• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.543-552
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• 2021

This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of a recently developed and applied art therapy program. The subjects of the study were twenty-two students at two middle schools in Busan, Korea. Before conducting the study, the parents' agreement was sought, after which the study program was explained to the participating students in private interviews. The twenty-two students were divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group, with eleven students in each group. Ten sessions of ninety minutes each, twice a week, were conducted for the experimental group. The verification of the effectiveness was done through pre, post, and follow-up examinations. The results of the data analysis are as follows. First, the art therapy program appeared to help reduce suicidal thoughts among those who had them. Second, the art therapy program reduced the depression of adolescents in the study. Third, the art therapy program improved the self-esteem of the study's subjects. In addition, a follow-up examination showed that the effects of the program appear to last. This paper offers proposals for interventions in the suicidal thoughts of adolescents and the practical implication of the interventions and future research paths.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.193-205
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to look into how social support for high school students was affecting suicidal ideation and verify how the moderating effect worked on risk factors in the relationship between social support and suicidal ideation. Specifically, three sub-factors of social support were classified into friend support, teacher support, and parent support, and were set as independent variables. In addition, suicidal ideation was dependent variables, gender, grade level, and school type as moderating variables. The main research results are as follows. First, teacher support, friend support, and parent support all appeared to have a significant negative effect on suicidal ideation. Second, the suicidal thoughts were higher in female students than in male students than in male students and in students of general high school than in those of vocational high school. Third, support from friends and parents was more effects in reducing suicidal thoughts for female students than male students. Fourth, the effect that teacher support that support and parent support reduce suicidal thoughts was greater for first graders than second graders. Bases on the results of the analysis, interviews were also conducted with high school teachers. Through the results of this study, I would like to propose practical measures to alleviate social problems related to suicide in high school students and to provide basic data for policy measures.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.171-187
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• 1998

In recent years, adolescent issues including smoking, drinking, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, deviant sexual behavior, mental health problems, high suicide rate, juvenile delinquency and absence without due notice, etc are emerging as serious social problems and the debate on these controversial issues is heating up. The previous studies on adolescent health behavior and social juvenile delinquency such as run-away from home and absence without due notice have been conducted mostly by cause analysis utilizing social demographic factors or biological factors. In other words, the main factors analyzed were demographic and economic factors or parent's educational level, etc, which were the fixed environmental ones that were unable to cause the change in the health behavior. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to analyze factors which are changeable and fixable among the factors influencing the adolescent's health behavior and misconducts and, eventually influencing factors which can be used as the basis to establish health policies and health promotion program to reduce the health risk behavior and misconducts of adolescents. The study subjects were selected by dividing senior high school student in Seoul by region and through random sampling. The 890 subjects were selected from 10 schools including the preparatory school, vocational schools and institutional schools. The duration of the study was for July 1-5, 1997 for the first survey and the second one, for August 25-September 10. Regarding the analysis method, the SAS program was used. The adoptablity of theoretical model was tested through covariance structural analysis utilizing PC-LISREL 8.12 Program. The major findings of the study are as follows: As a result of establishing the model of factors influencing health behavior and juvenile delinquency, in case of male students as the health behavior self-efficacy, education level of fathers, economic level, self-control and the health interest of parent were higher, students were more likely to practice the health promoting behavior. Juvenile delinquency and health risk behavior were prevalent among those with the less shyness, the lower health behavior self-efficacy, lower self-control, lower self-assertiveness, lower economic level. The self-control was the most powerful factor. In case of female students, those with higher health behavior self-efficacy were more likely to practice the health promoting behavior whereas those with lower health behavior self-efficacy, lower self-control, lower self- assertiveness, less shyness were more likely to practice health risk behavior and juvenile delinquency. In case of prep schools, those with higher health behavior self-efficacy and better perceived health status were more likely to practice the health promoting behavior while those with less shyness, lower health behavior self-efficacy and lower academic achievement were more likely to engage in health risk behavior and juvenile delinquency. In case of vocational schools, as health behavior self-efficacy and economic level were higher, the practice rate of health promoting behavior was higher. As the self-control, shyness, self-assertiveness, health behavior self-efficacy were lower, the rate of health risk behavior and juvenile delinquency were higher. In case of social institutional schools, as, the health behavior self-efficacy, social support and economic level, health interest of parents were higher, the rate of health promoting behavior were higher. As the self-control, shyness, self-assertiveness, health behavior self-efficacy and social support were lower, the rate of health risk behavior and juvenile delinquency were higher. So the health promoting behavior was positively related to the health behavior self-efficacy, health interest of parents, social support, education level of fathers, level of perceived health status, economic level. The health risk behavior and juvenile delinquency were higher with the lower health behavior self-efficacy, self-control and self-assertiveness, lower health locus control, less shyness and loneliness, lower economic level and academic achievement. In conclusion, the health risk behavior and juvenile delinquency can be reduced by enhancing self-control, self-assertiveness, health behavior self-efficacy and social support. According to the final model drawn by connecting health behavior and juvenile delinquency, the reduction of health risk behavior can greatly contribute to decreasing social juvenile delinquency as the process of juvenile delinquency was extended from common behaviors to problem behaviors and further into juvenile delinquency.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.652-662
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• 2019

