• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.12-21
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• 2015

In an effort to expand working opportunities for women and encourage childbirth, the government of Korea introduced the free infant care policy in 2013. This policy, however, was controversial with regard to issues, such as budget shortages and dissatisfaction based on socioeconomic status. In addition, the lack of evidence-based data regarding adequate age criteria for the entry of children into childcare facilities was noted as a challenge. As child development professionals who are concerned with mental health issues, we investigated the influence and challenges of the free infant care policy with regard to infant mental health. In this review, we examined the policies enacted by developed countries, such as the United Kingdom (UK), and compared them with those in Korea. The childcare systems in Korea and the UK differ historically and socially, but show some similarities, such as maternal responsibility for parenting and household issues. Like Korea, the need for UK childcare facilities increased in the 1990's in response to market recovery and associated increase in female employment. Among the new policies in the UK, the Sure Start program has begun to provide integrated services for infants, particularly to those 0-4 years of age, who are vulnerable to social exclusion. Similar to the Dream Start program in Korea, it has been successful in providing family-related services, resulting in improvements in problematic behaviors of children, enhanced parenting skills, and decreased rates of severely injured children.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.54-71
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• 1991

Health of a nation is quite often represented by the statistics such as infant death rate and maternal mortality rate. It is indisputable that maternal child health(MCH) is the basis of health of a nation. MCH is also one of the cardinal component of primary health care. The importance of MCH is conspicuous especially in the developing countries. In Korea, People in the rural communities still have high access barrier to basic health care needs, including MCH services. Access to quality care during pregnancy and delivery seems to be the crucial factor in preventing deaths in women and children. The beneficial effects of prenatal and postnatal care on the outcome of pregnancy for mother and child, and those of health professional-attended institutional delivery on the health of mother and child have been well documented in many studies. Recognizing these effects, the government of Korea received IBRD loan of $30 million in 1979 for th purpose of constructing 89 rural MCH centers. The construction is complete now and all 89 MCH centers are under operation ti imporve primary health care for mothers and children in Korea. However, it has been observed over time that overall performance of public MCH centers is declining. The decline has been attributed partly to low quality services by public MCH centers, poor management by health center mangers, competition with for-profit private clinics, and to the development of national health insurance. This study investigates the utilization by rural communities in Korea of MCH services provided by public sector health centers deemed to be physically and financially accessible to the community but suboptimally used. It seeks also to determine the factors that influence people's utilizations. This study sets out to discover a desirable form of MCH center from among alternative forms of centers, thereby to construct a MCH model.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.405-416
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• 2009

Almost 18,000 children were protected in 285 residential facilities all over the country in 2008 in Korea. The recent trends of the residential care include downsizing, and emphasizing independent living programs for aging out youths. Since the 1990s when the active research on the children in residential facilities has begun, the study focus has extended to the issues of developmental status and outcomes of the children, and recently, to the independency of the youths discharged from the facilities. The practical and policy issues are development of therapeutic programs for the children in care, increase of counseling staff, extension of programs for restoring children's relationship with their families, and planning of various policies to support the independence of discharged youths.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2009

The purposes of this study are to provide background information to develop a family-friendly work policy and to increase the effectiveness and feasibility of this policy. We surveyed the performance of family-friendly work policies, and workers‘ needs and utilizations of 17 family-friendly work policies. We also examined the factors that influence the utilization of family-friendly work policies. The study sample consists of 197 working mothers who have at least one child under age 10. The major findings are as follows: 1) The most-needed family-friendly work policy among working mothers is child care leave 2) Of those family-friendly work policies that are not currently provided, the most-needed policy is family care leave 3) The size of firms, the provision of substitutes, and 40-hour work schedules are statistically significant variables that influence the provision of necessary family-friendly work policies and 4) In addition, the work place culture is a very important factor related to the utilization of work- and family-friendly policies.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.293-300
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• 2020

This study aims to investigate the awareness and policy demands of after school care classes of mothers with elementary school children. The participants of study were 25 mothers with elementary school children in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Gangwon. Data collection was conducted from June 23, 2017 to July 18, 2017 by focus group interview. Through the data analysis, the results of the study were analyzed as 'the reality of the after school care class that the mother sees' and 'the policy demands of the mother's after school care class'. 'The reality of the after school care class that the mother sees' is 'the overall level of after school care class is low', 'the probability of selecting the same as a lottery', 'the quality of education that varies depending on the level of the teacher', 'for the child attending the care class negative awareness'. 'Mother's policy demands for after school care classes' are presented as 'positioning as a substitute for thinking and caring', 'improvement of separation between parents' expectations', 'expansion of care recipients', 'request for resilient management'. As the conclusion of this study, first, after school care classes need to focus on the care function. Second, it is necessary to operate after school care classes by level. Third, the realistic needs of mothers should be reflected so that after school care classes can be positioned as alternatives to private education.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.40
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• pp.73-107
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to understand the rearing experience of parents who adopted a child for whom they were foster parents. Several cases of foster care adoption were found. We carried out individual interviews for data collection. Within-case and across-case analyses were conducted based on the data gathered from individual interviews of four cases. As a result, we were able to grasp significant issues from each case and find out common subjects found in all cases. The common subjects were 'special encounter: accident, connection, and inevitability', 'my child already', 'fundamental but insignificant difference', 'discontinuity in social support: things that are lost, and things that are gained', 'truth that is unable to hide, and truth that needs to be hidden', and 'family's destiny'. Based on the results of this study, policy recommendations and practice guidelines were suggested to help families undergoing adoption from foster care. Also, recommendations for further research were provided to overcome the study limitations.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.457-465
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• 2019

