• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.19-44
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• 2014

This study was conducted to investigate the types of personality of North Korean female refugees, which were extracted from the T-scores of SPFQ(scales of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire) and psychological adaptation. For this, The data of 158 North Korean female refugees located in Seoul Yangchun-Gu and Gayang-Gu was analyzed. The results were as follows. Firstly, the ratio of over 65T in ego-strength, self-control, social-boldness, anxiety scales and under 34T in abstractedness and openness to change scales was higher than in other scales. Secondly, there were statistically significant differences in personality characteristics based on the demographic variables especially age and the term of residence in South Korea. Thirdly, three distinct groups were extracted from the K-means cluster analysis. The first group was characterized with emotional-unstability and negative emotionality. And the North Korean female refugees in the second group hesitated to enter into and maintain proper relationships with south korean, while they were unlikely to accept norms and rules in South Korea. The third group, characterized by higher emotional stability, ego-strength, and agreeableness, was met normal range in all the scale of SPFQ. Finally, each three groups were showed statistically significant differences in psychological adaptation scales(self-identity and resilience). We expected that these results contributed to explore the psychological and the political plans for North Korean female refugees' settlement in South Korea.