• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.985-994
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• 2009

This research is exploratory in considering the unique socio-cultural context of South Korea, where the present government is responding to the demand for English language training. The study asked the question: What do mothers experience when sending their young children to a private English institute, so called English kindergarten, instead of a regular preschool? A qualitative approach was used to analyze the in-depth interviews with 19 mothers who sent their young child to an English kindergarten. Mothers stated that their young child needs to be a competent English speaker. The mothers expected that an English kindergarten would prepare their child better for the elementary school English curriculum than a regular preschool. The study revealed that English kindergartens symbolized the precedence and the privileges of the elite because of their high tuition fees, native-speaker teachers, and small class sizes. The mothers showed a sense of pride and vicarious satisfaction from sending their child to an English kindergarten. However, the mothers recognized that English kindergartens put more emphasis on cognitive learning instead of the social development of children. It was almost impossible for mothers to communicate with the native-speaker teachers about their child. The mothers seemed to overlook their child's struggle to adapt to an English Kindergarten. The findings of the study raise issues concerning the boom of teaching young children English in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 1998

Various difficulties and inconveniences arise from having a mentally handicapped child in a family and these place many demands on mothers. There are few studies in Korea on these demands nor on what mothers go through with their mentally handicapped daughters' menarche and puberty. The purpose of the study was to examine the experiences of mothers of mentally handicapped daughters, as it relates to their daughters' menarche and the beginning of puberty. With indepth interviews, both in person and by telephone and participant observation the study used a qualitative research methodology to attempt to understand the experiences of these mothers. The data were gathered from October 1995 to April 1996. The subjects for the research included nine mothers of mentally handicapped daughters whose ages ranged from 12 to 18 and who attended one of three special schools located in either Inchon or Seoul. The data were recorded and analyzed : meaningful statements were grouped according to subjects raised by the mothers. Content Analysis was also applied to identify similar content and confirm common experiences. and to highlight concepts and categorized them. The results of this study are as follows. Five categories were identified : mothers' emotional responses to their mentally handicapped daughters' menarche and menstration were of severe despair accompanied by anxiety, guilt, fear, anguish, shame and pity because the mothers were afraid their daughters would not be able to use appropriate hygienic measures during menstration and the mothers felt heavily burdened in having to look them. The mothers also had negative feelings about their daughters' physical development. The experience of mothers related to their daughters' possibilities for marriage and pregnancy were of powerlessness, distress, withdrawal, fear. pity and desperation and they were afraid that their daughters might be violated sexually. The mothers rejected the possibility of marriage and pregnancy for their daughters and instead planned very restricting futures for them. The mothers used various coping methods to bring meaning to their lives. Because the negative emotional responses of the mothers. nurses need to work to empower mothers to overcome these negative responses. Sex education can also play an important role especially for the daughters especially through the use of visual aids. Further, nurses should understand the tearing difficulties of mentally handicapped daughters, what mothers need and also what they experience with their mentally handicapped daughters. In conclusion, nurses should understand the negative experiences of the mothers in relation to their mentally handicapped daughters' menarche, help the mothers cope with the negative. emotions through real life education and counselling. In addition, there is a need for nursing interventions and an administrative system which will minimize the prejudices of society towards handicapped people.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.73-80
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• 2010

This study investigates the relationships between aggression and rejection/neglect by mothers, child temperament, day care experience for preschoolers; in addition, the moderating effect of self-regulation was investigated. The subjects were 338 preschool children. Teachers completed questionnaires that assessed aggression and self-regulation. Mothers reported on the temperament of children and parenting behavior. The rejection/neglect by mothers, child temperament, and daycare experiences were significant predictors of aggression. The moderating effect of self-regulation was found only in daycare experience, which suggests that high self-regulation protects aggression from day care experience.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.83-107
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• 2010

This study looked into the inner experience of foster mothers who adopted children under 3 months old and found out they were disabled while they were rearing with Van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological approach. In-depth interviews were used with six foster mothers who live in Seoul, Gwangju, Gyeongsangnam-do, and Jeollabuk-do. The study resulted in a hermeneutic writing with titled "Love of Mothers Who Want to Make Their Children's Dreams Come True" with six essential themes as follows: 'being at a loss wrapped in a dense fog,' 'venting off the frustration,' 'gratitude amid painfulness,' 'bold confrontation with prejudices,' 'disabled children's return to the center of their moms' life,' and 'expectation for their future life.' As they are disabled, foster mothers want to rear their children with more care and attention to make their children's dreams come true. Seen above, this could be interpreted as mothers' love to a life. For foster mothers, the disability of their adopted children is not a burden but an expectation for a new world. They help the children live by themselves. It shows that every child can have his own home.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.239-249
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to explore process of life experience for mothers of children with severe disabilities. Strauss and Corbin's Grounded theory approach was used. Total 17 mothers who have experience of caring for severely disabled child participated. In-depth interviews was done from January 2010 to May 2011. Three to seven interviews were done for each participant. As a result of this study, 119 concepts, 41 subordinate categories and 20 categories have been revealed. The experience of caring children with severe disabilities were 'desolate life' 'plunging in darkness' 'managing to pull oneself' 'rising again' and 'rediscovering of life'. The core category of selective coding was rediscovering of new life from life in darkness. It is suggested that welfare policies need to be modified and new policies need to established for mothers who care for severely disabled children.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.137-152
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• 2017

