• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.192-198
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• 2015

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine associations between marital status and vegetable intake. Methods: Data were from participants 30 years and over (n = 18,190) in the 2007~2010 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Marital status was divided into three groups: married, never married, and separated/divorced/widowed. Vegetable intake was estimated from the twenty-four hour dietary recall. Data were analyzed using a chi-square test, analysis of covariance, least squares means, and logistic regression. Results: Married respondents tend to consume more vegetables, including kimchi, than all other marital status groups. Vegetable intake, excluding kimchi, was lowest among 30~64 year-old respondents who had never married. Elderly men (65 years and older) who were never married/separated/divorced/ widowed had significantly lower vegetable intake than elderly men who were married (p = 0.0008). When considering the Korean dietary reference intake (KDRIs), elderly men who were never married/separated/divorced/widowed, compared with elderly men who were married, had a significantly higher odds ratio for consuming fewer vegetables than the KDRIs (OR = 1.64, 95% CI: 1.13~2.37). Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that marital status might influence vegetable intake and the probability of consuming fewer vegetables than the KDRIs. In particular, being never married/separated/divorced/ widowed might adversely affect vegetable consumption among elderly men, although assessing the causal effect of marital status from this cross-sectional study is difficult.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2002

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between socio-familial characteristics and health status in early stage of elderly life. In this study, a total of 252 Korean males and females aged 55 to 74 were interviewed to obtain information on various socio-familial characteristics such as age, gender, residence, marital status, education, religion, distance with children, household size, and living arrangements. They were also examined for self-perceived depression and diagnosed health problems. The analysis of the results show that marital status, gender, and living arrangement were major characteristics differentiating health status; widowed women living apart from their children are at lower level for most items of hea1th status such as emotional, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and muscle and skeletal function. Based on this analysis, suggestions are made for efficient health management. First, widowed females living without children are encouraged to participate in regular health promotion programs in self-organized groups. Second, usual welfare service programs need to be segregated for each age group, so that relatively young elderly are not frustrated from being treated together with extremely frail older elderly. Third, low education group living in rural area are offered preventive medical services for muscular and skeletal related health problems.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.51-59
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• 1992

Previous studies indicated that unmarried persons are subject to higher mortality than the married, and that the differentials are more marked for male than for females. There are two major approaches to explaining the marital status differentials in mortality ; selection function and protection function of marriage. Following protection fucntion, this study develops the new "instrumental / expressive sex-role" hypothesis in order to explain why marriage protects males more against death. The hypothesis expects that male's instrumental role and female's expressive role have direct effect as well as indirect effect through social integration on sex differential mortality by marital status. for the hypothesis testing, Korea and US vital statistics and census data are used to compute age-specific , age-adjusted mortality rates and their ratios for persons in different marital status. Major findings are as follows. 1)For both Korea and US being married is more advantageous to males than females, ad being widowed, divorced, and separated is more disadvantageous to males, while being never-married is more disadvantageous to females, 2) For Korea, the never married men and women have the highest mortality rates, 3) For US the never married women have the highest mortality rate, while the divorced, separated, and widowed men have the highest mortality rate. Fro both Korea and US data, selection function is rejected, but instrumental/expressive sex-role hypothesis succeeds in accounting for the sex and marital status differential in mortality.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.151-166
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• 2016

