• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.163-176
• /
• 1997

Using survey data collected from 275 adolescent children of widowed or divorced single mother families, this study investigated the characteristics of family coping resources, including individual, financial, social, and mother-child relational resources and their effects on the psychological wellbeing of these adolescents. After controlling background variables of the family, higher depression among adolescents was associated with low grade point average, mother's high exposure to negative experiences after loss of father, low attachment to mother, and low sense of self-control. Furthermore, higher grade point average, strong attachment to mother, and high self-control in problem solving were factors predicting higher self-esteem of adolescents. Social network resources were not related to the psychological well-being of the adolescents. Discussion included recommendations for future research. Implications for policy and parent-child relations were discussed with a view to enhancing family functioning of adolescents in single-mother families.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.25-50
• /
• 2017

Recently, concern about family safety is rising again as an important issue with the context of family healthiness and well-being in Korean society despite of the dramatic economic growth. The purpose of this study is to examine the status of family safety of singles and single-parent households and to investigate the effect of social capital on the level of their family safety. Data are from the 10th wave of Korea Welfare Panel Study analysing one-person households(N=2,017) and single-parent households(N=172). One-person households were categorized as three groups by age(the youths/middle-aged/the elderly) and single-parent households were also three by family types(mother-child/fahter-child/grandparent-child). The major results were as follows: First, the mean of family safety index was highest among middle-aged, while single youths had the fewest problems in terms of family safety. Second, social capital was found to vary by family structure. In the one-person households, all the levels of the social capital variables, including trust, bond, acceptance, and participation, differed significantly; only two variables, bond and embracement, differed in the single-parent households. Third, social capital differed between the low-income households and others significantly. Forth, the positive effects of social capital on overcoming family safety problems were investigated. In conclusion, social capital represents an alternative resource for overcoming economic hardship for low-income one-person/single-parent households, especially for middle-aged singles and father-child single-parent households. Based on these empirical results, theoretical implications were discussed with regard to family policy and programs.

• Journal of Family Relations
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.51-76
• /
• 2016

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the effect of marital relationship on parenting stress among dual- and single-earner families. In particular, this study focuses on the interaction effect of marital relationship and father's child-rearing involvement on the parenting stress. To access factors associated with parenting stress, we included marital satisfaction and marital conflict as the dimensions of marital relationship in this study. Method: We employed data from the 5th wave of the Panel Study of Korean Children(PSKC) data. Our analysis sample consisted of 1,515 parents having at least one child aged under 4 years. Also, this study conducted descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Results: First of all, marital satisfaction and marital conflict were significantly related to parenting stress for both mother and father in dual-earner families. While both indicators were significantly related to parenting stress for father, marital conflict only was a significant predictor for mother in single-earner families. Second, father involvement was a significant predictor for parenting stress for father in both dual- and single-earner families. Third, interaction effects were found between father involvement and marital conflict in the dual-earner families and between father involvement and marital satisfaction in the single-earner families. Conclusions: Based on the results, we recommended programs designed to enhance father's child-rearing involvement such as parenting education and community-based campaign. In addition, we recommended that policy and practice need to identify marital relationship dynamics to promote father's involvement and to reduce marital conflict in both dual- and single-earner families accordingly.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.181-191
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study was to examine the social support network for divorced single mother families. The data were gathered through in-depth interviews with seven divorced single mothers who had at least one school-age child. Qualitative analysis of data showed that divorced single mothers evaluated themselves based on other people's perception. There were mainly three different kinds of self-images, which were “a competent divorced woman,” “a bad child to my parents,” and “a socially weak person.” We also found that there were two factors that influenced the everyday lives of single mothers: all of them .;offered hardships in living as a divorced woman with children, and they also had to deal with the weakened solidarity with family of origin, relatives, and neighbors. Single mothers shared common problems yet their lifestyles and adjustment strategies were diverse. Therefore, diverse social welfare policies for education and counseling for single mothers are urgently needed to support and empower divorced single mothers.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.59-75
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how divorced mothers had decided to take custody of their children and became single mothers. The experiences of their lives after divorce were also explored. Data were collected from 17 Korean divorced mothers who were divorced between 2004 and 2009, and were raising at least one minor child. The data were analyzed based on the phenomenological data analysis method. Three main themes were identified: (a) reasons for deciding to have physical custody of the children, (b) mothers' experiences of adjustment after divorce, and (c) mothers' need for a policy concerning the well-being of their families. According to the divorced mothers, they decided to have physical custody of the children since they believed raising children was their natural duty of mothers or they were the most appropriate ones to raise the children rather than the fathers. While the mothers were satisfied with their lives after divorce in general, they also experienced difficulties including child care and financial strain. In particular, most mothers experienced work-family conflict related to the lack of reliable child care. When their family lives and work lives collided, the mothers put their children first and chose jobs that helped them take care of their children at the same time. The divorced single mothers hoped that the social safety net for single parents would expand to support their independence. Implications for single-parent policy are discussed.

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

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

• Human Ecology Research
• /
• v.55 no.4
• /
• pp.363-384
• /
• 2017

The Korean government implemented better support for adolescent single-parent families by expanding the coverage of the Single-parent Family Support Act in 2010. In order to understand the effect, this study verified the moderating effect of the single-parent family policy's support for child rearing in the context of adolescent female single-parent's stress levels and education sustainability. This study utilized part of the National Youth Policy Institute's 'Research on the Actual Condition of the Adolescent Pregnancy, Birth and Rearing Children'. Participants of the study were 248 adolescent single-parents aged 24 and below. The findings and discussion of this study are as follows. First, the stress level of adolescent female single-parent in continuing studies was lower than those for discontinued studies. Students who discontinued their education in the middle of studies showed an increase in life stress level relative to age because they had a low level of education and had discontinued studies before pregnancy. Second, the public nanny service has been verified as an element to increase the continuation of education by controlling the level of stress. It is advisable to fortify and expand the scope of support for childcare services in the form of a study assistant or child education assistant. Last, adolescent single-parent childcare subsidies have been verified as a direct factor that raised the meaningful level of education continuity potential to a meaningful standard that can be seen as a more effective method than general policy support for single-parent families.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.115-125
• /
• 2008

This longitudinal study tested the role of adolescents' emotional regulation and self-esteem as mediators of the associations between parenting behaviors and adolescent's internalizing problems one year later in a sample of 125 adolescents aged 16 to 17 years growing up in single parent families. Structural equation modeling was used for analyses of research questions. Results indicated that time 1 parenting behaviors were not associated with time 2 adolescents' internalizing problems directly, but that time 1 and time 2 self-esteem mediated the associations between time 1 parenting behaviors and time 2 adolescents' internalizing problems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Interior Design Conference
• /
• 2005.05a
• /
• pp.75-78
• /
• 2005

In according to the rising rate of divorce, single parent family has increased rapidly. And the number of single mother families is up to 80% of total single parent families. Especially the residential problem of low-income single mother families has been issue in social scope. But now facilities to accept these families are too short in Korea. Therefore this study aims for basic analysis of short-term residential facilities for single mother family. The survey of written documents and investigation of existing facilities are used by the method of study. In addition relief and rehabilitation facilities for mother and child in Seoul is analyzed by domestic example because of similarity to the model of this study.