• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.24 no.6 s.84
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• pp.177-193
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• 2006

This study analyzes marriage and fertility rates in Korea and makes recommendations for family policy. Based on the 'The Report of Marriage & Divorce Statistics in 2005' and data from the Korea Statistical Information System (KOSIS) of the National Statistics Organization, the trends, reasons for marriage rates changes, and future expectations were critically reviewed. In addition, the relationship between marriage and fertility rates was analyzed. The principle characteristics of marriage rates are as follows: 1) the M-shape of the longitudinal crude marriage rates; 2) the increased age of individuals entering their the first marriage; 3) the increase in remarriage rates; 4) the changes in the patterns of remarriage; 5) the increased in the age at which individuals remarry and; 6) the increase in marriage to non-Koreans. The marriage and fertility rates changes are a permanent normative shift because of 1) later marriage because of women's increased education and labor force participation 2) rational choices about birth control 3) reduced population because of the aging of baby boomers 4) structural changes in the marriage market and 5) egalitarian changes in women's attitudes toward marriage and family. The recommendations for future family policy were as follows: 1) the need for a realistic, long-term family policy because the current marriage patterns will continue; 2) the need to develop new statistics such as fertility rates that are based on marriage cohort or birth cohort because family behavior is a mixture of personal, social and political responses; 3) the need for impact analysis of current family policy about increasing fertility rates; 4) the need for a new family perspective that encompasses diverse marriage and family patterns; 5) the need to focus on men's role in families because of women's changing roles and family interaction patterns and; 6) the need for preventive family policies such as family life education.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.237-253
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of cyber community participants on reconciliation of divorced couple and find reasons for pros and cons concerning reconciliation after divorce. The data were collected through searching for website or Internet cafe related to 'reconciliation after divorce' on Internet. The contents of 7 cases for asking for advice on reuniting and opinions of cyber community participants on them were analyzed. Cyber community participants expressed their approval of divorced couple's reuniting for following reasons: 'strong motive for reunion', 'sexual relation with ex-partner', 'parental responsibility', 'regarding reconciliation as a better choice than remarriage', 'regarding as a good choice for child' etc. But cyber community members were opposed to divorced couple's reuniting for following reasons: 'doubt about real intention to reuniting', 'no self-reflection on previous marriage and ex-spouse', 'concern for recurrence of former marital conflict', 'reuniting only for child not for couple', 'no prior settlement of former marital conflict', 'no forgiveness and tolerance for ex-spouse', 'no reflection and change', 'no effort on ex-spouse's side' etc. Though these results were restrictive, this study identified issues surrounding reconciliation after divorce through asking and giving advices by anonymous members on cyberspace. These findings implied that we should take more interest in reconciliation as an realistic alternative marriage pattern after divorce and consider what is important to successful reuniting after divorce.

• Journal of Legislation Research
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• no.44
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• pp.757-799
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• 2013

Ever since Korea and Vietnam reestablished diplomatic relations, the two countries'bond has become stronger than ever, augmenting the range of exchange between them in almost every possible field including politics, economy, society, and culture at such a high speed. Among many, an increase in number of Vietnamese immigrant women in international marriage is worthy of close attention. Since 2010, Vietnamese has topped the proportion of total foreign women married to Korean men, having surpassed Chinese. Nonetheless, the quick international marriage between Korean men and Vietnamese women, which usually happens without sufficient time to get to know about different cultures and languages, has not only raised problems for people concerned, but numerous social issues as well. Recognizing these problems, a number of government departments have provided various support on policies and legal issues toprotect multicultural families as a means of social integration and settlement support. Nevertheless, the support policies until now have been generalizing all of the immigrant women in international marriage as people subject to protection. Thus, considering every immigrant women as people in need, and trying to help them with various social issues have caused the government a high cost and low efficiency. This thesis emphasizes the point that through the cases of Vietnamese immigrant women in international marriage, there should be a specific support plan for specific people in need, reflecting various traits of different cultures and societies, in order to ease their settlement in Korea. Moreover, it suggests detailed plans for improvements on legal and institutional problems. Although the Vietnamese government forbids commercial agents for international marriage, many of agencies are still active and to help the immigrant women, who desire to return and resettle in Vietnam in case of divorce, this thesis suggests legal and institutional remedies for Korean and Vietnamese government. The composition of the thesis follows below: Part II on social and cultural traits of international marriage between Korean men and Vietnamese women. Part III on institutional problems and plans for improvements regarding settlement of immigrant women in international marriage. Part IV on legal and institutional problems and plans for improvements regarding divorced immigrant women and their return to Vietnam. Part V on conclusion. Divorce is not a flaw anymore nowadays, but in case of Vietnamese immigrant women ininternational marriage, an inadequate legal system hampers their resettlement process. Cases of not being ableto remove their own names from the family register due to poor financial and legal abilities are often identified and it is both the Vietnamese and Korean governments'duty to acquit their ethical responsibilities by seeking ways to institutionally and financially support them.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.171-195
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• 2007

Remarriages constitute an increasing proportion of all marriage in Korea. In 2005 26.1% of marriages were remarriages for one or both partners. Also, remarriages are more likely to end in divorce than first marriages. This study is conducted to understand how and why the remarriage is ended in divorce in Korea. Seven ex-stepmothers were asked in-depth interview to describe the whole story from courtship to divorce of remarriage. Their narratives were analyzed by a qualitative software program, Nvivo2, which assured us the validity and the reliability of method of the study. Qualitative analysis revealed several major concepts related to the dissolution of remarriage: lack of feeling of love in a motive of marriage, lack of understanding of and preparation for remarriage, fragile tie of remarried couple, frictions between step-children and step-mothers, feeling excluded from family-in-law, and wife battering. The results of the study highlighted that the social work interventions should be actively done in the area of family life education including remarriages and remarried families.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.65-75
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• 2011