This study examined frequency of contact between parents and their non-coresident, never-married daughters and sons compared to children in other marital statuses. Despite an increasing number of never married adults, little is known about the extent to which they may be willing to remain connected to and exchange support with their parents. The data were drawn from first wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA, 2006). For analyses, respondents who had at least one non-coresident child aged 40 or older were selected, resulting in the analytic sample of 2,755 parents with 7,741 children. Both sibling fixed effects regression models and regression models with robust standard errors were estimated using the xtreg and reg procedures in STATA. Findings revealed significant marital status by gender interaction effects on face-to-face contact. Never-married daughters were more likely to see their parents compared to their married, divorced, or widowed counterparts. Never-marred sons, on the other hand, reported slightly lower levels of in-person contact with their parents in comparison to married sons and lower levels of contact compared to divorced or widowed sons. More frequent contact via phone, mail, or email was reported in daughter-parent relationship compared to son-parent relationship, but no significant marital status by gender interactions were observed.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.1083-1101
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to describe how the structural and functional features of social network change among widowed middle and older adults and to examine the effect of personal predictors of the social network change. Data was obtained from men and women between 45 to 98 years of age(N=118) who were bereaved by the death of their spouse since the first wave survey and participated in the second wave survey of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA). The main findings are as follows: First, their social network after the bereavement was strengthened centered around children; for example, the number of adult children living in proximity to the parent, frequency of contact with children, and the financial and non-financial support from children generally increased. Second, the social network change pattern was categorized into four types such as "overall increased type," "children-centered increased type," "children/close relationship-centered increased type," and "stagnation type." Finally, the health condition of the widowed middle and older adults was a strong predictor of the social network change.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.695-704
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to understand the elderly's attitudes toward dating and remarriage, as well as how they are influenced by their relationships with their children, and to categorize the attitudes toward dating and remarriage, and examine each type's characteristics. The results are as follows: 1. Widowed elderly were positive towards dating and remarriage, and were more positive towards dating than towards remarriage. 2. The influence of the relationships with the elderly's children was bigger on remarriage than on dating. 3. Among the typology of attitudes, 'pro-dating/anti-remarriage' group had the most participants, and 'anti-dating/anti-remarriage' group had the least participants. 4. It is worth noting that 'anti-dating/pro-remarriage' group had distinctly different characteristics compared to 'pro-dating/anti-remarriage' group, as was with "pro-dating/pro-remarriage" group and 'anti-dating/anti-remarriage' group. To elaborate, those who belonged to 'anti-dating/pro-remarriage' group were younger, mostly male, relatively highly educated, had weaker emotional ties with children, and got the least help. In contrast, the members of 'pro-dating/anti-remarriage' group were older, overwhelmingly female, and vast majority of them were lowly educated. Also, they had stronger emotional ties with the children, and got the most help. 'Anti-dating/anti-remarriage' group and 'pro-dating/pro-remarriage' group showed a contrast in the intensity of emotional ties with their children. The former was the strongest in emotional ties, and got a considerable amount of help, while the latter was weaker in emotional ties and got less help.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.93-104
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• 2001

This study has been performed to analyze size and deficit problem of residential space in later life. In this study, 216 Koreans aged 50 to 79 were surveyed for their current residential space ad family related items such as age, marital status, living arrangement, birth order, and housing status. The results are drawn as follows: 1. The space size significantly fluctuates by marital status, number of generations living together, tenure, and structure type; For example, use of indoor area per person ranges from 7.01 pyoung for three-generation households to 19.53 for one-generation households. 2. s for space deficit, very old widowed females, 60's living in rented or multi-family housing units, and those living in three generations are high risk groups of the space deficit below 7 young per person. In this study, further researches are recommended as follows; Regarding the highest risk group of space deficit, life styles causing space-related conflicts should be studied, and accordingly proper welfare services for the causal life styles be offered. Housing maintenance & utility costs be investigated and guidelines should be proposed for any surplus groups among the 60's, so that their space surplus can be reduced by suitable adjustment process.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 1998

Social support may be a crucial aspect in single mothers' adjustment from the loss of spouse. Using a survey data collected from 285 widowed or divorced mothers, this study investigated whether social support buffers the deleterious effects of stress on psychological adjustment among poor single mothers. Results revealed that social support is not provided for at a desirable level. After controlling the single mothers' characteristics, stress in daily life, emotional support, job status and child relationship were associated with depression of them. It was also founded that emotional support buffer the negative effect of stress on depression of single mothers. Therefore, the support programs focused on emotional support are necessary for single mothers to enhance their mental health.

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