Earticle

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate solitary drinkers’ psychological problems such as perceived stress and depression, as well as their drinking motives and expectancies. Methods: The sample included 521 Korean adults who had experienced solitary drinking. They completed questionnaires measuring perceived stress level, depression, suicidal thinking, alcohol consumption in different contexts, and drinking motives and expectancies. Results: This study showed that people who engage in solitary heavy drinking only or both solitary and social heavy drinking are more likely to experience stress, depression, and suicidal thinking. While the enhancement motive was associated with amount of drinking in both solitary and social drinking groups, the coping motive was associated with amount of drinking only in the solitary drinking group. Conclusion: These findings suggest that people may drink alone to cope with their mental health problems such as stress and depression.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effect of interpersonal relationships in associations between empowerment, quality of life, and treatment compliance for patients with alcohol use disorder. Method: The participants were patients with alcohol use disorder (n=160) who were admitted in the psychiatric hospital in D city. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires including the Empowerment scale, Relationship Change Scale (RCS), Insight and Treatment Attitude Questionnaire (ITAQ), and WHO Quality of Life Scale abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF). Data were analyzed with t-test, one-way ANOVA, Tukey test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and simple and multiple regression using the SPSS 20.0 program. The Baron and Kenny method and Sobel test were used to analyze the mediating effect. Results: Interpersonal relationships showed perfect mediating effect in the association between empowerment and treatment compliance, and had partial mediating effect in the association between empowerment and quality of life. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the development of nursing intervention is necessary for improvement of empowerment with regard to interpersonal relationships, and that it can improve treatment compliance and quality of life.

Objectives: This study was implemented to find intervention methods to decrease employment stress in college students by using path analysis method for parental abuse, parental alcoholism, depression, and college students employment stress. Methods: We surveyed 549 college students in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province and analyzed the results in a structural equation model using the AMOS 18.0 program. Results: According to the result of this research, depression has some mediation effects on the relation between parental abuse and employment stress in college students. Futhermore, parental alcoholism did not affect employment stress directly, and not affect depression indirectly. Thus, it was verified that depression mediated the relation between parental abuse and employment stress. Conclusions: Based on the research results, we discussed intervention methods in the context of social welfare to prevent problems in college students.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the black-out experiences of patients with alcoholism. Methods: The data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research methods. The participants were 10 alcoholics who had experienced a black-out. They were interviewed from November 2015 to January 2016. This study created 21 sub-domains based on data obtained from in depth interviews; each domain was cross-analyzed and categorized according to frequency. Results: First, the participants reported that the first time they experienced a black-out was in their teenage years early adulthood; however, now they experience a black once or twice a month. Second, at the early stage of black-out experience, patients reported feling preposterous, anxious and frustrated but committed themselves to change their drinking habits and maintain sobriety. However, they felt anxiety and a desire to die, because of the repeated black out, and they then became desperate. Third, the patients regretted the crime of black-out and the death of people around. Also they experienced feelings of ambivalence, such as feeling relieved because they did not remember anything. Fourth, most of what happened during the black-out situation was a psychological burden to be resolved by participants on their own.. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, we discuss the black-out phenomenon of alcoholics in depth and propose a practical plan for mental health social welfare for patients with alcoholism.

Objectives: The present study aimed to examine the prevalence of internet addiction among college students in Korea based on the public health model. Individual factors, environment factors, and agent factors including escape and anonymity related to internet addiction were analyzed. Methods: This study used a probability sample of 509 college students from universities located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire that included standardized instruments to measure various factors and internet addiction. Results: Among the participants, 16.3% were categorized as having internet addiction and 71.1% were categorized as the high-risk group. Consistent with previous studies, male students reported higher prevalence of internet addiction(18.1%) compared to female students (15.3%). Those in the addiction group, high-risk group, and low-risk group showed significant differences in psychological factors, environmental factors, and agent characteristics. Results from logistic regression indicated that impulsiveness, easy access to a cyber cafe, anonymity and a sense of escaping reality were found to increase the risk of internet addiction. Conclusion: The present study confirmed the usefulness of public health model to understand internet addiction among young people. Previous studies on internet addiction mostly focused on individual factors, but the results of the present study confirmed the influence of environmental factors, such as easy access to internet games and characteristics of internet itself. Implications of the study in internet addiction prevention and harm reduction policy development targeting the environment are discussed.

