• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.62
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• pp.141-169
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• 2018

This study was a qualitative case study of mother's experiences chidult in South Korea focusing on North Korean single mom defector with children in their 20s. The purpose of the present study was to explores the mother's experiences of North Korean single mom defector without their spouses. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were arranged with 3 North Korean refugee mothers without their spouses who met the criteria for the present research purpose. As a result of the analysis, the mother's experiences into five main clusters of themes which may be labeled as (1) The presence of more meaningful children in a strange land, (2) Everyday life, such as the superwoman, (3) The rigor of a care to too cumbersome, (4) Gratitude and value discovery in our daily lives, (5) To find new life. In all there are ten sub categories to consider. On the basis of these results, we presented some conclusions on the mother's experiences of North Korean single mom defector. We also presented some implications of these results on welfare services and future research.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.44
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• pp.288-317
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to develop the group program model for reinforcing family relations of single-mother families as one approach to family welfare service. As previous research findings about problems of single parent families were reviewed and the framework for the program development was identified, a 6 sessions group program was planned and applied to 9 single-mother families from June 2nd to July 7th. Program evaluation questionnaire, Scales measuring powerlessness and FACESIII for family relations, social support network tool, and group process recording were used for the evaluation of this program. The participants evaluated this program as very supportive, useful, and educational. The powerlessness was reduced in a statistically meaningful way before and after the program and the result was found to be maintained for 4 months in the follow-up session. The family relations according to FACES III were mostly balanced and didn't show some significant change after the termination of this program. The single mothers had little concrete supports from others, if any, had some from relatives. They rather had to give supports for the other family members and reciprocally gave and took emotional or informational supports with friends or neighbors. Based on these results, the 2 step model consisted of brief group program and long term support group was developed and the practical methods were suggested for the single-mother families with low income.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.22-34
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• 1993

The purposes of this study are as follows: 1) To estimate the amounts of differences in service expenditures resulting from the effects of mother's marital and employment status. 2) To find out the relationship of socio-economic variables to expenditures for time-saving durables and services Data were taken from the 1988-1989 Consumer Expenditure Survey. The sample consisted of 2,216 families with 334 single-mother families and 1,792 married-mother families. Tobit regres-sion analyses were used to test of variables related to expenditures for (a) food away from home. (b) clothing care (c) child care (d) domestic services and (e) total services. The results of this study were as follows; 1) The percentage difference from non-employed married-mother families was higher for employed single-mother families than for other types of families indicating the positive effect on expenditures on market substitutes of mother's marital and employment status. 2) The father's wage rate was associated only with expenditures for domestic services. A positive relationship was found between family nonlabor income and domestic services Total family income was positively associated with expenditues for all dependent variables. There was a negative relationship between expenditures for child care and age of mother squared. Mother's education was associated with expenditures in all categories. Families of nonwhite spent less on time-saving durables. food away from home, and total services and spent more on apparel services than families of white mothers. The presence of young child was positively related to total services and child care services and negatively related to food away from home.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.43 no.1 s.203
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• pp.129-144
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• 2005

The purposes of this study were to find the general trends and differences factors influencing single mothers' psychological well-being, and, analyze the effects of family, and social variables on their psychological well-being. The subjects were the 284 single mothers living in Kwangju and Chonnam. The data were analyzed with frequency, t, F, and Pearson's r test, and by multiple regression using SPSS. The major findings were as follows: 1. Single mothers' family variables were lower than the median, but instrumental support was higher than emotional support. Single mothers' psychological well-being was found to be around that of the median value. 2. Single mothers' psychological well-being was significantly different from family stress, family resources, mother-child conflicts, income, emotional support, participation of education program, and institutional support. 3. Life satisfaction of single mothers was influenced by institutional support, family stress, family resources, and emotional support. Depression among single mothers was influenced by family stress, family resources, mother-child conflicts, and institutional and emotional support.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.211-228
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• 1997

