• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.147-166
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between cultural identity and the psychosocial adjustment levels of children in international marriage families by focusing on the effects that different types of cultural identity have on children's overall psychosocial adjustment. The data for this study came from a survey conducted on 122 third to sixth grades children with foreign mothers living in Seoul and Gyeonggi-Do. As a result, it was found that children's identification with Korean culture was on average higher than their identification with their mother's culture. Secondly, in terms of identity type, assimilation and separation types appeared to be the most dominant, followed by the integration and marginalization types. Finally, it was found that cultural identities had significant effects on children's psychosocial adjustment in international marriage families. In particular, the level of self-esteem was the highest for children in the integrated group, while it was the lowest for those in the marginalized group. These results indicate that identification with the mother's culture is just as important as one's Korean identity when it comes to determining the degree of psychosocial adjustment of children in international marriage families.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.77-88
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• 2019

This study started with the aim of creating a parenting environment for raising children as a solution to the problem of low fertility. Communal housing is a type of housing where professional childcare environment and lives of family with children can be achieved in community space. It is an environment that supports the development of the child and life of family. However, there is no guidance system for planning such an environment. Therefore, this study aims to develop a pattern language for communal housing of families with children. The research method comes in two steps. First, the documents that provided pattern language and design guidelines about the environment of child and families with children were analyzed. Second, experts specialized in child education, women and family, environmental design were interviewed. As a result of analysis of characteristics of derived pattern language, convenience, safe feeling, comfortability in residential unit, movement, safe feeling, convenience in intermediate space convenience, safe feeling, control in community space were high. The pattern language of this study grafted the items that have proven to be important over a long period of time and the environmental design concepts for families with children in the community space. So it enabled differentiation from existing pattern language or design guidelines.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.7-31
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• 2013

School adjustment has been a popular topic among scholars in multicultural family studies, and they commonly report poor adjustment of children from multicultural families. However, without subjects for comparison, these findings may be considered premature. This study investigated school adjustment of children from multicultural families by comparing their adjustment level to that of children from families with Korean parents. By using the matching procedure, this study examined whether children's multicultural family background attributes to their school adjustment with children's observable characteristics paired and matched. For the analyses, the first and fourth wave of Korean Children and Youth Panel Study data were used. When the school adjustment level was examined before the matching procedure, the school adjustment level was indeed lower among children of multicultural families, and their family status was a significant predictor of school adjustment. However, when two groups were paired and matched using matching, the family background had no significant effect, indicating that school adjustment is not predicted by their multicultural family status. Implications for research and practice are also discussed in the paper.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.323-336
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• 2009

There has been a significant increase in the number of divorced families during the past 10 years in Korea. Divorce imposes a great impact on their children as well as divorcees. As many as 1.41 million children under 20 years-old have experienced their parents' divorce in past 10 years. Children are faced with much difficulty in adjustment after the parental divorce. Issues of the research and policy on the divorced family are discussed in this study. For future studies, a longitudinal research model, father-custody and grandparent-custody families, custody parents's gender, a theoretical model for Korean divorced families should be considered. New legislations have been recently enacted to enhance children's well-being, but further efforts such as the involvement of child development specialists in the divorce process should be followed in the pursuit of the best interest of the children.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.33-50
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• 2011

This study aims to examine experiences of adoptive families, mainly focusing on mothers with their biological children and adopted a child, through a phenomenological approach. The subjects of this study are adoptive family's mothers with their biological children according to a criterion-based selection. 15 mothers who adopted children under 12 months, who are currently aged over 6, are selected and given personal and in-depth interviews, questions ranging from the process before adoption, foster care and changes in family relationships to the issues caused by adoption and coping methods. 6 steps of a phenomenological method that Colaizzi(1978) proposed are applied to analyze the data. The results of this study are as follows. The central theme of this study is 'A family which has harmonized with love beyond blood ties'. First, the participants have shown difficulties in different aspects over adoption than those of sterile families. The motive of their adoption is to let adopted children experience a happy childhood in a loving family. Secondly, the participants have adjusted themselves to new adoptive families, have committed to the care of their new children, and have experienced a change in family relationships. Finally, adoptive families have successfully been settled while overcoming difficulties together.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.207-222
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• 2008

