• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.551-573
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• 2015

The rise of single living has been one of the most important demographic shifts of recent decades. The solo household is a little less than 40% in Europe areas and that of Tokyo is over 45%. Being impacted this figure, the formation of single economy is the key word in World Economic Forum(WEF) 2008. Seoul' single household is increasing rapidly. Between 2000 and 2005, the growth of single person is around 34%, the population of single person reached 700,000 people. Now 20% of total household in Seoul is Single household. Living alone or solo living is not exceptional or special in Seoul Metropolitan City. The rise in single living will create pressures towards poverty and inequality and so on. Seoul should develop and prepare the urban policy for single household. We figured out the four key trends which composed of single household in Seoul. Four types of single person are like below : Gold Mr and Miss, Reserved labor forces, depressed single and silver generation. Gold group is amonst people aged 30 and 40 who is working in the area of white collar and professional. They are usually elective single person household who have chosen solo living. Reserved labor forces group is usually among 20s people who have not get the regular hob. For this group, job acquiring is the most important issue. Depressed single person household group is among people aged late 30s and 40s. Its group is the result from the broken family. The silver group is among aged over 65 that is the main issue of the aged society. In this research, we stressed that people living alone can be split into two types - elective single person households who have chosen single living, and forced single person household who have been constrained to this lifestyle by circumstances. Except gold group, the rest of the group is the forced single household who are faced to poverty. The monthly income of single person household is almost under 2 million won. Single person household is usually working in the blue collar job and service area. So, except gold group that is the smallest part of single person household, almost single person is not the target of private market, but the object of public policy.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.227-252
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• 2015

This study was intended to examine child abuse experience, response to child abuse, perception of the cause of child abuse, and need for counseling to prevent and eliminate child abuse among 514 day care center teachers across the country. First, 17.9% (92) of the teachers had experience of witnessing child abuse at day care centers. After such witness, the teachers mostly "paid attention to abused children and provided them with warm treatment" when they were abused by other teachers and "took no actions" when they were abused by directors of the day care centers. The biggest reason of not taking any actions was: they "had no authority to intervene in child care of other teachers" in case of child abuse by other teachers and "were afraid of responsibilities or roles that could be placed on them after reporting" in case of child abuse by day care center directors. Second, the biggest reason of child abuse by teachers was job stress followed by excessive work and mental health of teachers. Third, necessary actions when child abuse cases were found and confirmed were suspension of involved teachers and psychological evaluation for involved children and parents. Fourth, 88.9% (457) of the teachers responded that they would use an organization specialized in child abuse if such organization was built and that the organization would help them to decide on whether to report child abuse and prevention of and intervention in child abuse. They also said that such organization should be installed in the Counseling Center in the Comprehensive Child Care Support Center. Fifth, 95.3% (490) of the teachers answered professional counselors specialized in development and counseling of infants and toddlers were needed to address child abuse at day care centers. They demanded that such counselors should be able to administer psychological evaluation for young children and assess child abuse cases. Qualification of the counselors was at least college graduates who majored in psychology and child care, three to five years of experience in the field, and appropriate certificates or licenses. Finally, the teachers said that training and professional counseling about child abuse were required to prevent and eliminate child abuse at day care centers. Implications and follow-up studies were provided and suggested based on these findings.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.253-277
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to identify work-family balance values(work-family centrality, marriage value, child-care value, work value etc) in Korea, Japan and U. K.. Moreover, This article investigated the attitudinal generational gap in each countries. Participants were 311 Korean, 324 Japanese and 322 English married working women, who were in the thirties fifties. The major findings of this study were as follows. Compared to Japan and U. K., Korean married working women were more work-centered and likely to seek for extrinsic work value as well as intrinsic work value. While they were highly thought that a woman should work despite of her marriage, it was also strongly concerned if their work negatively affected family life, they should be better to quit their job. These results showed that conservative-liberal values were coexisted in Korean participants. Secondly, U. K. participants were more centered on the family-oriented value and thought that women were not necessary to work in work-family conflict, in comparison to Korean and Japanese. As a result of cluster analysis, they were a lot distributed in 'woman's family care oriented group' which was weigh on woman's role as a family care giver as well as 'family value oriented group'. Thirdly, Japan participants not only were less family-centered but also less work-centered. In the similar vein, they were less motivated and oriented to all of intrinsic and extrinsic work values compared with participants in Koran and U. K. On the other hand, Japanese participants, in sharp contrast to Korean, had a liberal viewpoint in work-family related values, such as woman's work, career break caused by work-family conflict, and family values. We were trying to interpret these results in consideration of socio-economic-politic as well as psychological aspects.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.145-161
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to develop a content system for the home economics curriculum that integrates Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) and provides basic material for ESD implementation in schools. In view of this, the content elements of the revised home economics curriculum for 2022 were analyzed, and a content system for the home economics curriculum, linked to ESD, was proposed based on the implications drawn from the analysis. The results are as follows. First, the three components of competencies, namely knowledge, values, and skills, were organized equally as a whole. However, the association between the content elements and key competencies in sustainability was found to be insufficient. Consequently, it is proposed that key competencies in sustainability should be cultivated integrally. Second, no content element was identified that can promote social participation. Therefore, it is proposed that solutions should be dealt with at the level of social participation. Third, the connection with Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) was observed in only six of the 28 content elements. Wherever relevant, it is proposed to incorporate key issues related to SDGs. Fourth, the analysis confirmed that only the environmental dimension of sustainable development was considered. Therefore, it is proposed to pursue coexistence based on temporal and spatial relationship and consider the dimensions of environment, society, and economy in an integrated manner.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.28
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• pp.37-72
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• 2017