The purposes of this article were to find the general trends of single mothers and their children's stress family resources and coping to estimate the correlation among variables and to analyze the effects of related variables family resources influencing coping and stress. The data were analyzed from the 566 single mothers and their children living in Kwang-ju. The major findings were as follow; 1. Scores of single mothers' and their children's stress family resources were lower than median. But scores of single mothers' coping were higher than median. Their problem-solving coping were higher than emotional coping. 2. Widowed single mothers' stress were related to family resources and emotional coping. Divorced single mothers' stress were related to emotional coping. Children's stress were related to emotional coping. Single mother's stress coping were related to stress of children. 3. Single mothers' coping were influenced by financial well-being family strength I and family strength II. Children's coping were influenced by number of friend. Single mothers' stress were influenced by education financial well-being. Children's stress were influenced by their mothers' education friendship satisfaction and school achievement satisfaction.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.1049-1069
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine post-divorce adjustment and new partnership of immigrant single mother after divorce. 4 immigrant single mothers from Vietnam were interviewed and data were analyzed by qualitative method. The results were as follows. First, immigrant single mothers coped with stress after divorce through sending their children to Vietnam, working and remittance. Second, they began dating a new man in the work place who were of various nationalities, such as Korean, Vietnamese, Uzbekistan and developed partnership to remarry, cohabit or date with deep intimacy. Third, single immigrant mothers in various partnership like remarriage, cohabitation or dating were satisfied with intimate and loving relationships and support from both sides parents and the birth of new child. However, participants were anxious about the new partner's favoritism toward the biological child and discrimination against the new partner with an unfamiliar cultural background, for example, being from a like a Muslim country. The results suggested immigrant women after divorce showed various partnership on a path towards marriage and that we should pay attention to the aspects of change in multicultural families after divorce.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.121-140
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to understand how the economic conditions and needs of single-parent families are different between single-mother and single-father families, and also how they are dependent on household composition. The data for this study were drawn from the 1st Korea Welfare Panel Study and analyzed by frequencies, means, ${\chi}^2$, t-test, F-test, and logistic regression with the STATA 9.1 program. The major findings are as follows: (1) Single-parent families are more likely to live in a three-generation household than married couple families. (2) The composition of a three-generation household of single-parent families is affected by sex, age, education, type of marital disruption, the type of employment of single parents and the age of the last-born child. (3) The income-to-needs ratio is not significantly different depending on the sex of the single parents and their household composition. However, material hardship is significantly low in three-generation household single-parent families. (4) There are differences between three-generation single-parent families and independent single-parent families in income sources: The ratio of public transfer to total incomes is higher in three-generation households than independent households, while the ratio of private transfer to total incomes is higher in independent households.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.207-222
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• 2008

This research studied the social-emotional competence of children whose primary caregiver was a single-mother or single-father alone compared with children living with a single-parent but the primary caregiver was a non-parent (e.g. a grandparent). Subjects were 208 children (105 boys, 103 girls) from 10 elementary schools in 3 metropolitan cities. Instruments were the Adaptive Behavior Checklist constructed by the researcher, Self-esteem Inventory (Kim, 1987) and Emotional Competence Scale (Kim, 1998). Results showed that children in single-mother families were more social-emotionally competent than children in single-father families. Children whose primary caregivers were non-parents had higher self-esteem than children whose primary caregivers were single parents alone. There were interaction effects of caregiver variables on children's peer relationships and awareness/expression of their own emotion.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.169-179
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• 2004

This study investigated female-head's employment and household economic status of the single-mother households compared to those in the two-parent households using the data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study. Major findings are: first, female-heads showed lower educational attainment, lower labor force participation rate, lower occupational status, and lower wage rates than male-heads; second, the level of household income was as 1.3 times as the Minimum Living Cost and the level of household expenditure was close to the Minimum Living Cost; third, one-thirds of single-mother households were in poverty. Based on the results, the implications to public policy were suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.41-54
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• 1999

This study focused on the coping behavior and perceived economic well-being of the housing-subsidized single-mother family. The major findings were as follows: 1. Single mothers who had higher level of income, education, and self-esteem tended to have better coping behaviors. 2. Internally oriented single mothers had better coping behaviors. 3. Single mothers who had high level of income, job satisfaction, and social support perceived their income more adequately. 4. Single mothers who were satisfied with job, social support and child relationship reported a high level of economic satisfaction. 5. Single mothers who had high score in coping behavior tended to have a high level of perceived economic well-being.