• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2020

Because the psychophysical symptoms of hearing loss and dementia in the elderly are very similar, untrained healthcare professionals in dementia facilities can easily overlook a severity of hearing loss in their patients. The present study identifies their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on hearing loss using a survey whether they may help hearing problem of the patients with dementia. A total of 29 health-care professionals responded to the KAP survey. Also, 2 family members participated. The results showed that most of the nurses and caregivers in elderly medical welfare facilities who worked with dementia patients did not have knowledge of their hearing loss. Even the facility managers did not know how to conduct hearing tests for their patients although they did recognize that some of their patients had a hearing loss. Eventually, actual practice was not possible at this moment by the professionals. However, our respondents did have a positive attitude toward screening for hearing loss and help their patients with dementia wear hearing aids if a clinical guideline was provided. We suggest to develop clear and precise clinical guidelines of the hearing screening test for the dementia patients due to the interrelationship between dementia and hearing loss. When these guidelines apply to elderly residents in a medical welfare facility, early diagnosis and treatment of their sensory loss will help alleviate their dementia as well.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2020

Because the psychophysical symptoms of hearing loss and dementia in the elderly are very similar, untrained healthcare professionals in dementia facilities can easily overlook a severity of hearing loss in their patients. The present study identifies their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on hearing loss using a survey whether they may help hearing problem of the patients with dementia. A total of 29 health-care professionals responded to the KAP survey. Also, 2 family members participated. The results showed that most of the nurses and caregivers in elderly medical welfare facilities who worked with dementia patients did not have knowledge of their hearing loss. Even the facility managers did not know how to conduct hearing tests for their patients although they did recognize that some of their patients had a hearing loss. Eventually, actual practice was not possible at this moment by the professionals. However, our respondents did have a positive attitude toward screening for hearing loss and help their patients with dementia wear hearing aids if a clinical guideline was provided. We suggest to develop clear and precise clinical guidelines of the hearing screening test for the dementia patients due to the interrelationship between dementia and hearing loss. When these guidelines apply to elderly residents in a medical welfare facility, early diagnosis and treatment of their sensory loss will help alleviate their dementia as well.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.42
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• pp.397-422
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• 2000

Since 1998 when economic assistance from IMF started, the empirical research on the effects of unemployment and drastic income loss on psychological functioning among the unemployed as well as their family members has increased. These studies have found that unemployment and drastic income loss following unemployment have significant negative influence on the psychological outcomes such as anxiety and depression of the unemployed and their family members. Studies have also focused on the role of social support in this process, and reported that depending on the levels of received social support, unemployment and income loss have differential effects on the psychological aspects of the unemployed. However, these studies have several weaknesses. First, most of the related studies employed the data which were collected from limited regions of the country, which imposes limitations on the scope of the generalizability of research findings. Second, the main independent variables used in these studies were mainly unemployment or income loss, which ignore the psychological evaluation by the employed of their family financial situations. Third, in analyzing the moderating effects of social support, most studies have focused mainly on showing the existence of moderating effects by social support. Consequently, the nature and role of social support remained unanalyzed and left to speculations. The purpose, of this study is to examine the effects of economic pressure experienced by family heads who were unemployed and to analyze the moderating role of social support based on a nationally representative sample. The findings showed that economic pressure has negative influence on anxiety and depressive feelings among the unemployed, and that the effect of economic pressure on depressive feelings were substantially higher among those who have received lower levels of social support from family members than that among those with higher levels of family support.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.1181-1197
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• 2012

This study aims to validate the Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire(AAQ), which was recently developed in foreign countries, for Korean elderly. Using a sample of 320 older individuals living in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong areas, statistical analyses including item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, convergent validity analysis were attempted to AAQ which composed of three factors with 24 items. In result, the three factor model of AAQ(including psychosocial loss, physical change, and psychological growth) were reconstructed in which new three factors(psychological loss, social loss, and change and growth in body and mind) were confirmed and three items were deleted. Reliability and convergent validity of AAQ-21 were confirmed. AAQ-21 would be useful to researchers and practitioners working with older adults for systematically assessing the attitudes to aging of older individuals and thus contribute to development of social policies and welfare programs for the elderly.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.53
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• pp.7-29
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• 2003

This study estimates the effect of economic loss including parental job loss and income loss on adolescents' educational attainment before and after family income and poverty are controlled for. Results from this study show that both parental job loss and income loss are negatively associated with the number of schooling years completed by adolescents and the probability that adolescents would enter a college. The negative relationship between economic loss and adolescents' educational attainment persists after income levels are controlled for. Income levels also have a statistically significant effect on adolescents' educational attainment. Among the various measures of income levels, poverty has an especially larger effect. Although the results are not consistent across estimated models, the effects of parental job loss and income loss are as large as that of poverty. Results for the models separately estimated by the sex of adolescents show that female adolescents are more negatively affected by both economic toss and income levels. There is little evidence that male adolescents are negatively affected by economic loss. Yet, male adolescents are negatively affected by income levels including poverty. Findings from this study suggest that societal support for families experiencing economic loss should be improved to avoid the harmful effect of the loss on adolescents' educational attainment. More targeted efforts should be made to financially support families facing both economic loss and poverty.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.93-127
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• 2012