The purpose of this article is to study the prospect of implementing a public common practice of ethics based on the 'Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth.' The 'Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth' demonstrated the prospect of a public common practice of ethics through the shared public action that would connect and mediate both the public domain and the private domain. In addition, the 'Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth' of Gucheon Sangje (九天上帝) provided us with a complete transformation, meaning the opening of a new era, transforming heaven and earth from their state in the Prior World to their optimized state in the Later World. This culminates in a new manifestation of a peaceful world revealed a prosperity and the prospect of common happiness and common order for the public. In addition, the 'Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth' has a public value as a religious culture that responds to social change and social needs. The 'Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth' revealed the prospect of a public common practice of ethics, placed importance on creating a new foundation, and restoring phenomena back to its original order. The 'Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth' presented various multi-faceted, multi-layered outlets of soteriology while exploring solutions to public issues and revealing human dignity. Through the new construction of Heaven and Earth, Gucheon Sangje had intervened in projects for human relief. The public ethical indicators of 'the actor' here are in line with those of the 'Non-action Tao' of Laozi. As the cosmos enters into the new epoch, humans have living together with the previous cosmic principle. Now we can expect the Prior World to open into a different era as humans embrace a cosmic life of 'Non-action Tao.' The active conjunction of the virtues of yin and yang is an idea of horizontal communication related to reordering of the universe. The harmonious union of divine beings and human beings suggests the way of enabling vertical communication. The resolution of grievances for the mutual beneficence of life is an ethics of peace that aims at achieving coexistence and prosperity. The private realization of Tao and the completion of the Tao in the world suggest the prospect of a common practice of ethics as means of implementing human dignity.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.171-197
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• 2023

The traditional Korean society has been classified as an Eastern collectivist culture, but in the flow of globalization and digitalization along with the post-Cold War era of the 1970s, Western individualistic culture and values quickly permeated the Korean younger generation. Since rapid changes occurred within a short period of time, there may be differences in cultural self-construal between generations living in the same era. Due to this, psychological problems related to emotional expression and suppression may appear differently depending on generations. Therefore, in the current study, 1,000 Korean adult men and women from their 20s to 60s were investigated for their level of independent and interdependent self-construal, alexithymia, ambivalence over emotional expression(AEE) and emotional suppression(ES). Then the relationship between the variables(self-construal and alexithymia,) and the mediating process of AEE and ES were examined. The generation of participants were divided into the industrialization cohort (birth year < 1970) and the digitalization cohort (birth year starting from 1970). Using the PROCESS macro(Hayes, 2022), we tested a serial mediation model of AEE and ES between the relative independent self-construal(RIS) and alexithymia. The results indicate that the level of alexithymia increases by the serial increase of AEE and ES when RIS decreases. Next, we examined a moderation effect of generatione on the mediation process of AEE and ES, and found that generation moderates the relationship between ES and alexithymia. That is, the effect of ES on alexithymia is significant for the digitalization cohort, while it is not significant for the industrialization cohort. The current results imply that emotion regulation strategies of Koreans have been differently developed according to prevailing cultural values in each generation, and that the negative influence of emotion suppression could be different according to the cultural background of each generation.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.131-157
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• 2017

