• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.100-112
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• 1999

Objective：In life-long disabilities like autism and mental retardation, the authors thought that it is important for clinician to consider the quality of life of a primary caregiver for long-term management and prognosis. This study was to investigate the factors of children and family environment affecting the quality of life and depression in mothers with autistic and/or mentally retarded children. Methods：41 autistic and/or mentally retarded children aged 5-12 years with their mothers were surveyed from September, 1998 to January, 1999, with K-CBCL, K-BDI, K-FES, and K-SBQOL scale and compared with data from 35 normal control subjects. Results：1) Total K-BDI and K-SBQOL scores of mothers with mentally handicapped children were significantly poorer than the scores of normal control group. Independence, intellectual/cultural orientation and active recreation subscales of K-FES in mentally handicapped children were significantly decreased than those in normal control group. 2) Total K-BDI score of mothers with mentally handicapped children was correlated with their children’s behavioral problems, especially internalizing and thought symptoms, and with family cohesion, expressiveness, conflict and independence. 3) Totol K-SB quality of life score of mothers with mentally handicapped children was correlated with their children’s behavioral problems, especially attention problem, and with family cohesion, conflict, independence, intellectual/cultural orientation, and moral-religional emphasis. 4) The quality of life of mothers with mentally handicapped children was predicted by attention problem($R^2$=.36, p=.000) and social competence($R^2$=.07, p=.038) in children and family cohesion ($R^2$=.16, p=.001). 5) Depression of mothers with mentally handicapped children was predicted by internalizing symptom ($R^2$=.21, p=.003) and thought disorder($R^2$=.06, p=.048) in children and family cohesion($R^2$=.14, p=.008). Conclusion：Reducing behavioral problems and family therapeutic intervention in autistic and mentally retarded children can improve the quality of life of primary caregivers and long-term prognosis of the children, although those are not curative.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.31 no.3 s.62
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• pp.372-383
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• 1998

For the purpose to analysis the characteristics of traffic accidents(TA) and investigate the relationship between traffic accidents and children attention problem rating scale(CAP) and, family environment scale(FES), this questionnaire survey was conducted to the 16 primary school students in Taejon from July 14 to August 26, 1997. The number of study subjects who had an experience of traffic accidents from July 1, 1996 to June 30, 1997 were 195, and the number of control sujects were 512. The main results were as follows; 1. The traffic accident rates was 0.9% as a whole, but those were 1.4% in boys, 0.7% in girls, 1.3% in low (1st-3rd) grade, and 0.8% in high (4th-6th) grade. 2. The rates of traffic accidents were high in spring, friday, afternoon and a drive-way around home. TA occurred during walking with friends most frequently. 3. In CAP the score of inattention was lower in TA group than control group, and hyperactivity was higher in TA group but they didn't showed significantly different. In FES, cohesion score was higher in TA group than control group, but Conflict score and Expressiveness score were in control group, but they didn't showed significantly different. 4. In CAP the odds ratio of inattention score for TA group was 0.84, but that of hyperactivity score was 1.15. In FES, the odds ratio of cohesion score was 1.06, but that of expression score and conflict score was 0.94 and 0.96, respectively. In conclusion, the relationships between TA and CAP, TA and FES in this study were not clear to explain personal characteristics and environmental conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.163-174
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• 1997

This study was to know the influence of familial environment and moral development on conduct disorder. Subjects were composed of 47 male and female patients with conduct disorder(patients group), 113 general male and female students(normal group), and 173 juvenile prisoners(JP group). The Korean Form of the Family Environment Scale(FES) was used to assess the family environment of the subjects and the Korean Defining Issues Test(DIT) was used to assess the moral development. Conduct disorder was diagnosed with the DSM-III-R criteria for conduct disorder. The influence of familial environment and moral development on conduct disorder was analyzed with ANOVA and the differences among groups were verified with Scheffe test. There was no difference in the socioeconomic status and the physical abuse by the parents among the three groups. But the rates of divorce or separation of the parents were significantly highest in the JP group and higher in the patients group than in the normal group. Especially the subjects of the JP group experienced the divorce or separation of their parents during the preschool or the elementary school periods. In regard to the family environment, there was no difference among the three groups in the Subscales of Expressiveness, Independence, Intellectual-cultural orientation, Moral-religious emphasis, Organization, and Control. ‘Cohesion Subscale’ was significantly higher in the normal group than in the JP group. ‘Conflict Subscale’ was significantly higher in the JP and patients groups than in the normal group. ‘Achievement orientation Subscale’ was significantly lower in the JP group than in the patients and normal groups. ‘Activerecreational orientation’ was significantly lower in the normal group than in the JP and patients groups. In gegard to the moral developmental stage, the lower moral developmental step was higher in the JP and patients groups than in the normal group. The higher steps were significantly higher in the normal group than in the JP group. There was no significant correlation between the degree of ‘Moral-religious emphasis Subscale’ and the moral development. The clinical implication and limitation of present study were listed and discussed.