• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.97-112
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• 2005

This research has studied the people's perception and understanding of the 'Healthy Family Act' that has been enacted and practised from the year 2005. For this purpose, a survey has been conducted during October 2004 in several central and local cities in Korea, including Seoul, and a total of 741 samples have been used for the final analysis. The results of this study is as follows. The participants showed a very low level of recognition of the 'Healthy Family Act', and they Perceived that establishing a home-friendly atmosphere was of primary importance among the tasks that should be conducted by the State and local governments to encourage 'healthy families' The participants chose 'supporting the mental & physical health of family members' for the government supporting programs to make healthy families, and chose 'healthy life cultures such as clothes, food, and housing' for the government programs to support the everyday living cultures of the people. 1 Two thirds(2/3) of the participants indicated a willingness to participate in voluntary activities, and more than half of the participants said that they will participate in educational programs. Also, the participants indicated that divorce counselling should be offered only to the people who want the counselling, and as far as 'contents' are concerned, the participants indicated that 'the upbringing of children' should be the most important subject of the counselling. Finally, the participants indicated a willingness of participating educational programs in the order of parent education, family ethics education, realization of family values and family life education.

• Korean Parent-Child Health Journal
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• v.2
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• pp.53-63
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to describe how what influence sexuality has on women's health. Sex is determined by the sex chromosome: but sociocultural norms have much influence on the sex role of a woman or man. Women's sexuality has had a negative impact on them in a male-dominated society, which destroyed women's health, put women in a powerless position and forced them to live as dependent persons. Sociocultural perception of the sex role has not been very open, and very strict rules have controlled those perceptions; but currently these perceptions have been changing dramatically. Especially, women's sex role has changed, bringing about many problems: the number of women engaging in premarital sex, the number of unwed mothers, the number of pregnancies without marriage, the divorce rate, and the number of dysfunctional families have all increased. Those kinds of problems have negative effects on women, children and members of the whole family. Sexually transmitted disease because of free sex is a serious health issue for women: the number of women with AIDS has increased rapidly. Another big issue is sexual abuse, which is insulting to women, decreases women's self-esteem, increases depression, puts women in a powerless position and eventually causes women to get sick. Male-preference (among newborns) ideology raises health issues for women, such as artificial abortion. In the area of sex differentiation, therefore, we have to change people's thinking from male-preference ideology to equal sex preference. Finally, we have to use a holistic approach for women's health and increase awareness of the fact that the sex role and women's health are very important for the family, society and nation. Women's health is the nation's power.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.491-504
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• 2007

This study was based on resilience approach to find out elementary first, second, and third year students' differences of social support and problem solving ability defending on their family situation (low-income divorced family or normal family) by comparing their sex and age. In addition, the purpose of this study was to find out the effect of factors (social support, problem behavior, and problem solving ability) of children defending on their family situation and age. Moreover, it was aimed to find out the effect of social support and problem solving ability of low-income divorced family's children on their problem behavior. Subjects were 165 children in elementary school (grade 1, 2, and 3). For this study two groups were used for comparison. First, low-grade elementary school children with low-income divorced parents (N=87), "group D" and second, with low-income non-divorced parents (N=78) "group N". The questionnaire, picture cards, and teacher's report was used to determine social support perception, problem-solving ability, and problem behavior, respectively. Results showed that "Group D" was determined to show regarding social support, problem-solving ability, and problem behaviors worse than "group N". In conclusion, problem behaviors of "group D" were affected by social support and their problem-solving ability.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.147-161
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• 2012

Remarriage has been prevalent in Korea since the mid-1990s. Remarried families have reported that they face many challenges and difficulties. Life for those who remarry can worsen when the children from a previous marriage live together with new family members. It is interesting that some remarried families adjust well while others do not. This study focuses on developing a practice model for strengthening the resilience of remarried families with children based on a literature review. To understand and support remarried families, the resilience perspective was chosen, focusing on a strengths perspective with developmental, ecological, and preventative perspectives. In terms of resilience, the proposed practice model was developed on the basis of three concepts: belief systems, organizational patterns, and communication. The model can be used to help remarried families accomplish adequate integration by growing as a new family and can prevent another divorce. Moreover, it can assist practitioners and policy-makers develop programs and policies with a strengths perspective rather than a deficit or problem-oriented perspective. Based on the model, various programs need to be developed to strengthen the resilience of remarried families. The development of supportive programs is suggested. These can include remarriage preparation programs, remarriage life education programs, interactive web-based programs, and family camps. For a long time, remarried families have been labeled as abnormal and atypical owing to the normal family myth. This negative perception of remarried families must be altered so that they are accepted with a positive outlook in a society. For further studies, the development of diverse supportive adaptation programs for various types of remarried families and active research on them are recommended. The practice model can assist with the adaptation and growth of remarried families by strengthening their resilience.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.259-277
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• 2008

Traditional familism and family value is known as the value that most Koreans share with. Strong family solidarity and family-centered perception among Koreans influences other social values and ideology. Under the family value, caring for family members is family responsibility instead of government responsibility. Previous studies argued that the family value played a role to impede the development of family policy in Korea. The aim of this study was to explore a relation between the family value and the needs for care-support family policy. This study investigated how the family value were related to the specific needs for care-support family policy. The data were drawn from the Seoul Families Survey conducted on 2006 by Seoul Women and Family Foundation. The survey data consisted of 2,500 married males and females living in Seoul. The statistical techniques used for analysis were frequencies, means, t-test, ANOVA, crosstabs, multiple regression models, and multinomial logit models. The major findings of this study were as followings. First, while the traditional familism appeared to be held at a certain level, the general attitudes towards cohabitation, divorce, and single-parent family seemed to be less traditional. Second, the familism was found to be partly associated with the needs for the care-support family policy. The respondents who had less traditional value on arriage and child-rearing showed the higher level of needs for daycare center. This finding implied that nontraditional attitudes were related to the needs for an alternative care service such as caring through facilities rather than to the needs for supportive or complementary services. Lastly, the respondents who had higher level of traditional familism showed a higher preference for direct economic service (supportive service) than for other types of service in child care. And the less traditional their attitudes towards marriage and child-rearing, the more likely they are to prefer flexible child care services and programs to other types of child care services. These results implied that the family value was partly influential to family policy. However, it is worthy to note that the family value was related to family policy preference rather than to family policy needs. In other words, traditional family value appeared to influence the types of family policy rather than the level of needs for family policy.