Loving-kindness & compassion meditation (LCM) is one of the popular intervention on clinical setting to cultivate loving-kindness & compassion for self and other. Shame is known for unconscious and implicit emotion including negative self-concept. Some researchers suggest that people with high shame have difficulty in cultivating loving-kindness & compassion toward oneself because of shame including the negative self-critic. In this research, it is explored the influence of shame for the object of LCM. There are 2 experiments to find out the answer to this question. In experiment 1, participants (N = 108) are randomly assigned to two conditions. The one condition is loving-kindness meditation for self, and the other is loving-kindness meditation for positive others. Dislike and engagement from participants about loving-kindness meditation instruction are measured after meditation for 8 minutes. From the experiment 2, loving-kindness meditation is replaced with compassion meditation from the design of experiment 1. This experiment is conducted because of psychological differences between loving-kindness and compassion. Participants (N = 116) are randomly assigned to two conditions, compassion meditation for self and positive others, respectively. The results of experiment 1 show that dislike of loving-kindness meditation for self seems to high when people have high shame, but shame does not have an influence on engagement. For loving-kindness meditation for positive others, shame seems to not affect on dislike and engagement about loving-kindness meditation instruction. The results of experiment 2 show that dislike is higher for self than for positive others about compassion meditation for people with high shame, but shame does not affect on engagement. For discussion, it is suggested that shame has special features of emotion. For the future, we discuss the therapeutic strategy for people with negative self-concept.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.183-214
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychological characteristics of affecting never married men and women through analyzing the content of in-depth interviews about the idea of marriage and the reason for never married choice. For achieving this purpose, the in-depth interview was conducted with 9 men and women aged mid-20s to late 30s who said to choose never married life for a long time, and then the content of interview was analyzed using consensual qualitative research. As a result of analyzing the content of in-depth interview, it was derived into 2 areas, 10 sub-areas, and 25 categories. The results of the study were as follows. Firstly, it was found that research participants negatively recognized the marriage and had unrealistic expectation rather than no expectation for marriage. Secondly, most of the research participants felt negative feelings about their parents' patriarchal role, and they did not want to live like their parents. They also reported that they did not see their marriage separated from their parents. Thirdly, most of the research participants felt difficulty in forming relationships with intimate person, and it became more difficult to have expectations about spouses and marriage due to repeated relationship conflict patterns. Fourthly, the research participants showed psychological aspect of experiential avoidance and seeking for individuality in terms of never married choice. Most of the research participants predicted the failure of married life, and reported that they were trying to prevent uncomfortable feelings and sufferings by choosing never married life. Also they reported that individuality considered more important than connection with others(togetherness) and individual value considered more important than collective value. Participants in this study showed negative evaluation or had negative influences on the marriage life of parents and acquaintances. This is more likely to be a passive factor in never married choice, so future research should examine the characteristics of active factors in never married choice.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.409-449
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• 2017

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the qualitative nature of Korean adolescents and their parent's perception of elderly parents care. In addition, this research exams the quantitative differences between the two generations in term of their elderly parents care self-efficacy and attitude towards caring for their elderly parents. Further, an examination of the parental influence upon their children's elderly parents care self-efficacy and attitude towards caring for their elderly parents. There were 2,460 participants in this study, with 820 adolescents, and 820 fathers and 820 mothers. The results of the study were as follows: First, in terms the participants perceptions of "the most difficult aspect of caring for elderly parents", the most representative response for adolescents was financial difficulties, while for parents differences in opinions. When it came to "the best aspect of caring for elderly parents" the most representative response for adolescents was harmonious family, while for parents good for children's upbringing. When it came to "actual acts (behavior) of elderly parents care" the most representative response for adolescents was living together with their elderly parents, while for parents looking after their elderly parents. When it came to "the best method of caring for their elderly parents" the most representative response for both adolescents and parents was providing a peace-of-mind for their elderly parents, followed by the second most frequent response of adolescents living together with their elderly parents, and for parents talking with their elderly parents. When it came to "how one feels when not caring for their elderly parents" the most representative response for both groups was a feeling of indebtedness. Second, for the quantitative analyses of the differences between the two generations, the parents showed a lower level of elderly parents care self-efficacy and a higher level of negative attitude towards caring for their elderly parents, when compared to the adolescents. Third, for the parental influence upon the adolescents' elderly parents care self-efficacy and attitude towards caring for their elderly parents, the only significant influence found was the mothers' elderly parents care self-efficacy.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.101-118
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• 2019

Alexithymia refers to a psychological deficit of identifying and describing one's feelings. It has benn reported that the level of alexithymia of East-Asians is generally higher than that of Western Europeans. Recently one research conducted in U.S. suggested that the interdependent self-construal from East-Asians' collectivism culture might be a cause of this cross-cultural difference. In the current study, we examined the relationship between the level of independent and interdependent self-construal of Korean college students and their level of alexithymia, as well as their ambivalence over emotional expressiveness and emotion suppression. The correlation analysis shows that the Korean students' alexithymia level does not correlate with their level of interdependent self-construal, but negatively correlates with their level of independent self-construal. Moreover, it is also correlated with the level of ambivalence over emotional expressiveness(AEE) and emotion suppression(ES). Thus, we setup a double-mediation model between the deficiency of independent self-construal and alexithymia via AEE and ES, and estimate mediation effects using Hayes and Preacher(2014)s' Process analysis. The results show that the deficiency of independent self-construal has a direct effect as well as indirect effects of AEE and ES on the alexithymia level. Further analysis on the indirect effects reveals that the mediation effect of AEE and the double mediation effect of ES via AEE are significant, but the mediation effect of ES is not significant. Current results imply that the interdependent self-construal from the traditional collectivistic culture may not cause Korean college students' problems on the emotional expression, but the relatively lower independent self-construal may cause them. The deficiency of independent self-constural may raise up the level of self-defensive ambivalence over emotional expressiveness and suppress emotional expression by themselves, which can result in alexithymia.