• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.655-662
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• 2019

Based on phenomenological view a research utilizing qualitative methodology to understand about parenting difficulty and stress through an in-depth interview with grandmother in low-income grandparent-headed family was administrated. The results indicated that experience with parenting stress of grandmother in low-income grandparent-headed family lead to economic hardship, grandchildren who are a barrier of old-age, and desolate parenting. This article implicates that a basis to guide a direction and role of social welfare intervention to alleviate parenting stress of grandmother in grandparent-headed family and to improve a life quality emergent on the results could be provided. Several considerations on this finding shows as follows. First, with currently active support project re-monitored and re-checked, support program could be needed to enlarge. Second, support program development and social support to decrease parenting stress and depression of grandmother in grandparent-headed family could be necessary. With educational and cultural as well as mentoring program helpful for grandmother parenting designed, a support system to complement non-sufficient support network will be established together.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.651-659
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of family economic deterioration caused by COVID-19 on mental health among adolescents in grandparent-headed families. For the purpose, this study used raw data from the 16th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey constructed by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency in 2020 and analyzed the influence of family economic deterioration caused by COVID-19 on anxiety, stress, depression, and suicidal ideation. The main results regarding research questions are as follows. First, 39% of 589 adolescents in grandparent-headed families experienced family economic deterioration caused by COVID-19. Also, compared with adolescents who did not experience family economic deterioration, those who experienced deterioration showed higher scores of anxiety and stress as well as higher percentages of experiencing depression and suicidal ideation. Second, regression analyses showed that family economic deterioration caused by COVID-19 positively significantly influenced anxiety, stress, depression, and suicidal ideation. Based on the analyzed results, strategies to protect the mental health of adolescents in grandparent-headed families in disaster like COVID-19 were discussed.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.115-142
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• 2006

This study examined the level of social support for grandparent-headed families and its effects on the grandparents' physical and mental health. For this purpose, the survey data was collected from 141 grandparents raising their grandchildren in Daejeon Metropolitan City. The study generated several findings. First, grandparent-headed families tended to rely on formal support system rather than informal one. Second, grandparent's physical health was found to be very poor that 82.3% of the grandparents reportedly needed some assistance in at least one ADL, and their mean score of depression measured by CES-D was 27.4, indicating a moderate level of psychological distress. Third, among the sociodemographic and stressor variables, grandparents' sex, the number of their children and household keeping burden were statistically significant predictors of their ADL restriction. As for depression level of the grandparents, their monthly income, parenting duration, the number of their children, economic difficulties, household keeping burden and social restrictions were found to be statistically significant. Fourth, grandparents who reported of having more social support from their friends, a higher level of satisfaction of the friends' social support and also of being satisfied with social support from their religious associations tended to experience significantly less ADL restrictions. The more kinds of social support received from friends and social welfare agencies and the less satisfied they were with social support from governmental sector, the higher their depression level was. Implications for social welfare services and programs for grandparent-headed families were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.261-281
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the daily life of low-income grandparent-headed families and identify the effects of the Edu-Care program. To this end, the researcher conducted focus group interviews with ten grandparents and ten grandchildren who participated in the adjustment program, which was implemented for about five months. After participating in the program, the grandparents perceived that their skills for educating and raising children were improved and that they experienced psychological stability. Meanwhile, the grandchildren perceived that their learning competency and motivation for learning were enhanced and recognized why learning is necessary for their career. It was also found that the conditions and experiences needed for low-income grandparent-headed families are an integrative support program, a differentiated curriculum, and aid and care provided by human resources.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.419-439
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• 2012

Family dissolution and economic difficulties of the grandchild's parents are the most prevailing reason for an increase of grandparent-headed families in rural Korea. However, there is a lack of empirical research looking at the experiences of custodial grandmothers, social support, and their psychological well-being. In this regard, this study examined the effect of social support (formal & informal) on the psychological well-being of custodial grandmothers in rural Korea. For this purpose, quantitative and qualitative research methods were conducted. Quantitative data were gathered, using structured questionnaire, from 311 grandmothers who were raising their grandchildren in rural Korea as primary care-givers. Statistical methods used for data analysis were descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression analysis with SPSS WIN 19.0 programs. Qualitative data were collected by in-depth interviews to 10 custodial grandmothers in rural area. The results of this study are as follows. First, almost half of the parents of the grandchild didn't visit and didn't call anymore. Some relatives -aunt, uncle, etc.- support the grandparent-headed family economically and emotionally. 3/4 of the grandparent-headed families were supported by the government and community. This was not small numbers, but the amount of economic support was low. Second, grandmothers in the study showed quite a high level of depression while their happiness level was relatively low. There were differences in the factors influencing the level of happiness/depression of these rural grandmothers. Overall, the study's results showed the importance of formal & informal support for psychological well-being of the custodial grandmothers in rural Korea. Policy and theoretical implications are discussed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.587-609
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate parenting experiences among grandmothers raising their grandchildren from grandmothers' perspective, and a variety of their physical health, psychological and social challenges they were facing in everyday life. In addition, this study explored new issues, changes, and difficulties grandparents and their grandchildren were going through during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven grandmothers raising their grandchildren without their cohabiting parents participated in an in-depth interview, and the qualitative date were obtained using semi-structured questionnaires. Analyses identified 5 main categories: 1) my emotion, worries, and coping with parenting grandchildren, 2) difficulties and obstacles facing in real life of the parenting, 3) conflicts and coping with growing grandchildren who showed new characters, 4) relationships and emotions among grandparents, parents, and grandchildren, and 5) needs and desires toward social services and support. Sixteen themes and 60 sub-themes were also derived. The majority of grandmothers expressed diverse difficulties in their dail y lives including ambivalent emotions regarding grandchild-rearing(rewards and burden), economic hardships, physical health limitations, and a lack of communications with their grandchildren. Further, findings indicated profound generation conflicts which had been even deepened during school close period in COVID-19 pandemic and had been associated with increased hours of using internet and playing computer games. The top priority of the social service needs among interviewed grandmothers was learning support for their grandchildren. Emotional support and social support to cover their lack of family interactions, and financial support were the next of their desired social services. Implications to improve social services for grandparent-headed families are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.105-131
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• 2005

This study intended to understand how the use of social welfare services and the satisfaction from the use affect poor children's psychosocial adjustment. Especially, it focused to find out whether the use of satisfied services has an independent effect on poor children's psychosocial adjustment when other relevant variables are controlled. Participants are 904 poor children from 16 nationwide cities/provinces who receive financial sponsorship from Korea Welfare Foundation in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Among them, 8.2% is from youth-headed homes, 22.7% is from grandparent-care homes, 8.2% is from relative foster homes, 1.8% is from non-relative foster homes and 59.1% is from other poor families. The results of this study are as follows: 1) According to MANOVA, poor children who received 2 or more satisfied social welfare services are significantly different from those who received 1 or no service in their combined psychosocial adjustment subcategories. Delinquency among the subcategories is the most influencing variable in combined differences. 2) Controlling sex, age, family structure and other variables that are considered to be related to delinquency in previous research, the use of satisfied services is still the significant variable in decreasing delinquency among poor children. 3) Interaction effect between the use of satisfied services and parental supervision was statistically significant. Under the low level of parental supervision, the use of satisfied services has a significant effect on the decrease of delinquency. However, under the high level of parental supervision, the use of satisfied services has little effects. From these results, we found out that the use of satisfied social welfare services is a very significant factor influencing to prevent or decrease delinquency among poor children. Also we found out that it is critically important for poor children who receive the low level of parental supervision to have good-quality social welfare services in order to prevent delinquency.