This study demonstrates the association between total sleep duration of adolescents, and its effects on their physical and mental health. Chi-square test and the multiple logistic regression model were applied to analyze the data collected in 2018 by the Korean Youth Health Behavior Survey (n = 52,928), conducted by the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Our analysis indicates increased suicidal ideation with insufficient total sleep duration as per the recommended amount and grade (OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.06-1.29, p-value: 0.00]. Especially, insufficient sleep among adolescent girls significantly increases the risk of suicidal thoughts (OR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.06-1.41, p-value: 0.01). Sufficient sleep showed reduced risk of suicidal ideation among boys (OR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.71-0.96, p-value: 0.02). We propose that to reduce the risk of suicide among teenagers, policy considerations are required to ensure sufficient sleep.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 2015

Background and Objectives: Internet addiction is an increasing problem in Korea. The previous studies in this area have targeted adolescents and young adults. This study was conducted to examine the risk of internet addiction in Korean adults and the effect of internet addiction on circadian rhythm. Materials and Methods: For this study, 508 subjects were chosen through population proportional sampling to represent the adult population in Korea, 325 of whom were included based on the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Korea (Audit-K), Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), drug use in the past year, and suicide attempts. In these subjects, sociodemographic factors including age, gender, and residential area were analyzed, and Young's Internet Addiction Scale (IAS), Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), and an online survey examining sleep onset time on weekdays and weekends, wake-up time, and caffeinated drink intake were executed. Results: Of the 325 subjects, 136 (41.8%) belonged to a high-risk internet addiction group ($IAS{\geq}40$), and 189 (58.2%) belonged to a normal group (IAS < 40). There was a high proportion of male subjects (p = 0.03) in the high-risk group compared to the normal group. There was a high proportion of younger subjects (p = 0.055) in the high-risk group compared to the normal group, but this difference was not statistically significant. Compared to the normal group, there was a high proportion of the evening type ($MEQ{\leq}41$) in the high-risk group (p = 0.024), who also showed a high proportion of caffeinated drink intake (p < 0.001). Also, the high-risk group was found to go to bed and wake up late, but there was no statistically significant difference with the normal group. Conclusion: This study showed that many adults have a high-risk of internet addiction, and there was a significant correlation between internet addiction and sleep in adult, as has been found in adolescents and early adults. In the future, a longitudinal study will be needed to verify the causal relationship between internet addiction and morningness-eveningness.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.241-250
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• 2011

The safety of human exposure to an ever-increasing number and diversity of electromagnetic field (EMF) sources both at work and at home has clearly become a public health issue. To date many $in$ $vivo$ and $in$ $vitro$ studies revealed that EMF exposure can alter cellular metabolism, endocrine function, immune activity, reproductive function, and fetal development in animal system. The major parameters found to be altered in cells or individuals following EMF exposure include an increase of free radicals, DNA damage, cancer risk, developmental defect, and reproductive dysfunctions. Epidemiological studies reported EMF can increase life-threatening illnesses such as leukemia, brain cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, clinical depression, suicide, and Alzheimer's disease has been identified. These effects of EMF exposure differ according to duration of exposure, frequency of waves, and strength (energy) of EMF. In the present review, we briefly introduced the physical properties of EMF and summarized the effect of EMF on human and wildlife animals according to types of EMF, duration of exposure at cellular and organism levels.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.7266-7276
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• 2014

