ratio of public transfer to total incomes is higher in three-generation households than independent households, while the ratio of private transfer to total incomes is higher in independent households.

• Proceedings of the KHMA Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.260-260
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• 2010

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.59-75
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• 2013

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.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1049-1069
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine post-divorce adjustment and new partnership of immigrant single mother after divorce. 4 immigrant single mothers from Vietnam were interviewed and data were analyzed by qualitative method. The results were as follows. First, immigrant single mothers coped with stress after divorce through sending their children to Vietnam, working and remittance. Second, they began dating a new man in the work place who were of various nationalities, such as Korean, Vietnamese, Uzbekistan and developed partnership to remarry, cohabit or date with deep intimacy. Third, single immigrant mothers in various partnership like remarriage, cohabitation or dating were satisfied with intimate and loving relationships and support from both sides parents and the birth of new child. However, participants were anxious about the new partner's favoritism toward the biological child and discrimination against the new partner with an unfamiliar cultural background, for example, being from a like a Muslim country. The results suggested immigrant women after divorce showed various partnership on a path towards marriage and that we should pay attention to the aspects of change in multicultural families after divorce.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.15-23
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship mother-adolescent communication and adolescents' alienation in both single mother-headed family and two-parent family. The subjects were 548 middle and high school students who were 82 single mother-headed family's adolescents and 466 two-parent family's adolescents in Keoungbok. The data were analyzed by factor analysis, t-test, standard multiple- and hierarchical multiple regression(using SPSS 12.1). Major findings were as follows: (1) The single mother-headed family's adolescents were perceived less positive mother-adolescent communication and higher alienation than two-parent family's adolescents. (2) The adolescents' alienation was associated with mother-adolescent communication in both single mother-headed and two-parent family. The less positive parent-adolescent communication, the higher adolescents' alienation. (3) The family structure(single mother-headed or two-parent) was a significant predictor of adolescents' alienation. But when the effect of mother-adolescent communication was controlled, the effect of the family structure became non-significant.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.45-65
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to analyze the life satisfaction of a single household head. This study examined the life satisfaction level of the single household head and analyzed the contributing factors. Data for this study were from the 7th KLIPS (7th Korea Labor and Income Panel Study), and the sample. consisted of 241 single household heads (including 83 male household single heads and 158 female single household heads). The statistics used for the analysis were frequencies, percentile, means, standardization, ANOVA, and multiple regression. The results were as follows. First, 53% of the household heads were due to their spouses' death, 34% of the household heads were single due to divorce, and 13% were single for other reasons. The average age of a single household head was 51 years, and the average education level of a single household head was 9.7 years and 70% of the single household heads were employed. Approximately 46% of the single household heads lived in small-and medium-sized cities. Second, the level of satisfaction with income, leisure, and residence of the single household head was lower than the middle level (3.0 points), while the level of satisfaction with family relationships, relatives, and social relationships was higher than the middle level (3.0 points). Third, there were differences in the life satisfaction level of single household heads in accordance with the single household head's marriage status, residence, recognition of health status, and current financial situation. Finally, significant variables contributing to the life satisfaction level of the single household head were gender, educational level, residence, monthly total income, satisfaction level of leisure, and family relationships. The most influential variable was the residence.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.17-43
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• 2011

With a substantial rise in divorce rates since the mid 1990s, single-parent households are increasing rapidly in Korea. Often it is believed that children in single-mother households suffer the most economically and socially with the marital disruption of the parents. This study hypothesizes that in Korea the socioeconomic status of single-father households may be lower than that of single-mother households mainly because low-income divorced women are not able to form their own households with children. The analysis is based on two sub-samples from the 2% sample of the 2005 Census, one, with children 12 years old or younger and, the other, with divorced mothers of children of the same ages. The findings support the hypothesis that previously-married single fathers show the lowest educational and occupational status among 6 groups of parents: fathers and mothers from two-parent families, fathers and mothers from married but spouse-absent families, and previously-married single fathers and mothers. Divorced mothers'likelihood of living apart from their children has a strong negative association with their educational attainment, with the highest likelihood among women of middle school or lower education and the lowest likelihood among women with college education. Although single mothers comprise a larger percentage of single-parent households, single-father households demonstrate a particular vulnerability with their weak socioeconomic status.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.39-61
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• 2013

This paper analyzed the experience of case management experts and single mothers in managing the cases, as the useful approach for family enrichment of a low-income single parent family. The analysis included five case managements and interview with three case management experts for single-parent families. Four of the five cases have been in progress at present. According to the analysis, the main appeals for single-parent families were economy and basic life, physical and mental health, family and social relationships, and child care and education. Furthermore, the interview with the case management experts identified the difficulty in managing single-parent family cases, especially those cases with complicated demands and problems, barriers to expert management, and required support for family enrichment. Finally, this paper analyzed the implementation process of case management for single-parent families in a specific area, meaning that the results of this paper do not represent all single-parent families. Moreover, the analyzed reports were specific to the case management implementation process. Thus, the contents, which were not recorded in the reports, were not fully reflected, and the in-depth analysis of multilateral aspects was restricted.