Earticle

The purposes of this study are to provide background information to develop a family-friendly work policy and to increase the effectiveness and feasibility of this policy. We surveyed the performance of family-friendly work policies, and workers’ needs and utilizations of 17 family-friendly work policies. We also examined the factors that influence the utilization of family-friendly work policies. The study sample consists of 197 working mothers who have at least one child under age 10. The major findings are as follows: 1) The most-needed family-friendly work policy among working mothers is child care leave 2) Of those family-friendly work policies that are not currently provided, the most-needed policy is family care leave 3) The size of firms, the provision of substitutes, and 40-hour work schedules are statistically significant variables that influence the provision of necessary family-friendly work policies and 4) In addition, the work place culture is a very important factor related to the utilization of work- and family-friendly policies.

This study was an attempt to examine the basic scheme required for the job analysis of healthy family-center workers in the context of human resource management. For this purpose, factors including frequency, importance, priority, and difficulty were examined. The job classification and concrete job activities were extracted from the interviews of eight healthy family-center workers, and these factors were then analyzed from the recordings. From the results of this study, 28 job tasks were collected and the four job types were classified. The results can be used for job analysis and human resource development (HRD). This study suggests that various methods should be used for job analysis and that a large number of samples should be utilized for the further studies.

The purpose of this ethnography is to describe and analyze the wild-goose mother’s everyday life, her family relationships, and her social networking. Thirteen mothers from New York, California, and Texas, U.S.A., were interviewed with an unstructured questionnaire. Their residency and everyday schedules are arranged around the children’s educational conditions. They have experienced difficult relationships with Korean American immigrants, Korean students, other wild-goose mothers, and Americans. They have failed to develop their social capital effectively due to the language barrier and a cultural capital deficiency. As a kind of family strategy, this separation sometimes strengthens the spousal relationship, preventing divorce, but usually weakens the emotional ties and quality of communication between husband and wife. The acculturation gap between the mother and her children may cause the mother to become alienated and exacerbate the generational conflict.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the policy demands of the family sector for work-family balance, with a focus on the child care and household labor provisions. For empirical analysis, data were collected from 197 dual-income families with at least one young child under age 10 in the metropolitan area via self- administered questionnaires. The major findings of this study were as follows. First, child care provisions for working mothers and fathers were insufficient and unfair, and the ratio of child care provisions offered by familial child care network was high. The characteristics of child care provisions for working parents were associated with family structure, working conditions, and demographic variables. Second, household labor provisions for working mothers and fathers were also insufficient and unfair, and the ratio of socialization was high. Third, the level of family satisfaction varied by the level of child care and household labor provisions, respectively, controlling family structure, working conditions, and demographic variables. The empirical results of the study provided policy implications for work-family balance.

The purpose of this study is to develop the education program for a healthy family support center. This will be a representative program which will differ from the education programs of other welfare centers. This study suggests 11 themes based on the elements of a healthy family. These programs aim to prevent and solve family problems. The 11 themes are as follows: family values, family relations 1 and 2 (couple/parent-children), parent coaching 1 and 2, family culture, resource management, multi-cultural families, working families, family volunteerism, and family consulting. This study focuses on creating a frame for this program which is integrated, systematic, and flexible. It also develops both family diagnosis sheets and educational content about various aspects of family life. Thus, this can be a core program which allows networking with other programs.

In Korean society, a housewife and mother often plays the role of family resource manager. In 2008, the newly appointed Korean government proposed a new direction in social policies, including family policy, that is, “active social welfare”. According to “active social welfare”, family policy focuses on a preventive policy and a family needs-oriented policy. In other words, newly established family policies should reflect parents’ needs in their family resource management. In this economic downturn, family policies should be established to satisfy parents’ needs to overcome their own family’s economic crisis. This study focuses on policy recipients’ real voices and their needs: they need the government’s help supporting their efforts to overcome the economic crises within their families.

The purpose of this study was to find the integrated educational programs for the female marital immigrant families in Korea. For this purpose, 21 immigrated female informants and 33 visiting teachers who provide teaching services to female informants were focus-group interviewed. The Major findings were as follows: Through the content analysis of informant’s responses, both married female immigrants and visiting teachers expressed the needs of Korean language programs interpreted by immigrants’ native speakers as well as programs to support their children. Married female immigrants expressed the needs for her husbands joining educational programs not much, on the other hand visiting teachers insisted to join their husbands as well as other family members to diverse family-related programs. Married female immigrants wanted programs to support their working skills, however visiting teachers emphasized their responsibilities and active attitudes before they get a job. Married female immigrants were not conscious any counselling programs to cope with husband’s violence or maladjusted children, on the other hand visiting teachers insisted counselling programs to help female immigrants. Above all the programs, most of female marital immigrants wanted Korean language programs interpreted by their native speakers and programs to support their working skills, on the other hand visiting teachers emphasized the importance of family-related programs and counselling programs.

The purpose of this study is to research support systems of the community child care services for optimum work-family balance. For this purpose, the questionnaire to be completed combined four areas: the workplace, school, community and home. Then questions concerning demographic factors and community-related aspects were analysed for this article. After analyzing 197 questionnaires, supplementary questions were asked, by interview to 10 samples. Full-time working wives (eg. working from 9am to 6pm) who have 1 or more children under 10 years old, living in Seoul and Gyeonggi province were collected as samples. The results were as follows: First, child care from family and relatives, and community services was properly used during the week, but dual working parents took complete charge of child care on Saturdays. Second, emergency child care was usually provided by the family, while relatives and community child care services were used less. Third, parents spent 17% of their monthly income on total child care expenditure. Fourth, community child care services were not used often, but the level of satisfaction with them was very high. Finally, they used relatives' services for safety reasons and community services for location, and only based on informed decisions. Therefore, Saturday child care programmes need to be initiated to help physically and mentally tired parents, with more general provision of positive and diverse public support systems.