• Journal of Legislation Research
• /
• no.41
• /
• pp.43-85
• /
• 2011

Child and youth welfare law in Korea is vague and complex. In a narrow sense it means the research on the provisions of the Child Welfare Act. In a broad sense it embraces all of the social welfare system regarding to the protection for children and youth. Regardless of the scope of child and youth welfare law it should be cleared what the term of child and youth means in Korean legal regulation. Historically, child protection in Korea was based on the good intentions of individuals to protect war orphan children from poverty or danger after the end of the Korean War. It is the story of the evolving status of children from being viewed as dependant of the parents to becoming rights-based citizens, even not in Constitution. In Korea neither parents nor children have constitutionally recognized right. According to Korean Constitution the parents have only the obligation to educate their children. And the state ist obliged to improve the welfare of the youth(section 34). In compliance with this article there are lots of statutes regulating youth welfare. This article reviews the legal definition of child and youth to test the uncertain definition of child and youth welfare in relation to the treatment of children's and youth's legal status in Korea. According to the Child Welfare Act child is the person under age of 18, while the legal definition of youth oscillates between the person under the age of 19 and the person over the age 9 to the age of 23. As a result child welfare is often used as the synonym of youth welfare, and vice versa. The lack of the arrangement of the legal definition of child and youth is based on the historical reasons that the legal definitions of youth (under the age of 19 or over the age 9 to the age of 23) newly appeared in the statutes regulating youth welfare, whereas the Child Welfare Act still maintained the definition of child under the age of 18. In order to get rid of the confusion of the definition of the child and youth, a part of certain statues should combine with another Act according to the purpose of the individual amended statutes. And the definition of child and youth should be subdivided into 3 or 4 classes, namely infant(0-6), child(7-13), youth(14-18) and young adult(19-26). Furthermore this article proposes a reform of the existing legal system pursuant to the nature of the law, i.g. whether the issued or amended Act takes on a selective(residual) or universal character.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.729-744
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of youth voluntary on sense of citizenship, positive self-perception, and peer relations, which procedures was conducted by being comparison between middle school students and high school ones. This study also use the data given by 2st of the Seoul Education Longitudinal Study(SELS), which subjects were 7,593 youths(3,566 in middles school students and 4,027 in high school ones). The most significant variable for youth's peer relations was sense of citizenship both middle school and high school student, which indicates not only that it is encouraged by sense of citizenship but also that developing and leading the sense of citizenship for youth should be given by the school welfare policy. Positive self-perception in middle school youth influenced the second effect on their peer relations, but high school student's peer relation was impacted by the voluntary service into a secondary effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
• /
• no.57
• /
• pp.9-42
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study is to understand the life experience of youth who discharged from out-of-home-care and lived as the unemployed NEET(Not in Education, Employment or Training) youth not established in life. For this study, we collected in-depth interviews with five youth in career moratorium or early discharge from out-of-home care. The results of the study were as follows: we divided into six themes such as "I cannot lean on family of origin", "unstable life", "strayed by wandering and prejudice", "I need someone to rely on", "belated regrets", and "constantly dreaming of resurgence"; and the six themes were analyzed separately in the sub-categories. As a result, we found out that the youth in career moratorium lived a life of regret and recovery in the unstable life journey. Based upon the results, we suggested social welfare practice and policy implications in order to systematically support the NEET youth after discharge from out-of-home-care.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.297-322
• /
• 2009

Child policy has focused on needy children with special emphasis on residual services but youth policy has implemented to promote capabilities of general adolescents by various activities. The fragmented implementation of child-youth policy by several ministries resulted in possible redundancy of target groups and insufficient service delivery system. Thus, the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs has pushed forward to integrate service delivery systems in child-youth policy after the former Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Government Youth Commission were integrated as part of a government reorganization plan. The purpose of this study is to review limitations of Lee Myung-bak government's plan to integrate child-youth policy and to make important suggestions for effective integration. Lee Myung-bak government's plan seeks to help children and adolescents prepare for the future and move forward with dreams and hope. However, this plan has fatal problems of overemphasizing the efficiency of finance without expansion of budget for children and adolescents. To achieve well-being tailored to one's life cycle, the full-scale expansion of budget is indispensible through the induction of the special fund or the special tax for children and adolescents. Fortunately, Lee Myung-bak government recognized child-youth policy as the social investment that would heighten national competitiveness in the long term, but there was insufficient child-youth policy infrastructure for new implementation. Therefore, Lee Myung-bak government needs a new design for integrated and universal child-youth policy that should take into account national human resource development plan and its economic development policy. The public responsibility for children and adolescents should be strengthened and, in addition, the network function in service delivery system should be complemented.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
• /
• no.58
• /
• pp.1-45
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between family of origin and youth transitioning from out-of-home care. Data were collected from six youths transitioning from out-of-home care and were analyzed using the phenomenological approach. The results of this study were as follows. Four categories and twelve subcategories were drawn from the meaning units. The four categories were 'chaos in separation', 're-established relations but with distance', 'completely ended relationships with the family of origin', and 'redrawing family boundaries'. First, the participants who were separated from their parents due to poverty or divorce reunited with their parents, and they appeared to continue their relationships with the family of origin after transitioning from out-of-home care. The youth were receiving various forms of support from their parents in order to be independent, and they were experiencing stable independence through this support. Second, the participants who were separated from their parents due to serious child abuse or parental death had broken relationships with their parents. The youth were independent and relied on new alternative relationships that were not with the family of origin, but they experienced somewhat unstable self-reliance. In short, participants' relationships with families of origin in this study can be defined as a tight rope between love and hate. Based on these results, child welfare practice and policy implications were discussed to help out-of-home care youth's relationship with their family of origin.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.4-14
• /
• 2023

