• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.157-169
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was to examine the impact of acculturation and social support on the mental health among Korean-American registered nurses. Methods: Data were collected with a convenience sample of 203 Korean-American registered nurses living in New York state and New Jersey state from 8th May to 25th August in 2012. The structured questionnaires measured the degree of acculturation, social support, and mental health. Data analysis was conducted using t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation efficient, and Stepwise multiple regression. Results: Lower level of integration and higher level of marginalization were associated with the lower mental health. Social support was also positively related to mental health and had mediating effect on the relationship between acculturation and mental health. The five variables, including participants' educational background, work shift, integration, marginalization, and social support were significant to predict the level of mental health among Korean-American registered nurses, accounting for 41% of the variability. Conclusion: The results imply that higher level of social support and strong identity of both home and host culture will enable Korean-American registered nurses to maintain sound mental health.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.75-82
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• 2015

Objective : The objective of this study is to analyze various factors of how mental health, self esteem, and stress affect health living conditions aimed at college students who have a low level of self-awareness. This study can provide college students the vitality lifestyle by developing and applying customized healthy living program. Furthermore, it can benefit preventing disease and improving health condition. Method : This study is aimed at college students in Daegu. The research subjects' distributions consist of male of 138 and female of 144, which totaled 282. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 18.0, statistical program.4 Results : The result of the study indicated that the main factors that affect self esteem, stress, and mental health condition are allowance and part time jobs. It shows that health characteristic doesn't have relationship with self esteem. However, stress are mental health have a close relationship with drinking, health conditions, sleeping hours, and exercise. Conclusion : College Students should manage and lead healthy living style as a role model of family and society; as a result, healthy living style in the college becomes very important time period in the life time. Therefore, college students need to improve self esteem and reduce stress in order to benefit their mental health. College faculty members also need to put an effort on educational health programs regarding the practice of healthy life such as campaign for antismoking, moderating in drink, and exercising.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.131-149
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• 2016

The aims of this study are to investigate the impact of the experience of exposure to domestic violence(witnessed interparental conjugal violence and child abuse) on mental health among college students, and to explore whether social support acts as a moderator between domestic violence and mental health. Through this process, I intended to provide a reference base to suggest substantial interventions for family welfare by helping students to overcome negative domestic violence exposure experiences and adapt as healthy members of society. To achieve this goal, the study established a conceptual framework by considering the mental health of adolescents with domestic-violence exposure experience as a dependent variable, domestic violence exposure experience (witnessed interparental conjugal violence and child abuse) as an independent variable, and social support as a moderator of the relationship between these two variables. The subjects composed 747 college students in 8 colleges in Seoul. The main summary of this study is as follows: First, according to the analysis of domestic-violence exposure experience, all the subjects of this study had substantial experience of violence at home and witnessed interparental conjugal violence. These students scored 3.83 points in social support, higher than the median of 3, implying that these students had a higher awareness of social support. Moreover, their mental health score was 3.50 points, which is higher than the median of 3, indicating a somewhat positive tendency toward mental health. Second, to explore the moderating effects of social support between child violence experience and mental health, gender, age, financial status, academic-performance, child abuse and social support were input in the first step, and then buffering effects were examined by entering an interaction term to the first step in the second step. There was a significant interaction between social support and mental health. Therefore, social support was identified as having moderating effects on the relationship between child violence and mental health. Third, the analysis of moderating effects of social support between witnessed interparental conjugal violence and mental health revealed that social support had a positive influence on mental health in the first step. By contrast, the interaction term of witnessed interparental conjugal violence and social support showed no significance, indicating no moderating effect of social support in the second step. To sum up, social support served as a moderator for mental health among college students with child abuse experience, but had no moderating effect on witnessed interparental conjugal violence experience.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.84-93
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• 2019