This study aims to explore life experience of divorced mothers' self-independence and to search for ways of helping their self-independence in social welfare practices. Researcher conducted in-depth interviews with 10 divorced mothers about life experience of psycho-social and economic spheres, child care, job experience, etc. The results of this study showed that the single mothers had experienced psychological distress of depression, feeling of reject and betrayal, difficulties in child care, and so on. They had experienced of various jobs to cope with economic difficulties. After divorce, they had explored informations and support resources to receive help for their children, and they endeavored to acquire a certificate of qualifications. They accepted their divorces in themselves and they rebuilt relationships with ex-husband, excised perceptions of self-control in finances and child discipline spheres. And they established of mid-to long-term life goals, and did not abandon their dreams and visions in despite of their poor qualities. Based on these results of this study, the ways of social welfare practices to help and support single mothers' self-independence were suggested in the conclusion part of this study.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1-29
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• 2020

Objective: The present study aimed to explore the experiences of mothers who have abandoned their additional birth plans since their first child was born. Methods: During in-depth interviews, mothers were asked to recall their own experiences of motherhood. The interview data were analyzed using the grounded theory. Results: The central phenomenon was 'The burden of raising a child is too heavy for mothers to carry alone.' The causal conditions were 'First experience: Unpredictable life', 'Physical and psychological difficulty', and 'Spouse's absence.' The contextual conditions were 'Expectations and reality of parenting' and 'Workplace conditions.' The mothers used interaction strategies of 'Defusing conflict only on a surface level: Giving up', 'Reliance on grandmothers', and 'Downgrading career aspirations.' These strategies were mediated by intervening conditions, 'Stereotypes and experiences of non-family nanny', 'Child's development', and 'Family conflict.' The results were 'Endless guilt', 'Ambivalence between independence versus interdependence' and 'Unfairness: Why only me?' Finally, the process of psychological conflict was identified to account for the steps leading mothers to give up on their birth plans. Conclusion/Implications: During the first experience of motherhood, mothers' conflict gets escalated despite their struggles. These experiences might discourage their additional birth plans. These results provide implications for policies to increase fertility rates.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.181-193
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• 2018

Purpose: This paper reports the results of a descriptive study that aims to identify the factors that affect the parental efficacy of mothers with preschoolers on child sexual education. Methods: Using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from 189 mothers who had preschoolers in four kindergartens in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province from June to August, 2015. Results: The factors that had an effect on the parental efficacy of mothers with preschoolers on child sexual education were marital intimacy (${\beta}=.32$, p<.001), the degree of perceived sexual knowledge (${\beta}=.29$, p<.001), sexual education experience from one's parents (${\beta}=.21$, p=.001), and educational level (${\beta}=.14$, p=.021); the explanatory power was 28.9%. Conclusion: The factors affecting the parental efficacy of mothers with preschoolers on child sexual education were marital intimacy, subjective sexual knowledge, sexual education experience from one's parents, and the educational level. In developing a sex education program for mothers with preschoolers, it is necessary to reflect the contents that can enhance marital intimacy. In addition, it is necessary to develop a differentiated mother sex education program considering her demographic characteristics and career in sexual health.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.63-81
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• 2012

This study aims to investigate any differences which exist in the early adaptation of infants at child care center according to the characteristics of the infants themselves, their mothers and their child care teachers. The subjects consisted of the infants themselves, their mothers, and teachers at 11 child care centers in Chung-nam and Daejeon cities. Data were collected by means of the PAQ (The Preschool Adjustment Questionnaire) and questionnaires regarding the rearing attitudes of the mothers. For the purpose of data analysis, a T-test and one-way ANOVA were used. The results were as follows. First, there were significant differences in terms of the early adaptation of infants according to their ages and their length of experience in child care centers. Second, there were no significant differences in the early adaptation of infants according to the child rearing attitudes of the mothers and between unemployed mothers and the employed mothers. Third, there were significant differences in the early adaptation of infants according to the child care teachers' level of career experience and their ages.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.5-18
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• 1996

The purposes of this study were to measure the degree of perceived uncertainty and to identify the rearing attitudes of mothers with chronically ill children, and to examine the relationship between the perceived uncertainty and the rearing attitude of these mothers. The subjects of this study consisted of 133 mothers with chronically ill children, registered at 2 university hospitals in Seoul. Data was collected from April 1 to May 31, 1996. The Parents' Perception of Uncertainty Scale(28-item 4 point scale) and the Maternal Behavior Research Instrument (49-item 5 point scale) were used. Data was analyzed by Cluster analysis, ANOVA MANOVA and t-test. Results of this study are summarized as follows : 1. Mothers perceived their uncertainty to be slightly high (Mn 2.48). The degree of perceived uncertainty by the four components slightly differed unpredictability(2.72), lack in clarity(2.58), vagueness (2.52) and lack of information(2.04) . The degree of perceived uncertainty of mothers with ill children revealed to be influenced significantly by the age of the ill children, duration of illness after the diagnosis, and the experience of hospitalization. 2. Among the rearing attitudes : moderatlely high affective(Mn 3.98) and resrictive(Mn 3.58) attitudes of mothers toward their ill children were identified. Mothers tend to give positive evaluations of their childrens' behaviors (Mn 3.38) and less rejection(Mn 2.81). 3. Mothers' rearing attitude were correlated with the degree of perceived uncertainty in illness ; mothers in the Low Perceived Uncertainty Group (Mn 1.99) revealed the highest affective (Mn 4.08), the lowest resrictive(Mn. 2.72) attitudes and tendency to give positive evaluations of their childrens' behaviors (Mn 3.54) compared to the High Perceived Uncertainty Group(Mn 3.26) and Moderate Perceived Uncertaity Group(Mn 2.57). 4. The degree of perceived uncertainty, the duration of illness after the diagnosis and the experience of hospitalization revealed to be significantly influential to the rearing attitude of mothers with chronically ill children. From the above results, it can be concluded that predicting and controlling mothers' uncertainty are necessary for improved, efficient nursing interventions and normal growth & development of the chronically ill children.