• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.94-101
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• 2024

Purpose: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed a significant burden to infant and toddler's care globally, while the disease severity is generally mild in this age group. In this study, we aimed to assess epidemiological and clinical aspects of COVID-19 in infants and toddlers in Seoul, South Korea. Methods: We used Seoul Metropolitan Government's epidemiological investigation database to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in infants and toddlers, between March 2020 to December 2021. Results: A total of 5,025 infants and toddlers aged <5 years was diagnosed between the observed period. 2,720 (54.1%) had symptoms, and fever was the most common symptom in 1,941 (74.1%). Of the diagnosed cases, 96.4% did not have underlying diseases. In a district level, extended opening of childcare facility was associated with increased risk of COVID-19 in infants and toddlers. Conclusions: An efficient monitoring system, resembling routine clinical care, is crucial, considering the low rates of severe progression and fatality among infants and toddlers. Moreover, a well-grounded intervention based on scientific evidence, rather than unconditional closures, is necessary to establish a suitable childcare policy that ensures safety from infectious diseases while not overlooking the developmental aspects of social skills.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.329-344
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• 2019

Purpose: This study aimed to identify utilization of the work-family support policy (WFSP) and factors affecting retention intention among Korean female military officers. Methods: This cross-sectional survey recruited 103 married female officers from the Korean Army, Navy, and Air force with preschool-aged children through convenience and snowball sampling. Via online surveys from June to November, 2018, the participants self-reported retention intention, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, and utilization of the WFSP. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression. Results: Retention intention ($22.29{\pm}5.98$) was reported at the mid-level, lower than scores reported in the literature for female workers. Work-family conflict ($32.51{\pm}5.29$) and job satisfaction ($63.10{\pm}7.45$) were above the midpoint levels. Use of maternity leave (100.0%) and parental leave (92.2%) was high, especially compared to the rates of child-care day off (20.4%) and parenting time (20.4%). 'Noticeable increases in childcare services within the army' (22.8%) was reported as the supportive measure needed the most by female military officers. Job satisfaction (${\beta}=.43$, $p{\leq}.001$), the use of parenting time (${\beta}=-0.29$, p=.002), living type (${\beta}=-.18$, p=.043), and service type (${\beta}=-.16$, p=.035) significantly influenced retention intention. Conclusions: The findings highlight the priority areas of importance within the WFSP and suggest that a family-friendly culture can improve female officers' retention intention. Accordingly, policy changes at the Ministry of National Defense improving the system to enhance a family-friendly culture in the military is expected to strengthen the retention intention of female officers and contribute to excellence in the military workforce.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.67-90
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to analyze factors to affect low fertility and to investigate its implications to social welfare. For the purpose, I surveyed 360 married women and men in Gyeongnam province, and employed multi-regression, logistic regression model to process the data. I analyzed factors to influence low fertility in three aspects: demographic feature, socio-economic status, and personal sense of value. The results of analysis can be summarized as follows: (1) the period of marriage in demographic feature, income level in social economic status, and the necessity of children in personal sense of value are important factors to affect the current fertility level, (2) period of marriage, total numbers of children, gender of the first child are determining the future childbirth in demographic feature. Secondly, income level is interrelated to the future childbirth in socio-economic status. Thirdly, in the aspect of personal values, how much one needs to get married, how much one prefers son to daughter, how much one relies on one's children to realize one's dream are interrelated to the future childbirth, (3) the cost of bringing up a child as well as he expense of private education, lacking of a day nursery, and economic difficulty are causes to make people to postpone or give up childbirth. These results suggest that development of population policy to promote women's social participation and to strengthen family welfare as well as social welfare is necessary. These also implicates that if we pursue integrated policies on women, childcare, and education, we can get much more effective population welfare policy.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.713-742
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• 2009

In the near future, the multicultural families are expected to be the majority of population living in the rural area, which is an aged and small-scaled society. Moreover, they are expected to have an important role in sustaining the culture of agriculture and a rural community. Therefore, it is very important for them to adjust and settle urgently as well as to develop a policy and social services for the adjustment and settlement. The purpose of this study is to identify different aspects of the participation in agricultural, social, and job activities of married immigrant women in a Korean rural area as well as to investigate the change of life satisfaction resulting from the l activities. The following findings were established from this study. First, married immigrant women participate in local social and agricultural activities in a Korean rural area more frequently than in their own country. However, the frequency of their participation in job activity in a Korean rural area is lower than in their own country. Second, the main factor that prevents married immigrant women from participating in agricultural activity in a Korean rural area is to carry out childcare, household chores, and farming at the same time. Their low participation in social activity and job activity mostly results from their lack of fluency in Korean. Third, married immigrant women score higher in the change of life satisfaction after participating in social activity and job activity than in agricultural activity.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2016

