• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.82-90
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide base data for preparing plans that North Korean (NK) Refugees can adjust themselves to our society with a healthy mind after they get over their health problems using the Health Belief Model, knowing the relationship between individual characteristics and health beliefs, and health behavior. Methods: The subjects were 304 NK adult refugees in Hanawon. Data were collected by demographic questionnaire, health behavior scale, self-efficacy scale, perceived benefit scale, perceived barrier scale, perceived seriousness, perceived sensibility, and individual characteristics. Results: The factors influencing the health behavior of NK refugees were perceived benefits, self-efficacy, the period in the third country and experience in being expelled to NK, and these variables were describing 31.4% of the health behaviors of refugees. Conclusion: The perceived benefits and self-efficacy of health belief and specific experiences related to refugee affected NK refugees' health behavior.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.287-297
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• 2018

Purpose: This study aimed to identify variables influencing the psychosocial adjustment of North Korean adolescent refugees in order to establish a structural equation model and design an intervention strategy to improve psychosocial adjustment. Methods: The subjects included 290 North Korean adolescent refugees aged 16~24 years who were enrolled in alternative schools or regional adaptation centers. They were surveyed using a structured questionnaire. Results: The goodness of fit measures of the model were as follows: $x^2=131.20$ (p<.001), GFI=.93, CFI=.91, TLI=.86, RMSEA=.08, and SRMR=.07. The results estimated from the structural equation model indicated a good fit of data to the hypothesized model, which proposed that stress and emotional intelligence are associated with psychosocial adjustment. The major variables influencing psychosocial adjustment were stress, emotional intelligence, which was a significant direct effect, whereas attitude of parenting showed an indirect effect on psychosocial adjustment through emotional intelligence. These variables account for 50.0% of psychosocial adjustment. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop a program and intervention plan that can enhance emotional intelligence and thereby relieve the stress of North Korean adolescent refugees. The program should also include parenting education so that parents have positive attitude of parenting.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.485-498
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• 2019

This study examined the mediating effect of internal locus of control in the relationship between family and friend support and acculturative stress of North Korean adolescent refugees. Participants consisted of 101 North Korean adolescent refugees (40 males and 61 females) aged 13 to 24, who live in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and Busan. SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 5.12 were used to analyze data. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated and structural equation modeling (SEM) examined the mediating effect. The results of this study are as follows. First, a higher level of family support and friend support were associated with a higher level of internal locus of control. A higher level of internal locus of control was associated with a lower level of acculturative stress among North Korean adolescent refugees. Second, the level of internal locus of control mediated the relationship between friend support and acculturative stress. This study is meaningful in that it examines the specific paths affecting acculturative stress of North Korean adolescent by examining family and friend support, which are environmental factors, and internal locus of control, which is internal factor of individuals. The study results suggest that improving friend support as well as increasing the level of internal locus of control for North Korean adolescent refugees can be an effective way to prevent or intervene acculturative stress.

• Psychiatry investigation
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.1019-1029
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• 2018

Objective We investigated how mental health awareness among North Korean refugees transformed depending on temporal-spatial context changes. Methods In 2013, we conducted interviews with 10 refugees (eight women) who had been in South Korea for over a year and performed a qualitative analysis of the change in mental health awareness in the differences between living in North Korea, escape (a related period of forced sojourn in a third country), and settlement in South Korea. Results We classified 39 concepts into five main categories. The first two categories (while living in North Korea) were "a mindset for the system, but not for individual mental health" and "being confined in a social environment that was indifferent to mental health." A third category appeared during escape: "focusing on survival amid continuity of intense suffering." The final two categories appeared when settling in South Korea: "recognition of mental health amid cultural shock" and "introspection and sorting oneself out." Conclusion This qualitative study enabled a better multi-dimensional understanding of the social and cultural aspects involved in improving mental health awareness among North Korean refugees in South Korea. It is desirable to integrate mental health as a part of daily life and to expand training for North Korean settlers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.470-483
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• 2018

