• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.583-595
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• 2013

In the women's clothing industry that targets middle aged-women, there is increased interest on middle-aged women and their appearance management and diet. It is believed that the body type of middle-aged women is becoming thinner. This study examines if middle-aged women body types have changed based on data from the $5^{th}$ and $6^{th}$ Size Korea that objectively analyzed the aspects of middle-aged women's body size change and the related fashion industry that recognize changes in middle-aged women body types by suggesting foundational data for clothing designs. According to research results, middle-aged women's body type shows an increase in items related to height and that measurement values related to obesity (such as weight and BMI index) tend to decrease. Height has increased and weight has decreased compared to the past. Most items related to width or depth tend to show decreased values and we can assume that the present middle-aged women's body type is changing more dynamically than before. It will be possible to design proper clothes for consumer body type and trends if we design clothes that afford multilateral attention to the patterns, design, or material in clothing design by applying the aspects of middle-aged women's body size and body type change.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.726-736
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• 2015

The apparel industry has recently been recognizing the important target market of middle-aged women. The aim of this study was to examine the anthropometric characteristics of US women of 46 to 65 years of age and identify distinctive body shape characteristics of US middle-aged women. A total of 1915 middle-aged women whose ages ranged from 46 to 65 were selected from the SizeUSA database. The age range was divided into two groups: 46-55 and 56-65. Twenty-four body measurements important for apparel development were chosen. Four factors-Girth Factor, Height Factor, Hip Drop Factor, and Bust Drop Factor-accounted for the US middle-aged women's body measurements. The body shapes were classified into four body shapes, which were Y-Shape in the overweight range, S-Shape in the overweight range, H-Shape in the overweight range, and the A-Shape in obese range. H-Shape, which was the least-defined waist in relation to the bust and hips with a short height, existed more in older middle-aged women than in younger middle-aged women. Y-Shape, S-Shape, and A-Shape existed more in the group of younger middle-aged women than in the group of older middle-aged women. In addition, compared with the younger middle-aged women, older middle-aged women had narrower shoulders, a larger waist, thinner legs, and a longer distance between side neck to bust point. The findings from the current study may be applied in the apparel industry for developing clothing sizing systems for US middle-aged women.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.266-276
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• 2004

Purpose: This study purposed to supply basic data for nursing intervention plan for middle-aged women healthcare and for finding solutions to nursing problems through understanding middle-aged women's depression, and to examine whether middle-aged women's depression is related with self-concept, self-efficacy, physical condition and social support. Method: The subjects were 200 middle-aged women aged between 35 and 60 and living in Daejon city and K city in Chungcheongnam-do, and the questionnaire survey was conducted from the 15th of August to the 18th of September in 2003 using a structured questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA. Pearson's correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression. Result: Middle- aged women's depression was found to be in a negative correlation at a statistically significant level with self-concept (r=-.679, p=0.000), self-efficacy(r=-.489, p= 0.000), physical condition(r=-.650, p=0.000) and social support(r=-.526, p=0.000). The most significant variables of middle-aged women's depression was self-concept(46.2%). Combining with physical condition(13.2%) and self-efficacy(0.9%), the three variables together explained 60.3% of middle-aged women's depression. Conclusion: The results show that middle-aged women's depression is closely related with self-concept, self-efficacy and physical condition. Thus this study suggests that the goal of nursing intervention for middle-aged women to overcome depression should be to help them to have positive self-concept, high self-efficacy and sound physical condition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.17-24
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• 1982