This study was designed to develop a positive behavior support model for children in child care institutions. For this purpose, a demand survey for PBS was conducted with 55 child care institution staff members. 76% of the respondents responded that PBS is needed to prevent problem behavior and can be a good alternative for personality education, and approximately 70% responded that they are willing to implement PBS. The specifications of the model are suggested as follows. First, the preparation step would consist of establishing a support team, educating staff members about PBS, selecting expected behaviors, assessing the current baseline behavior, and setting up a universal PBS environment. The application step would consist of instructing social skills, implementing reinforcement, personal goal-setting and assessing behavior, educating trouble-making students, and monitoring. Finally, at the outcome assessment period, measuring the change in target behavior from the pre-intervention to the post-intervention stage, change in social skills and academic achievement, and social validity is suggested. It is expected that application of this model to children in child care institution will decrease problem behaviors of students, enhance desirable behaviors, and boost the staff members' efficacy.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2017

This study examined the predictors of life satisfaction of marriage migrant wives with school-aged children in South Korea. For this purpose, we draw data from the 2015 National Survey on Multi-cultural Families (NSMF). The target group was marriage migrant wives who were in a first marriage and had school-aged children (N=3,004). We used OLS regression to examine the predictors of the target group's life satisfaction with the SPSS 18.0 program. The results are as follows. First, marriage migrant wives with school-aged children had maintained their marriage for at least 14 years. They were satisfied with their relationships with both their spouses and their children. Also, they were satisfied with their spouse's child care roles. They did not support the multi-cultural policy of assimilation. Their Korean proficiency was slightly higher than the middle level. More than half had jobs and had not attended a parent meeting. Second, although they were satisfied with their everyday lives, their levels of life satisfaction were less than that of migrant wives with children below 5 years of age. Third, all variables explained 38.8% of the life satisfaction experienced by marriage migrant wives with school-aged children. Satisfaction with their spouses, subjective health, satisfaction of spouse's child care role, monthly family income, satisfaction with their children, experience attending a parents meeting, and Korean proficiency were positively associated with the life satisfaction of this target group. The findings of this study are significant because they can provide certain implications for family life education and policy within a multi-cultural society.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.1-16
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effects of teachers' psychological well-being between teachers' attachment history and child-teacher relationships. The participants of this survey were 342 teachers from 41 day care centers and 11 kindergartens in four metropolitan cities and five provinces in Korea. The collected data were analysed through frequency and percentage calculation, Pearson's correlations, and the mediation methods suggested by Baron & Kenny(1986) were calculated by using SPSS 21.0. The findings are as follows. First, the percentage points of the attachment history of early childhood, the teachers' psychological well-being and the child-teacher relationship were higher than the average. Also, all the variables had correlations. Second, the teachers' psychological well-being partly mediated the relations between attachment history and child-teacher relationships. These results imply that teachers' psychological well-being is needed for positive child-teacher relationships, and can provide policy implications for teachers' psychological well-being in order to improve the quality of child-teacher relationships.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.137-161
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• 2012

Traditionally, caring for young children and the elderly has been largely assumed and practiced intensively within the family in Korea. The Korean government established residual protection systems for the elderly as well as children whose needs could not be met by their family members alone. However, in the 21st century, a number of social forces have made it necessary to expand the state's intervention in the care provisions. The primary forces include the ageing process, low fertility, change in the women's labour market participation, changes in the family formation and dissolution, and changes in the people's perceptions of familial responsibilities regarding caring for other family members. This paper employs and further develops the idea of the care diamond conceived by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development Project in relation to the political and social economy of care and applies it to Korea's social care expansions. The analysis demonstrates that the roles of the public and the market sector, in case of child care, increased while those of the third sector decreased. Apropos of the elderly care, the role of the market expanded dramatically, followed by that of and the state and the third sector. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the fundamental characteristics of Korea's care provision for children and the elderly have remained unchanged and even strengthened where the elderly care is concerned. The bulk of personal care demand is still met within the family, particularly by female members of the household.