This study was conducted to analyze the trend of quantitative research regarding female North Korean refugees in order to broaden our understanding of North Korean women and provide directions for future research. In August 2017, the Korean studies Information Service System (KISS) and Nuri Media (DBpia) databases were used to search academic peer reviewed journal articles with the following keywords: "North Korean female", "North Korean female refugees" and "North Korean female defectors". Trend analysis included a content analysis of the study finding section, along with analysis of the general characteristics of the study such as published journals, year of publication, study methodologies, and subject of the study. The main findings are as follows: First, Korean Journal of Woman Psychology was the journal with the most studies on female North Korean refugees. Second, as a result of looking at research trends by year, there was only one study on North Korean female refugees published between 2000 and 2004, and the number started to increase in 2010(8 articles, 22.22%). Third, according to the analysis of research trends by research methods, survey method was most frequently used. Fourth, statistical analysis was most often utilized analysis methodology(34 studies, 94.44%). Fifth, in the content analysis, North Korean female refugees' mental health and emotional issues(17 studies, 47.22%) were the most often the focus of studies being analyzed, followed by social adjustment issues((5 studies, 13.89%). Based on these results, directions for future studies were suggested.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.147-158
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the preference and present use condition of convenience foods for North Korean refugees in South Korea. Questionnaires were completed by 211 North Korean refugees and data was analyzed with SPSS software. The preference for convenience foods of half of the questionnaires was investigated as 'moderate'. More than half of the North Korean refugees enjoy eating the convenience foods. They enjoy them as a snack. The reason to eat convenience foods is due to the convenience(n=122, 57.8%), and taste(n=42, 10.0%). North Korean refugees under the age of 29 years think the fastfood is good due to the convenience and taste. The longer the period of residence in South Korea, the less they enjoy convenience foods. The reason to choose the convenience foods is 'good for health', 'convenient', 'exotic', and 'economical'. The results suggest that it is necessary to educate people to buy reasonably by understanding the relationship between the convenience foods and health.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.37
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• pp.271-306
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• 1999

This study aimed to present a comprehensive case management model which might be helpful for social workers in community social welfare agencies who works with North Korean refugees for their psychosocial adjustment in South Korea. After being constructed, the model was put into practice upon North Korean refugees. This article described the whole process of model construction and its application. Detail steps taken in this research include: (a) The researcher had 20 unstructured individual interviews with 11 North Korean refugees in order to identify psychosocial problems that need social workers' intervention; (b) Based upon the problems identified through interviews and previous literature review, program components were identified and sorted out into two phases, one of which is therapeutic phase, the other is case management phase; (c) By interlocking the two phases, the researcher proposed a comprehensive case management model whereby North Korean refugees can get psychosocial services as well as linkage services in an interactive fashion; (d) The utility of the proposed model was examined by using a couple of North Korean refugees who initially showed complicated psycho-social-economic problems. The therapeutic phase employed a cognitive-behavioral approach. The case management phase consists of: assessment and diagnosis; service planning and resource identification; linking of clients to needed services; monitoring of service delivery; and evaluation. Although the program could not go through with because of the limited contacts with North Korean refugees for security reasons, the program was turned out to be very useful in helping North Korean refugees' settling-down in South Korea. Implications for the application of the proposed model was discussed along with limitations of this study.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.291-294
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• 2018

Soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH) are now no longer public health problems in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), but their status are unavailable in the residents of North Korea (NK) despite the expectation of large scale traffic and future reunification of the Korean Peninsula. A total of 20 female refugees from NK who had been admitted to the Division of Gastroenterology, Dankook University Hospital, were subjected in this study. Among them, 15 refugees were examined by the colonoscopy and 10 ones were examined with the stool examination (formalin-ether sedimentation). Both diagnostic methods were commonly adopted in 5 patients. Eggs of Trichuris trichiura were detected in 7 out of 10 refugees in the stool examination. In the colonoscopy, T. trichiura worms were found in 6 (40.0%) out of 15 refugees. Total 9 (45.0%) peoples were confirmed to be infected with human whipworms. Additionally, 1 case of clonorchiasis was diagnosed in the stool examination and a worm of Ascaris lumbricoides was discovered from a trichuriasis case. These findings suggested that STH is highly prevalent in NO, in which living conditions are not so good in the aspect of general hygiene and medical care.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.325-356
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• 2006

This study deals with information poverty and information service for information welfare of North Korean refugees. On the basis of the data collected and analyzed, it was concluded that North Korean refugees were situated at information poverty, as compared to the situation of South Koreans. It was also found out that their information poverty was caused by the inferiority of their information literary and information environment. In conclusion, this study made some suggestions for overcoming the information poverty and promoting the information welfare of North Korean refugees.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.147-163
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• 2004

The present research investigated and compared stress coping strategies of North Korean refugees with those of South Koreans in the purpose to predict and prepare psychological conflicts expected to occur during the Korean reunification. Adapted from Han, Hur, Chae, and Kim(2001), North Korean refugees recorded their coping strategies that they would employ in stressful situations varying in term of three aspects of stress causes - 2(locus: internal/external) × 2(stability: temporal/enduring) × 2(context: individual/interpersonal) - and the responses were classified in terms of three dimensions(active/passive, approach/avoidance, cognitive/affective/behavioral). In the temporal stress situations, adaptive North Korean refugees preferred active over passive, approaching over avoiding, and behavioral over cognitive/affective stress coping strategies more than maladaptive North Korean refugees did. Also, in the stressful situations caused by external causes, they were more likely to take active rather than passive, approaching rather than avoiding copying. Although active copying strategies were preferred to passive ones by adaptive North Korean refugees in individual stressful situations, approaching copying strategies were preferred to avoiding ones by them in interpersonal stressful situations. These findings were found to be different from the pattern of South Korean's stress coping strategies in the same situations. In conclusion, the differences were discussed in the view of psychological integration during Korean reunification.