This study attempts to examine family attitudes and gender role divisions of married women in contemporary Vietnam and Korea. Drawing data from the 2003 Vietnam Family Study and the 2005 Korean Marriage and Fertility Study, this study investigated 1) attitudes of married women toward marriage, cohabitation, divorce, and having children, 2) decision making on household expenditures, and 3) household work division between husband and wife. The results showed that married Korean women were less inclined toward traditional family attitudes regarding marriage and children than married Vietnamese women. Decision on routine household expenditures was made and household work was done mostly by the wife in the two countries. In comparison, married Vietnamese men took more responsibilities for important financial decisions and child education than married Korean men. These overall findings imply that patriarchical family and gender role norms were preserved to larger extent in contemporary Vietnam than in Korea.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.33-56
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• 2007

This study explores the pattern of socio-demographic characteristics of divorced couples of international marriage in Korea. This paper focuses on analyzing the effect of dissimilarity between husband and wife on the duration of marriage of divorced couples. It examines whether the differences of socioeconomic characteristics of the married couples are linked to different process within their relationships and duration of marriage. Attention is focused on couple's age and education. Micro-data from divorce registration for the period of 1995-2005 are utilized. Results of analyses reveal the following. First, married couples may have different responses to dissimilarity between the partners according to the combination of nationality of the couples. This indicates that cross-border marriage does not represent the same type of union in different societies or cultures. Second, both dissimilarities of age and education show negative impacts on the marital duration of the couples with foreign wives, but there is a difference in its pattern. Age dissimilarity displays higher impacts on the duration. Third, the result also indicates that the contribution of dissimilarity of age and education on marital duration is relatively small among the couples with foreign husbands.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.58
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• pp.67-96
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to examine psychological difficulties that elderly women experience in each divorce decision making stage and they are shown by counselling cases made with elderly women who got divorced in their early stage of elderly life. For this purpose, total 18 counseling cases were collected from November 2012 to March 2013 and a qualitative analysis was made accordingly. The result of this study was made by analyzing meaningful subjects emerged in individual testimonies during a counseling process and it shows that the decision to divorce goes through stages such as , , , , , and . In addition, psychological difficulties experienced in a divorce decision process appear to be, , , , , , and . It is meaningful that this study provides counseling strategies for psychosocial support of the elderly women who go through difficulties in their divorce decision making process.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.63-80
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• 2005

This study examines the family concept and family-related values among pre-service home economics teachers. Questionnaires are completed by 242 pre-service home economics teachers. The results indicate that the respondents defined the family as a blood ties, a resting place, affection, and warmth. They tend to regard divorced, remarried, and adopted members as families, while classifying homosexual couples, members living together in a communal fashion, and great-great grandparents into nonfamily groups. Majority of them agree that it had better to get married or it depends on personal circumstances. In terms of cohabitation, they think it can be an opportunity to check the compatibility before marriage. Also, they perceive parenthood as a personal lifestyles, statement of social maturation, sound mind, and realization of morality. They agreed to divorce relatively high in case of unfaithfulness and relative troubles, but agreement of divorce was relatively low because of instrumental reason and psychological factors, The group majoring clothing and textile perceives the most negatively the influence of divorce to children. Further discussion and implications are discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.606-616
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• 2015

This study was conducted in order to identify factors affecting opinions on marriage of unmarried women in their 30's in Korea. Analysis of data on 529 unmarried women in their 30's, which were taken from the 2012 social survey, was analyzed. Data were analyzed using ${\chi}^2$ test, hierarchical logistic regression analysis as well as descriptive statistics by SPSS version 20.0. Results showed that age(Exp(b)=.90,p=.025), opinions on divorce(Exp(b)=3.81,p<.001) and remarriage(Exp(b)=3.09,p=.001), and value on marriage(Exp(b)=.80,p<.001) were independent predictors of opinions on marriage. Economic activity(Exp(b)=19.58,p=.003) was found to be an independent predictor of opinions on marriage for the 35-39 year old women differ from 30-34 year old women predictors. Findings of this study indicate a need for developing family and marriage value-centered education and the low-fertility policy for the 35-39year old actively working women considering factors affecting opinions on marriage.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.203-236
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• 2015

Given the interdependence of a marital couple, this study examined the effects of both cultural challenge and economic hardship on intention to divorce among the multicultural couple using the actor-partner interdependence model(APIM), and explored dyadic patterns of actor and partner effects. 415 couples(n=830) participated in this self-administered questionnaire study. Results of path analyses based on APIMs revealed that for Korean husbands perceived cultural challenge contributed positively to divorce intention of the couple showing both actor and partner effects, whereas for immigrant wives such perception showed only an actor effect. In contrast, perceived economic hardship among the husbands had little effect on divorce intention of both husbands and wives, whereas such perception by wives had both actor and partner effects on divorce intention. Results of dyadic pattern analyses performed by Bootstrap indicated the actor-only pattern and the couple pattern of perceived cultural challenge on divorce intention of husbands and wives respectively. In case of perceived economic hardship comparison of the effect size suggested the partner-only pattern and the actor-only pattern for divorce intention of husbands and wives respectively. These findings implied that in order to promote conjugal harmony and to prevent the multicultural family from being dissolved, Korean husbands need to develop greater cultural competence so as to tolerate cultural differences between the couple, whereas immigrant wives and their families need to develop greater economic competence so as to foster a hope for economic reliance.