• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.440-448
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of oral health education on oral health knowledge, oral health behavior, and oral hygiene status of children from North Korea. Methods: Participants were 32 North Korean children defectors (15 in the education group, 17 in the control group). The oral health education program, including theoretical training and toothbrush training, was done once a week for 4 weeks. Effects of the education program were assessed for oral health knowledge, oral health behavior, and oral hygiene status at pretest, 0, and 4 weeks after the intervention. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANCOVA with the SAS program. Results: Children in the education group showed increased oral health knowledge and behavior over time compared to the control group and an improvement in oral hygiene status including significantly decreased S-PHP and Snyder test for oral micro-organism. Conclusion: Results indicate that oral health education is effective in improving oral health knowledge, oral health behavior and oral hygiene status. These improvements could lead to a better quality of life for North Korean children defectors.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.9-21
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• 2019

This study aimed to compare the prosodic characteristics of North Korean defectors and South Koreans in three types of sentences (declarative, interrogative, and negative) in two reading tasks (short and dialogue) through acoustic analysis and auditory-perceptual evaluation. In addition, this study examined the relationship between the auditory-perceptual evaluation scores and self-assessment questionnaires on intonation for North Korean defectors. The participants were 15 North Korean defectors and 15 Korean speakers with standard Seoul accents. For statistical analysis, three-way mixed ANOVA and multivariate analysis were performed within the three types of sentences in the reading tasks through acoustic analysis and the Mann-Whitney U Test for auditory-perceptual evaluation. Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients were also used to identify the correlations between the results of the self-assessment questionnaire on intonation and the auditory-perceptual evaluation. The North Korean defectors were found to have a significantly lower pitch range and auditory-perceptual evaluation score than South Koreans in reading tasks. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between their auditory-perceptual evaluations and self-assessment questionnaires on intonation. The study findings suggest that North Korean defectors, who face many challenges with intonation, showed a tendency to think that their intonation differed from the standard Korean intonation and showed better auditory evaluation results for interrogative sentences.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.60-74
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• 2016

There are increasing numbers of North Korean defectors. Many of them enter universities and major in social welfare in order to get jobs. As a required course, they must participate in field practicum and many difficulties are expected. This study aims to examine the North Korean defectors' practicum experience in specific, and to support more effectively in the field work education. To achieve this purpose, female North Korean defectors who go to G cyber university and have finished their field practicums, were interviewed in an in-depth interview. The data were analyzed with the open coding through the constant comparison method as Grounded theory's initial analysis. As the result, the following was found: 49 concepts, 18 sub-categories, and 7 categories. The categories include difficulties in the process of preparation for and beginning with various obstacles; confusion due to the differences between the North Korean and South Korean culture; tasks and functions that were not expected, personal relationships which were burdensome to them; feeling a lack of professional competence; inevitable environmental circumstances, and personal problems. Based on the results, suggestions for better support in field practice education in the side of universities, community agencies, individual students and the general society were addressed.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.80-87
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• 2018

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate prevalence and clinical characteristics of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in North Korean defectors (NKD). Methods : The study population consisted of 300 NKDs registered in the multi-regional adaptation center (Hana Center), within three years of settling in South Korea. We conducted in-person interviews and a survey with each subject, based on the North Korean version of the WHO-Composite International Diagnostic Interview (NK-CIDI) and various clinical scales. Results : Lifetime prevalence of PTSD in NKDs was 15.3%, approximately nine times higher than South Koreans (1.7%). Although experiencing broader type of traumas with higher rate than South Koreans, NKDs revealed lower odds of PTSD in most type of trauma (p<0.05). Conclusion : NKDs are at higher risk of experiencing different types of trauma than the general population in South Korea, and it is further validated that prevalence of PTSD is also higher. Careful evaluation for comorbid psychiatric symptoms and type of traumas prior to PTSD treatment for NKDs is necessary to facilitate more appropriate intervention for each subject, according to personal experience.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2018

This study examined the resilience of North Korean defectors, resilience and the factors influencing resilience, and explored methods of improving their resilience. 129 North Korean defectors, who were trained in B city, participated in the survey from November, 2016 to February, 2017. The resilience, health promoting behavior, and self-esteem were measured. The mean scores were 3.46 for resilience. There were significant positive correlations between resilience and self-esteem. The influence of the independent variables on the on the resilience was examined using regression analysis. Models including the variables explained 11.7%(F=9.460, p<.001) of the variance for the resilience. These findings demonstrate that it is essential for nurses to continuously intervene and help North Korean defectors so as to promote their resilience and self-esteem.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.46-59
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• 2019