Objective : The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between occupational stress and depression, as it is seen to be corresponding with the work characteristics of local government officials. Methods : The data of 671 local government officials who participated in this study from July to December 2015 as a part of an occupational stress management program, were analyzed retrospectively in this study. Likewise, the participants completed questionnaires, including a short form of the Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS), and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) the results of which were evaluated and reviewed. Results : The study noted that the subscales of occupational stress related to depression were varied, according to the work characteristics of the participants, after adjusting for age and job grade. It was found that the participant's variables of job insecurity, lack of reward, organizational system and occupational climate were significantly related to the development of a depressed mood in the participant in a general sense. Notably, the factor of interpersonal conflict was significantly related to depressed mood among the general administrative group; meanwhile, lack of reward in the welfare group and insufficient job control in the technical group were significantly associated with the likelihood of developing a depressed mood in participants reviewed. In the operation and maintenance of facilities group, job insecurity was significantly related with depressed mood, whereas job demand was related more with the incidence of depression in the field work group. Conclusion : This study revealed that the influence of occupational stress on depression varied according to the occupational characteristics experienced by the participants in the work environment. These findings may be used to enhance the occupational stress management program for local government officials according to their work characteristics, to bring awareness to this issue.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.209-279
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• 2016

The Korean Mental Health Act was amended 2016 overall. This paper examines and evaluates the old Korean Mental Health Act since 1995 and the new Korean Mental Health Promotion Act 2016 from the Perspective of Human Rights and Inclusion of Persons with Psychosocial Disabilities. The persons with mental disabilities was separated and ruled out from society by the enactment of the Mental Health Act in 1995 and five times amendment. That has been justified and institutionally supported by medical viewpoint. The medical approach which reconsider the persons with mental disabilities as patients conceal that the aims of the involuntary admission in Mental Hospital are protection of society and the relief of the family member's duty of support for person with mental disabilities. This is institutionally supported in the 1995 Korean Mental Health Act by involuntary admission through the consent of family members as protectors. According to the old Act, the family members as protectors are authorized to consent to involuntary admission of persons with mental disabilities. Also, the psychiatrist that diagnoses the person with mental disabilities and evaluates the need for treatment by admission is not impartial in this decision. Family members as protectors may want to lighten their burden of support for the person with mental disabilities in their home by admitting them into a mental hospital, and the psychiatrist in the mental hospital can be improperly influenced by demand of hospital management. Additionally, Article 24 of the Korean Mental Health Act for the Involuntary Admission by the Consent of Family Members as Protector might violate personal liberty, as guaranteed in the Korean Constitution. The Mental Health Promotion Law was amended to reduce the scope of the persons with mental illness which are subject to forced hospitalization and to demand that a second diagnosis is made by another psychiatrist and screening by the committee concerning the legitimacy of admission in the process of the involuntary admission by the consent of family members as a method of protection. The amended Mental Health Promotion Law will contribute to reducing the number of the involuntary admissions and the inclusion of persons with mental disabilities. But if persons with mental disabilities are not providing some kind of service to the community, the amended Mental Health Promotion Law does not work for Inclusion of them.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 2012

This study is a descriptive paper addressing the relationship between test anxiety, self-esteem and the mental health levels of freshmen and third year students of Dental Hygienics. In late 2011, we received a total of 298 questionnaires from freshmen and third year Dental Hygienics students of three South Korean universities, located specifically in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. The timing of this questionnaire was significant because it was one week prior to midterm examinations. The results were as follows:1. There was a statistically significant relationship between age (t=3.017, p<.001) and grade(t=2.665, p<0.05), subjective health status(t=27.513, p<.001). 2. The lower the participants' reported mental health in general, the higher their level of test anxiety (r=.565, p<.001), broken down into two subdivisions: cognitive text anxiety (r=526, p<.001) and emotional test anxiety (r=.534, p<.001). 3. When considering the factors that influence the general mental health of participants, there were age differences. For first year students, their subjeetive health status (${\ss}$=-.300, p<.001) and test anxiety (${\ss}$=.530, p<.001) were significant. For third year students, this was also true (subjective mental condition: ${\ss}$=-.242, p<.001 and test anxiety: ${\ss}$=.350, p<.001) but self-worth was also significant (${\ss}$=.377, p<.001). The results of this study suggest that the key factors that influence the mental health level of students Dental Hygienics are test anxiety, subjective appraisal of health level, and general self-worth. A systematic approach is therefore needed to improve students' mental health and reduce test anxiety. Health management programs which address and test students' physical health will also be important in improving student performance and welfare.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.419-426
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• 2008