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between body cathexis and five aspects of clothing behavior. Body cathexis was measured by Secord and Jourard's Body Cathexis Scale, fit in clothing was measured by Mclean's questionnaire, and three aspects of clothing were assessed with Lee, Lim, Lee, and Kahng questionnaire dealing with clothing satisfaction, status symbol, and fashion interest. Preference for fashion style was determined by line drawings of clothing designs representing current fashion and non-current fashign. The questionnaires were administered to a sample of middle-aged women (40$\~$64 year of age) in Seoul. The data for 351 respondents were analyzed by correlation and t-test. The results were : 1) Body cathexis was positvely related to clothing satisfaction for early middle-aged women as well as advanced middle-aged women. 2) Body cathexis was positively related to fit in clothing for early middle-aged women as well as advanced middle-aged women. 3) Fashion interest was positively related to preference for fashion style in early middle-aged women, 4) Scores of early middle-aged women on body cathexis, fit in clothing and preference for fashion style were significantly higher than those of advanced middle-aged women, that is, early middle-aged women had a higher self-satisfaction with body cathexis and fit in clothing. They also preferred modern fashions in contrast to be advanced middle-aged sample.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.779-787
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• 2022

This study aimed to analyze the relationships among the middle-aged women's gender role conflict, resilience, and psychological well-being, and to examine the mediating model of resilience on gender role conflict and psychological well-being. Data were collected from July 28 to August 5, 2021 for 302 middle-aged women aged 40-65 years. The Gender Role Conflict Scale specialized for middle-aged Korean women, internal traits subscale of Ahn's Resilience Scales, and Ryff's Psychological Well-being Scale were used for this study. PROCESS Macro 3.5 Model 4 was used to analyze the mediating effect. Results revealed that the middle-aged women's gender role conflict was negatively correlated with resilience and psychological well-being. And, the middle-aged women's resilience was positively correlated with psychological well-being. Because both the direct effect of the middle-aged women's gender role conflict on psychological well-being and its indirect effect through resilience were statistically significant, it was found that the middle-aged women's resilience was partially mediating their gender role conflict and psychological well-being.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.677-687
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• 2007

This research aims to classify the physical characteristics of middle aged women. The characteristics are esteemed to be adopted for the formalisation of the types of their body figures and their characteristics for each type. For this purpose, middle aged women in the significant change of their body shapes were sampled for body measurement which would be used for the comparison between each measured figure. A group of sample for this research was constructed with 154 middle aged women who is currently living in Seoul and its Metropolitan area and being in their age of $35{\sim}59$. Particularly, the analysis on the girth of belly shows a significant difference subject to each age group so that a distinguished change in the girth of belly is observed as the age gets older. With the SPSS programme, the physical characteristics of middle aged women were analysed by the variation analysis and correlation analysis. In terms of the analysis on the body mass index and the flatness index, the observed result that there is a significant difference between the indices for late middle aged women and early and mid middle aged women shows far more different result from Yu-Kyung Choi(1997) that the body figures of middle aged women tend to start rapidly to change from their ages of 49. This can be explained to some extent in that the increased interest in much healthier and slimmer body shapes beginning from widely-spread so called "well-being" syndrome results in the increase in the number of middle aged women taking care of their health management so that the ages starting their body shape to become obese tend to be deferred. Another explanation is also feasible to partly extent that the middle aged women living in Seoul and Kyung-Gi area are much more looking after their health management than those living in other areas. However, this research has a limitation in that the physical measurement for this research has been conducted focusing on the women living in Seoul and Kyung-Gi area. Hence, it is further expected going forward that the physical measurement for middle aged women living in other areas should follow for the comparison purpose.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.10 no.1 s.19
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• pp.207-228
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• 1992