This study examined the associations of physical activity by intensity with depression and suicidal thoughts among middle school students in South Korea. This study used data from the Survey of Korean Youth Health Risk Behavior. The samples were middle school students (Total 37,420). Logistic regression analysis were used. For depression, 33% of males and 43% of females felt depressed, whereas 17.8% of males and 27.7% of females experienced suicidal thoughts. In regression, both moderate physical activity and vigorous physical activity were associated significantly with a lower incidence of depression. In suicidal thoughts, moderate physical activity was associated with a lower incidence of suicidal thoughts among female students. In path analysis, vigorous physical activity had a direct and indirect effect on depression and suicidal thoughts. Physical activity is a potential mediator in decreasing depression and suicidal thoughts among middle school students.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.504-511
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• 2019

Objectives: We evaluated the physical and mental health problems of waged workers in Korea who had different classes of occupation. Methods: We used data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2017) to examine 22,788 workers who were waged employees and categorized these workers into 5 occupational classes. Results: "Unskilled manual workers" were more likely to be older, less educated, have lower monthly income, and work fewer hours per week. Among men and relative to "managers and professionals" (reference group), "skilled manual workers" were more likely to have physician-diagnosed osteoarthritis, "clerks" were less likely to report suicidal ideation, and "unskilled manual workers" were more likely to report suicidal ideation. Among women and relative to "managers and professionals" (reference group), "service and sales workers" and "unskilled manual workers" were more likely to report physician-diagnosed osteoarthritis, depressive feelings, and suicidal ideation. However, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases did not differ among the occupational classes for men and women. Conclusion: We identified differences between men and women and among those in different occupational classes regarding employment status, physical health, and mental health. "Unskilled manual workers" of both genders were more likely to be older, less educated, have less monthly income, work fewer hours per week, and have suicidal ideation. Female "service and sales workers" were more likely to have osteoarthritis, depressive feelings, and suicidal ideation.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.279-287
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• 2015

Objectives : With the observation of factors influencing depression, self-reported happiness, self-reported stress and suicidal attempt, this study compared and evaluated the mental health of adolescents from multicultural families and monocultural families in Korea. Methods : This study compared the characteristics of adolescents from multicultural and monocultural families based on the analysis of data of The Tenth Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey and analyzed the factors influencing adolescent depression, self-reported happiness, self-reported stress and suicidal attempt. Results : There was no significant difference in the levels of depression, self-reported happiness, and self-reported stress between adolescents from multicultural and monocultural families. However, suicidal ideation and suicidal attempt were significantly higher in adolescents from multicultural families. Conclusion : There was no significant difference between the mental health of adolescents from multicultural and monocultural families. Because depression is the greatest factor for suicidal attempt, and violence has stronger relationship with depression of adolescents from multicultural families, further study is needed to prevent this trend.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.120-124
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• 2009

Objectives : This pilot study examined the physical and psychological sequela of Korean War victims. Methods : Of 255 elderly who completed the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), we selected 16 subjects who suffered severe traumatic experiences during the Korean War and met more than 2 specified symptoms of PTSD in DSM-IV-TR and 16 controls. Demographic characteristics, medical history including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia and brain infarction, Geriatric Depression Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, suicide scale in MINI, and a scale for the assessment of somatic symptoms were compared between subjects with trauma experience and controls. Results : Subjects with trauma experience were more likely to have brain infarction and diabetes mellitus compared to control group. Depressive symptoms and suicidal risk were significantly higher in subjects with trauma experience than controls. Subjects with trauma experience showed significantly higher scores in Trait Anxiety scale and more complained of pain than controls. Conclusion : This study suggests that traumatic experience probably induce physical and psychological problem even 60 years later. Further studies are needed to confirm the results of this pilot study.