This study analyzes the effects of caring for grandchildren on Korean grandparents' health, using the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging from 2006 to 2012. We investigate how caregiving is provided and analyze the effects of caregiving on grandparents' physical health, mental health, and health-related behaviors. As elderly people's health is generally frail, it is unclear whether the provision of childcare affects their health negatively. We control for the endogeneity of caregiving by an individual fixed effect (FE) model and instrumental variable-fixed effect (FE-IV) models. Using these models, we determine the endogeneity of caregiving and show that the significant effects of caregiving on health disappear as we control for endogeneity in the FE and FE-IV models. Even after controlling for endogeneity, we find that caregiving increases the probability of feeling pain as well as the number of different types of pain. Furthermore, caregiving increases the probability of restrictions on daily activities because of pain. On the other hand, caregiving reduces the symptoms of depression. In relation to health-related behaviors, caregiving reduces the probability of physical exercise and regular meals. Our results imply that although caregiving has a positive effect on mental health, the increase in physical pain and in non-healthy behaviors may lead to a deterioration of the caregiver's long-term health, which in turn may increase the medical costs of the elderly. Potential policy alternatives are discussed in the paper.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.249-272
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• 2012

This study has been carried out to suggest an improvement measure by analysing the current situation of the working condition for the teachers in child care. For this, governmental policy and law and relevant references in relation to the working conditions for the teachers have been collected for analysis. On the basis of the research, in order to improve the working condition for the teachers the following suggestions have been made: provision of salary system considered the level of qualification criteria and academic certificate, carrying out a raise in pay according to the salary class, requirement of written indication of a provision of allowance, increase of the initial salary for the principal of nurseries, observance of legislation for payment of excess duty allowance, elucidation of legislation for the salary of the teacher in unsupported nurseries and settlement of ratio of supporting personnel expenses from government.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.169-192
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• 2012

This study reviewed the current status of in-service education programs for infant care teachers in early childhood education and care settings. In addition, the training program(titled "infant specialist program") which had been developed in one district of Seoul in order to assist the job performance and speciality for infant care teachers was discussed. The focus in the development of the training program, its teaching content and method were addressed in detail. The results related to evaluation of the training program of interest were reported. The infant care teachers who had participated in the training program reported that the levels of their teaching efficacy and those of knowledge of infant development from post-tests were significantly increased over time. In line with the main results of this study, implications for practice and policy were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.201-220
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effects of teachers'personal background (academic, education career) and institutional characteristic factors(founded facility type, class size, and curriculum organization type) on the quality of the classroom in early childhood education and care(ECEC) fields. This study is to explore the conditions for improving the quality of ECEC, looking back on a traditional paradigm focused on teacher education and qualifications. The hierarchical regression analysis was conducted through a survey as a research method. The results indicated that the effects of institutional characteristics were more influential than teachers' education on classroom quality. Public kindergartens and child care centers were reported to have higher effects than the private ones on classroom quality. Based on these results, policy implications and future research plans were suggested in perspective of improving the publicness of ECEC services.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.355-371
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• 2015

This study explored the longitudinal relationships between school life adjustment and the parents' neglect/abuse as perceived by children according to gender. The participants were 5th and 6th grade children and the instruments were parents' neglect/abuse scale and school life adjustment scale. Using Korea Youth Panel data of Child Youth Policy Institute of Korea, 5th and 6th grade data were analyzed. The results were as follows: Neglect/abuse as perceived by children were different according to their gender and grade. Children who had perceived more parents' neglect/abuse were more likely to have difficulty in school life adjustment. The results of this study suggest that the appropriate interventions for the parents' neglect and abuse is needed by showing the stability of the child's perception of the parents' neglect and abuse during the 5th-6th grade.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2016

This study analyzes child and family department curricula at domestic universities and research topics in articles found in related representative domestic journals. Curricula were collected from the web pages of 26 out of 90 departments of 77 universities. Research topics were collected from the Family Environment Research, Journal of Child Studies, and Journal of Korean Association of Family Relations published from 2000 to February 2015. From those journals, the number of articles related to child studies were 1,843 and family studies 1,239. Among those articles, 6,593 keywords related to child studies and 4,748 keywords related with family studies were collected and analyzed. The results of this study were: first, we found four types of curricula provided by Child and Family Departments such as Child Studies, Child and Family Studies, Home Economics Education, and Family Welfare. Second, the identified research topics in child studies were child development, education & childcare, parent education, counseling & therapy, cross cultural study, instrument development, and policy. Family research topics were also categorized by individual family members, child rearing & education, family dynamics & problems, families & culture, work & family, family formation, dissolution & diversity, family practice, family theories & methods, and midlife & later years. We suggest several future careers in child and family studies based on these findings.