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate impact of knowledge familiarity, and prejudice about mental illness as well as demographic factors on the social distance from mentally ill people, which is a proxy measure of discrimination. Method: To assess the impact of knowledge and familiarity, prejudice about mental illness and demographic factors on the social distance from mental illness, we conducted a telephone survey in South Korea with the responders being nationally representative people who were 18 years old or over (n=1040). Independent samples T-tests, one way ANOVA and linear regression analysis were performed to analyze the results of the survey. Result: The social distance from mental illness decreased as the knowledge and familiarity increased, but the social distance was increased as prejudice was increased. Prejudice had a greater impact on social distance than familiarity and knowledge. Females showed greater social distance than did males. A higher education level had a negative effect on social distance. Conclusion: to reduce the social distance from mentally ill people, efforts to increase the familiarity about mental illness as well as efforts to educate people about mental illness are important.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2003

This study was designed to test the correlation among spiritual health, mental health and maturation of christian belief of nursing students and to provide baseline data for nursing education in college. The subject were 222 nursing students at one college in Incheon area. Min's(1996) spiritual health scale, Gou's(1989)mental health scale and Choe's(1987) maturation of christian belief scale were used in this research for data collection. The results of this study are as follows: 1.Nursing students who have belief in religion were 65.3% include Protestant(42.3%), Catholic(15.3%) and Buddhism(7.7%). 2.The mean score on the spiritual heath scale was 3.48±0.64, on the mental health scale was 3.67±0.54 and on the maturation of christian belief scale was 3.24±0.52. 3.Spiritual health between the nursing students who have belief in religion and who have not were noted statistically significant differences(F=65.33, P=0.000). 4.There were positively significant correlation between spiritual health and mental health(r=0.506, P=0.000), spiritual health and maturation of christian belief(r=0.599, P=0.000) and mental health and maturation of christian belief(r=0.280, P=0.003).

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.387-395
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• 2010

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the physical and mental health status of disaster victims according to disaster types, such as a typhoon disaster and an oil spill disaster, and to suggest adequate health care services for them. Methods: A total of 484 people who suffered disasters were selected for this study, and data were collected from July to August, 2008. The data-set for this study included 286 victims of typhoon disasters in Jeju and Jeollanamdo district in South Korea, and 198 victims of the oil spill disaster in Taean. Physical health status was measured using revised Patient Health Questionnaire and mental health status was measured using the Korean version of 'Post-traumatic Diagnostic Scale'. Results: According to the comparative analyses of typhoon disaster victims and oil spill disaster victims, poorer physical health outcomes were shown among the oil spill disaster victims when compared to the typhoon disaster victims. Also, the oil spill disaster victims showed symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, at rates higher than those found among the typhoon disaster victims. Conclusions: These findings suggest that there is a need to provide adequate physical and mental health-related care services for oil spill disaster victims. The seriousness of oil spill disaster should be realized and reconsidered in developing recovery strategies and disaster preparedness for physical and mental health services.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.51
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• pp.63-91
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• 2002

This article investigates 170 mental health social workers in order to find out the current status and influencing factors on linking services. The social workers of this study work at different kinds of mental health organizations(mental hospitals, mental health centers, mental rehabilitation facilities, mental residential facilities). The result from the research were 1) the degree of linking services is low, and the primary type of coordination is sharing of information and client referrals. The fund-raising and joint project cases are very poor. 2) based on personal and organizational characteristics, there arc significant differences between respondents' sex, education level, job-related status, experience in mental health field, mental health licence(personal factors), location, type of organization, and type of primary client(organizational factors). 3) the factors affecting service coordination among mental health social workers are experience in mental health field, current job-related experience(personal factors), education, location of organization, type of organization, and history of organization(organizational factors). Finally, the research recommends that establishment of cooperation system, service delivery system, and information network is needed in order to enhancing the function of service coordination among mental health social workers. Also, mental health professional associations and agencies should provide opportunity of discussion and training for mental health social workers, and develop the institutional devices to expand the content and type of service coordination.