This study aimed to discuss mental health services for children and adolescents that are being implemented as initiatives of the Korean government and to review the functions and roles of these projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three government departments are in charge of providing mental health services for children and adolescents: Ministry of Education, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and Ministry of Health and Welfare. The Ministry of Education has implemented several policies to facilitate the early detection of mental health issues among school students (from preventive interventions to selective interventions for high-risk students). The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family additionally serves out-of-school children and adolescents by facilitating early identification of adolescents in crises and providing temporary protection or emergency assistance (as required) through the Community Youth Safety-Net Project. Furthermore, the Ministry of Health and Welfare operates relevant mental health agencies for individuals of all ages including children and adolescents. Any high-risk students who have been screened through the projects of the Ministry of Education are supported through referrals to the following institutions for appropriate treatment of their symptoms: specialized hospitals, the Youth Counseling and Welfare Center operated by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the National Youth Healing Center, the Mental Health Welfare Center operated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Suicide Prevention Center, and the Child Welfare Center. To assist students who are facing any psychological difficulties because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education has established a psychiatric support group for providing emergency mental health care; furthermore, schools are promoting psychological surveillance (e.g., provision of non-face-to-face counseling services that are centered around the Wee Center). The Ministry of Education, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and Ministry of Health and Welfare have provided varied mental health support services in order to address the challenges faced by children and adolescents during the pandemic. Nevertheless, the mental health services operated by each ministry do show some limitations because their service provision system is insufficiently collaborative. The present study discussed the positive effects of each initiative as well as its limitations; furthermore, it suggested improvements for facilitating the healthy development of children and adolescents' mental health.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.45
• /
• pp.156-184
• /
• 2001

This study was designed to look at the relationships between parental child-rearing behavior and personality traits and run-away behavior of youths. For the purpose, this study compared 156 youth from the juvenile correctional systems, and 146 youths from high-schools. The additional focus was to find personality differences between runway youths and non-runway youths, and the effects of parental child-rearing behavior. The findings were as follows; First, high caring and low overprotection, among parental child-rearing behavior, was found to have effects upon adolescents with positive personality factors, whereas parental low caring and high overprotection effected upon negative personality factors among youths. Second, in relationship between runaway behavior and personality factors, it was found that youths with positive meaning in personality factors turned out to be less likely to run away from home, whereas those with negative meaning in 16PF were more likely to run away. Lastly, adolescents in high caring and low overprotection state with parents, proved to have high scores in personality factors, and low probability in runaway behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
• /
• no.58
• /
• pp.231-262
• /
• 2017

South Korea has long been a culturally homogenous society, yet the increasing number of immigrants has turned the country into a multicultural society. Therefore, many empirical studies have investigated the way immigrants adapt to the Korean society and its associated factors. However, examining the overall process of migration (from family separation to reunification and cultural adaptation to the host society) that immigrant youth usually experience has been understudied. Previous empirical research and theoretical work have identified prominent factors that predict immigrant youth's mental health: experiences of family separation, living with others rather than primary caretakers during the separation, the length of residency in the host society, and family and peer support. In this respect, this exploratory and preliminary study that examined whether the experience of migration process and post-migration are related to Korean immigrant youth's mental health problems (depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation). The result indicated that longer duration of family separation; living with relatives, siblings; and friends rather than primary caretakers during the separation; receiving less support from family and peer after migration; and a lower degree of cultural adaptation to Korean culture were associated with depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Drawing upon the results, this study discussed implications for policy and practice.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.81-91
• /
• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the longitudinal relationship between child maltreatment and adolescent suicidal ideation. Several studies suggest that child maltreatment is associated with adolescent suicidal ideation. However, these studies have not focused on the duration of child maltreatment. Methods: Participants were 420 adolescents (52.6% male; 47.4% female) involved in the Korea Welfare Panel Study. Data were collected via youth self-report in 2006, 2009, and 2012. A self-report assessment of children and youths' experiences of physical, emotional, or neglect had been surveyed longitudinally. Questionnaires on adolescent suicidal ideation were answered in 2012. A growth mixture model and multiple regression were conducted using Mplus 5.21. Results: The study results showed that 93.5% of the children had experienced no maltreatment; 6.5% had experienced increasing maltreatment longitudinally. The trajectory of increasing maltreatment was positively associated with adolescent suicidal ideation. Conclusion: These results show that children suffering from chronic maltreatment are subject to a high risk of suicide and therefore require continuous supervision and management.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
• /
• no.54
• /
• pp.173-197
• /
• 2016

This study aims to examine developmental trajectories and predictor variables of problem behaviors and school adjustment trajectories among children from low-income families using latent growth modeling. The data was collected from the 2nd year to the 4th year (2012-2014) of a community child center child panel survey conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute. The major findings are as follows. First, as the grade went up, the problem behaviors of children from low-income families increased while school adjustment decreased. Second, multi-level domains, such as individual, school, and family variables influenced school adjustment trajectory, while only individual variables, such as depression, isolation, and motivation for achievement influenced problem behavior trajectory. Third, common protective factors between problem behaviors and school adjustment trajectories were motivation for achievement in and satisfaction of the community child center. Common risk factors between problem behaviors and school adjustment trajectories were isolation and aggression. Based on the results, the implications for child welfare practices were discussed.