This research studied the social-emotional competence of children whose primary caregiver was a single-mother or single-father alone compared with children living with a single-parent but the primary caregiver was a non-parent (e.g. a grandparent). Subjects were 208 children (105 boys, 103 girls) from 10 elementary schools in 3 metropolitan cities. Instruments were the Adaptive Behavior Checklist constructed by the researcher, Self-esteem Inventory (Kim, 1987) and Emotional Competence Scale (Kim, 1998). Results showed that children in single-mother families were more social-emotionally competent than children in single-father families. Children whose primary caregivers were non-parents had higher self-esteem than children whose primary caregivers were single parents alone. There were interaction effects of caregiver variables on children's peer relationships and awareness/expression of their own emotion.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.37-47
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to grasp the factors having influence upon the social adjustment of children in multi-cultural families and to examine the degree of influence of these influential factors. For these aims, it targeted 186 children of multi-cultural families, that access social welfare institutions or multi-cultural institutions in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk areas. The findings are as follows. First, the factors having influence upon the social adjustment of children in multi-cultural families were indicated to be self-esteem, parental marital relations, bullying, and the support of adults other than their parents. In other words, these children's higher level of social adjustment was correlated with higher self-esteem, better parental marital relations, fewer bullying experiences from their peer group, and more support from adults other than their parents'. Secondly, support from adults other than parents was indicated to be the most influential among the variables affecting the social adjustment of children in multi-cultural families. The factor having the second highest level of influence was indicated to be self-esteem, followed by parental marital relations, and then bullying.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.25-35
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of family-school relations on children's school adjustment with divorced mothers. Subcategories of the family-school relations were family participation in decision making, family help for schools, learning activities at home, school help for families, and school-home communication adopted from Epstein's parent involvement theory. Sub categories of children's school adjustment were delinquent behavior and academic achievement. The sample of this study included 3,367 children from first to fifth grade who lived either in a two-parent or one-parent home. Among them, 411 children with divorced mothers were analyzed. Independent t-test, Pearson's correlations, stepwise regression analysis were all conducted. Findings suggested that children with divorced mothers showed higher delinquency and lower academic achievement than children in intact families. Sub categories of family involvement and school involvement were correlated in divorced families. Children's delinquency was predicted by three of the family-school relation factors, which were school-home communication, family help for schools, and school help for families. Children's academic achievement was predicted by ail factors.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.33-50
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was examining the effects of family sandplay therapy with structural family therapy in improving the family strengths of children with emotional and behavioral disorders. First, we looked for a way to combine family sandplay therapy with structural family therapy and formulated an approach that could maximize the strengths of each theory and complement each other's weaknesses. And then we applied family sandplay therapy together with structural family therapy and analyzed its effects on family strengths. The subjects of this study were 10 families of children with emotional and behavioral disorders, and they were divided into an experimental group with 5 families and a control group with the other 5. To the experimental group received 16 sessions of family sandplay therapy with structural family therapy. In order to prove the effectiveness of family sandplay therapy with structural family therapy on family strengths, a family relationship( husband-wife relationship, parent-child relationship, and sibling relationship) scale and a family function(family cohesion, family adaptability) scale were used. The main findings of this study are as follows. First, the family relationships of the families with emotional-behavioral disorder children were improved after the application of family sandplay therapy with structural family therapy. Second, the application of family sandplay therapy with structural family therapy improved the family function of families with emotional-behavioral disorder children. Third, in the course of family sandplay therapy with structural family therapy, family sand tray was changed in a pro-healing direction, and family structure was also transformed from a dysfunctional structure to a functional one. As previously stated, family sandplay therapy with structural family therapy for families of children with emotional and behavioral disorders enhanced family strengths through improving family relationships and restoring family functions.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.57-69
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• 2012

Although the prevalence of divorce in South Korea has greatly increased since late 1990s, the impact of divorce on the parents of adult children in Korean families has received very little attention. This is particularly unfortunate because of the emphasis in Korean culture on family cohesion and obligations. To address these issues, we explored in our study the well-being of the parents of divorced adult children as well as intergenerational relationships among the members of Korean families. Total 113 parents participated (39 males and 74 females), age ranged from 46 to 65. Of the total participants surveyed, 29% were parents of divorced children (N=33), with the remainder having children in intact marriages (N=80). The measures examined four areas: (1) demographics, (2) parental psychological well-being, (3) intergeneration relationships, and (3) parental perception of their adult child's marital experience. A series of MANOVA and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Our findings indicate important differences between parents of divorced children and parents of non-divorced children on overall well-being, interpersonal relationships, and parental perception, which is consistent with previous studies. Parents of divorced children in this study also reported lower level of intergenerational relationships compared to parents of nondivorced children. Parent-grandchild relationships seem to be particularly important for parental well-being. In addition, we found an unexpected association between parents and their relationship with their former children inlaws. More detailed discussion was discussed.