We estimate how much KEPCO can save their loss and how much social welfare can be increased by applying the real-time pricing instead of current regulated retail price in the electricity market in order to analyze the problem of the regulated retail price which is fixed below the marginal cost. We estimate the demand functions of peak time and off-peak time in summer (June to August) and winter (December to February). We construct the supply function based on hourly step-wise linear marginal cost functions, too. We find that the increase of social welfare will be 67 billion won in summer if the fixed retail price is changed into the real-time pricing scheme. The total 705 billion won will be transferred from consumer surplus to producer surplus and the rest (67 billion won) will be saved from the reduction of deadweight loss among KEPCO's loss. In winter, the increase of social surplus will be 225 billion won and 1,174 billion won of KEPCO's loss will be transferred from consumer surplus. As a result, we conclude that the regulation of the retail price in the electricity market induces the social welfare loss and KEPCO suffers a huge loss.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.1-44
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• 2018

This paper studies the macroeconomic effects of an enhancement in unemployment benefits in Korea. In particular, I quantify the welfare effect of two specific policy chances which have been mainly discussed among policymakers in recent years: increasing wage replacement rates by 10%p and extending maximum benefit durations by one month. To this end, I build and calibrate an overlapping generation model which reflects the heterogeneity of the unemployed and the specificity of the unemployment insurance (UI) system in Korea. The quantitative analysis conducted here shows that extending maximum benefit durations by one month improves social welfare, whereas increasing wage replacement rates by 10%p deteriorates social welfare. Extending maximum benefit durations is applied to potentially all the UI recipients, including unemployed workers whose wage before job loss is relatively low and whose marginal utility is relatively high. However, increasing wage replacement rates is applied to only a small number of UI recipients whose wage before job loss is relatively high, while the increase in the UI premium is passed onto all of the employed. This study suggests that given the current UI system and economic environment in Korea, it is more desirable to extend maximum benefit durations rather than to increase wage replacement rates in terms of social welfare.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.2
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• pp.335-356
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• 2013

Physical resources are central to coping with economic hardships for people in low-income, yet life experiences such as resource loss and gain and their relationships with a sense of well-being received scarce attention. Thus this study investigated levels of loss and gain of physical resources, economic stability and well-being of 254 adults who participated in welfare-to-work programs; correlations and paths among these variables; and direct and indirect effects of economic stability by structural equation modeling. Major results were: first, the levels of resource loss and gain were below a moderate level and the level of gain was significantly higher than the loss level. Second, in the relationships with both economic stability and well-being, resource loss showed negative correlations, while resource gain showed significantly positive correlations. Third, the negative direct effect of resource loss either on the economic stability or on the well-being respectively was significant and the indirect effect on well-being through economic stability was also significant. Finally, the direct effect of resource gain on either economic stability or well-being was significant; and the indirect effect of resource gain on well-being was also significant. Thus in both models for resource loss and gain, the indirect effect of economic stability was significant, which supports partial mediation model. Based on these results, implications for social work practice and research were examined, particularly for enabling social work practice to utilize information regarding resource loss and gain, economic stability, and a sense of well-being that were embedded in the community life of people in low-income.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.1-19
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• 2017

Purpose - The current study attempts to enhance competitiveness by improving Chinese restaurant chefs' work environment and analyzes its effect on work environment and burnout. Also, this study analyzes to see if there is moderation role of enthusiasm between work environment and burnout. Based on analyzation, the present study aims to suggest more effective measure of human resource management by reducing burnout and turnover through providing chefs with more stable and consistent work environment and through their enthusiasm. Research design, data, methodology - Surveys were distributed to chefs working in Chinese restaurant in Seoul and Kyunggi region. Total of 500 surveys were distributed between September 1, 2017 and September 20, 2017 (about 20 days), and 417 surveys were returned to be used in the analysis. Results - As a result of testing effect of chefs' work environment on burnout (1) welfare environment, personal environment, and institution environment had significant effect on loss of accomplishment. (2) welfare, personal, and institution environment had significant effect on deindividuation. (3) welfare environment and institution had significant effect on emotional deprivation while personal environment did not. Second, as a result of analysis on moderation role of obsessive enthusiasm between Chinese restaurant chefs' work environment and burnout (1) as a result of interaction between work environment and loss of accomplishment, personal environment had significant effect while welfare environment and institution environment did not. (2) As a result of interaction between work environment and deindividuation, welfare, personal, and institution environment did not have significant effect. (3) As a result of interaction between work environment and emotional deprivation, institution environment had significant effect while personal environment and welfare environment did not. Conclusions - There is manpower shortage due to poor work environment of Chinese restaurant. Studies that are not limited to work environment are needed to more efficiently utilize human resources.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.405-418
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• 2016

This study was conducted to explore the influences of loss experiences and depression on ego-integraty and transcendence of elderly Koreans and to identify gender differences in the relationships among loss experiences, depression, ego-integrity, and transcendence from 146 men and 194 women aged over 60 years in Busan, Gyeong-Nam, and Gyeong-Buk area. The main results were as follows: elderly men reported more loss experiences and transcendence than elderly women. Next, loss experiences influenced ego-integrity and depression mediated the relationship between loss experiences and ego-integrity. Also, ego-integrity had a direct effect on transcendence. Last, depression of elderly men fully mediated the relationship between loss experiences and transcendence. The relationship between loss experiences and ego-integration was partially mediated by depression for elderly women. These results were discussed in terms of gero-education and elderly welfare.