Purpose: To determine associations of traumatic events and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with sexual autonomy and identify factors influencing sexual autonomy among female university students of North Korean defectors. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was performed with a total of 103 female students who completed a structured online self-report survey from January 7 to March 31, 2018. This study was conducted using questionnaires on interpersonal trauma scale, the Traumatic Scale for North Korean Refugees (TSNKR), and sexual autonomy measurement for college students. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple linear regression with SPSS WIN 23.0 program. Results: Traumatic events, PTSD, and sexual autonomy scores were $3.96{\pm}3.07$, $31.47{\pm}10.75$, and $52.66{\pm}6.89$, respectively. PTSD was positively correlated with traumatic events (r=.22, p=.030). Sexual autonomy was inversely correlated with PTSD (r=-.25, p=.010). Contraceptive use, PTSD, and voluntary sexual debut explained 26% of sexual autonomy of participants. Conclusion: To improve sexual autonomy of young women from North Korea, reproductive intervention programs including contraception, sexual assertiveness training, and psychoeducation to reduce PTSD need to be developed and implemented.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.101-113
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• 2018

This study aims to elucidate the major issues and problems of the North Korean woman defectors focusing on the Community settlement system of Korean society in the time of the historical change of the rapidly changing inter - Korean relations starting from the recent summit talks between North and South Korea. Analytical methods were conducted using literature and previous research data. The results of this study are summarized as follows. The necessity of legal and institutional support reflecting the characteristics of life of North Korean woman defectors and experience of defecting, the necessity of development and management of employment education and employment support program for stable settlement support, the necessity of an integrated support system of public - private cooperation governance structure The need for a tailored social adaptation program tailored to individual needs arises. The results of this study are important to suggest the direction of improvement of the actual system through studying the policy and system of the settlement of Korean society in advance of the unification era. In future research, the support system for the settlement of the South Korean society A variety of studies to identify the factors for role formation will be needed.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.57-73
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• 2000

The Purpose of this study is to scrutinize the time structure and time use pattern of North Korean and to identify the differences of time use patterns between South and North Korean Societies. To carry out this Purpose in-depth interviews with ten people who escaped from North Korea after 1990 and empirical survey with 158 subjects were conducted. The findings are as follows. The characteristics of time life of North Korean are uniform time use pattern in tightly scheduled daily life and shortage of disposable time and constraint of free time due to job related labor, extra job activities including learning, meeting and evaluation, and labor mobilization. Women are faced with heavy burden of doing job and housework in the continuing patriarchal way of thinking and in the circumstances of poor housing environment. In North, Leisure time is constraint and leisure facilities are poor and the concept of leisure is totally different as that of South. North Korean think leisure as connecting with work and education and as public sphere, not private sphere. I this context leisure is considered as means for the strengthening of the communist society. Differences in the perception of time life through defectors are as follows. In South, there are plenty of leisure time and man can control his own time. Man spend his free time for various activities, especially for cultural activities such as sports, recreation, eating out with families and spend time till late in the outdoors. This study revealed differences in many aspects of time life between South and North Korean societies. These results will provide useful informations for the overcome of differences of cultural life of South and North Korean societies and accomplishment of the real integration of two societies.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.354-372
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• 2020

This study analyzed how North Korean defectors recognized and overcame conflict in the South Korean job culture during the course of entering and settling into South Korea, and the association between their old career and adaptation within their new careers. The study selected 13 employed participants who entered South Korea more than five years ago and experienced working. Interviews were conducted over the course of five years. The topics were analyzed after performing interviews 60 to 120 minutes long by recording and transcribing the recordings and using semi-structured questionnaires for the 13 people. The results reflected the job environment in North Korea, their career background, factors for a successful new life, their constant efforts for employment, the difficult adaption to South Korean life, pursuing job stability, accepting South Korean culture, and career compromises. The results of this study are as follows. First, they undergo difficulty in the course of selecting jobs due to the converted environment from passivity to autonomy. Second, they cannot use their previous job history and they complained about prejudice and the lack of job information. Third, major problems included their lack of adaptability, stress, and loss of economic power. The study suggests that these North Korean defectors undergo an integrated course of cultural learning. Fourth, they were hardly able to adapt. Fifth, they tried to overcome conflicts of job culture according to their personal characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2018.01a
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• pp.57-58
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• 2018

본 연구에서는 북한이탈주민 남한사회 정착을 위한 정책 방안을 모색하여 정책의 기초 자료 활용과 시사점의 제공에 목적을 두고자 하였다. 이를 위해 기존의 문헌연구와 통계자료를 활용하여 인과모형을 설정하였다. 연구결과 먼저, 불안한 신변을 위해 개인의 정보 보호가 이루어 져야 한다. 둘째, 심리적 문제 해결과 이를 통한 정서적 안정이 마련되어져야 한다. 셋째, 국적에 관한 문제를 제도적으로 명확히 하여야 한다. 넷째, 경제적 문제 해결을 위한 현실적인 서비스 지원 개선책이 마련되어야 한다. 다섯째, 국가나 지방자치단체의 적극적인 인식의 개선 노력과 시민교육을 통한 문화적 차이를 해소할 수 있는 공동체 교육이 이루어져야 한다.