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to investigate ways to seek social welfare interventions on the issue of increasing smartphone addiction in adolescents. Methods: To keep the study reliable and valid, the researcher measured the issue of addiction by utilizing his/her own assessments that were developed by himself/herself. Furthermore, from October 26 to December 2, 2015, a preliminary survey was administered based on the survey that was both edited and carried out extensively. The research, targeting middle and high school students in Daegu and Gyeongbuk, analyzed 589 surveys that had been distributed throughout the area; 11 out of the 600 distributed surveys were not analyzed due to some unanswered or dishonest responses. Results: The results were as follows. First, smartphone usage motivation had a direct effect on self-efficacy and an indirect effect on self-control; it also had both direct and indirect effects on smartphone addiction. Second, self-efficacy had a direct effect on self-control and also had both direct and indirect effects on smartphone addiction. Finally, self-control had a direct effect on smartphone addiction. Conclusions: Self-efficacy is verified as the mediation between smartphone usage motivation and self-control, and smartphone usage motivation and smartphone addiction. Self-control is verified as the mediation between self-efficacy and smartphone addiction.

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to understand emotional responses and perceptions about pictorial cigarette health warnings in Korea. Methods: This study conducted focus group interviews with adult men, adult women, and male adolescents, asking the participants about their emotional reactions and thoughts regarding pictorial cigarette health warning images. Results: This study found that participants frequently mention negative emotions such as disgust and guilt upon exposure to cigarette health warning images. Participants also cited perceived relevance between themselves and warning images, and perceived relevance between smoking and warning images in order to select effective images for smoking prevention and cessation. In particular, as participants experienced more disgust and relevance to themselves from warnings, they were more likely to consider smoking cessation and prevention. In addition, guilt was frequently mentioned among female and adolescent participants after exposed to the image of fetus secondhand smoke. Conclusion: We suggest that pictorial cigarette health warning theme selection should be based on 1) images with potential to elicit negative emotions, such as those depicting externally noticeable diseases and secondhand smoke, and 2) realistic problems directly related to smoking.

Objectives: This study was to identify the mediating effects of health behavior on the relationship between depression and quality of life among rural solitary elder. Methods: The data were collected from 201 rural solitary elder and Main variables included depression, quality of life, health behavior. The data were analyzed by using Descriptives Analysis, t-test, ANOVA, scheffe Post-hoc Analysis, corrlation analysis, structural equation model. Results: The research findings were as follows: First, The majority (42.2%) of rurul solitary elder were identified as depression and 9.0% were classified as high-risk depression. A difference in depression was found in relation to participants’ level of education, receipt, while a difference in quality of life was found to relate to participant’s age and their education, receipt. Second, The more depressed, the lower the quality of life, so depression had on significant relationship to quality of life of rural solitary elder. Third, health behavior worked as partial mediators between depression and quality of life among rural solitary elder. Conclusion: The implications and limitations of these findings were discussed and directions for future studies were also proposed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to discover the level of attraction to physical activity and health-related physical fitness in pre-school children and to analyze the relativity between these two factors as a way to provide the base data for health promotion in children. Method: Health-related physical fitness measurements were obtained for the subjects (224 children, 5-6 years of age), by facilitating the measuring devices and attraction to physical activity using a survey questionnaire to collect pertinent information. An analysis was implemented for mean and standard deviation of each variable and an independent t-test was conducted for gender differences. Two-way ANOVA was performed to analyze the relationship between attitude toward physical activity and health fitness. Result: The attraction to physical activity of pre-school children on average is displayed with a preference of 14.28 points, self-confidence of 15.23 points, and enjoyment of 14.55 points. As for health-related physical fitness, the muscle strength endurance was 9.33 times, flexibility 9.85 cm, muscle strength endurance and flexibility 20.73 cm, and body composition 15.86 kg/m2. Attraction to physical activity and health-related physical fitness showed no difference according to gender; however, physical muscle strength endurance and muscle strength endurance and flexibility were found to be different according to age. Flexibility and body mass index did not correlate with attraction to physical activity but the preference and self-confidence of attraction to physical activity were related to muscle strength endurance. Furthermore, muscle strength endurance and flexibility and the enjoyment of physical activity were also related to muscle strength endurance development. Conclusion: The attraction to physical activity is definitely related to health-related physical fitness. There is a need for development, research and dispersion of an education program for physical activities that consider the attraction to physical activity for preference, enjoyment, and self-confidence regarding physical activities.