This study investigated the relationship between personality characteristics of individual and adjustment in the mid-life. The subjects of the study consisted of 374 married persons(185 men and 189 women) who live in Seoul and are 40 to 50 years old and whose last child is in middle school. Bem's short form BSRI, Rotter(1966)'s Internal-External Scale and Hayes & Stinnett(1977)'s MYLSS were used as measurements tools. The major results of the study were summarized as follows ; 1) While sex-role identity of middle aged men appeared in the follwing order ; Androgynous, masculine, undifferentiated, feminine, sec-role identity of middle aged women appeared in the following order ; Undifferentiated, androgynous, feminine, masculine. Both men and women had the moderate scores on the locus of control. The middle aged expressed a moderate level of life satisfaction with middle aged men reporting significantly a higher life satisfaction than did women. 2) Socio-demographic variables such as age, education, occuption and income have turned out to be significant on the life satisfaction of middle aged men. As for the life satisfacton of middle aged women, age, education, husband's occuption and religon had significant influences However, employment status of women, family structure, marital duration, number of child, status of last child, status of first child had no significant influences on Mid-life satisfaction. 3) Mid-life satisfaction of men and women was influenced significantly by sex-role identity and internal-external locus of control. Those men described as masculine and those women androgynous in the sex-role identity had the highest life satisfaction. On the other hand those of undifferentiated in the sex-role identity had the lowest life satisfaction. High levels of internal control were associated with high levels of life satisfaction. 4) The variables affecting the life satisfaction of middle aged men and women were education, income, sex-role identity, internal control. These 4 variables explained 27% of the life satisfaction of middle aged men and 24% of the life satisfaction of middle aged women.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.315-328
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the components and nature of happiness in middle-aged women in Korea. Methods: Thirty middle-aged women living in metropolitan Seoul and Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces agreed to participate in this study. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with the participants in one-on-one settings. The data were analyzed qualitative using Colaizzi's method of phenomenology. Results: The three theme clusters were extracted from the raw data, along with 13 themes and 138 meaningful sentences and phrases. The three happiness theme clusters in middle-aged women were "live healthy for stability," "rule one's mind for harmony," and "activate hopes for self-esteem." The first theme cluster included healthy life, economic stability, physical youth, and positive thought. The second theme cluster included that harmonious family, ruling of mind, my position as invisible person in social relationships, and precious relationships to support. The last theme included the center of one's life is oneself, a sense of accomplishment, self-improvement, recognition of one's worth and rest for one self. The three theme clusters were associated with the existence, relatedness, and growth (ERG) of ERG areas, respectively. Conclusions: We conclude that the core components of happiness in middle-aged women are to live healthy and mind-ruled and activate hope. The nature of happiness is egocentric stability in middle-aged women. The results suggest that theme clusters might be used to develop a scale for measuring happiness in middle-aged women. This will be helpful to assess the psychosocial status of middle-aged women in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.856-864
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• 2003

Purpose: This study was to identify the relationships of trait anger, mode of anger expression, and perceived stress to mental health status in middle aged women. Method: The subjects were 157 middle aged women from 40s to 60s who lived in Seoul. Data was collected by questionnaire surveys using the convenience sampling. The instruments used for this study were Spielberger's trait anger scale and anger expression scale, Cohen, Kamarck, and Mermelstein's perceived stress and Derogatis's SCL-90-R. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, and Stepwise multiple regression with SAS/PC. Result: The trait anger of middle aged women indicated a significantly positive correlation to perceived stress(r=.180, p=.023) and mental health status(r.=021, p=.014). Anger-in(r=.237, p<.05), and perceived stress(p=.461, p<.01) showed significantly positive correlation to mental health status. The most significant predictor influencing health status of middle aged women was perceived stress, and anger-in and the variance explained was 27%. Conclusion: These results suggested that middle aged women with high degree of trait anger is likely to be high in stress perception. Perceived stress and anger-in are major factors influencing mental health status.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.189-203
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• 2001

The purposes of this study were to examine the social support network of married middle-aged women and its effects on the life satisfaction. The data were obtained through 395 middle-aged women living in Kwangju and Chonnam. The major findings were as follows. 1. Married middle-aged women mostly received companionable support and they were intimate with friends and family members of orientation obviously. 2. The life satisfaction of married middle-aged women was significantly influenced by emotional support from wife's family members of orientation, contact frequency with husband's family members of orientation, emotional support from their friends and intimacy with wife's family members of orientation.