Earticle

This study aimed to develop the educational program for the Healthy Families Center. This study focused on married, working women and the difficulties they face balancing work and family. The data were collected from interviews with eight married, working women, six professionals from the Healthy Families Center. The program is composed of three parts. The first looks at the identities of married, working women. The second part focuses on the everyday lives of married, working women and the experiences they have balancing work and housewife duties. The third part outlines strategies for the balancing of work and family.

Previous studies on women who immigrated through marriage were focused on the frictional issues within the couples and their families as well as language tutoring. However, for the long-term integration of these women into society and the acquisition of status, it is most important to increase their economic value. Indeed many such women are facing economic difficulties, and have a strong desire to participate in economic activities. This study focuses on the economic self-sufficiency of these women through employment and entrepreneurship. We analyze their education level and employment experience and attempt to find the most effective policies to support them. We take particular interest in their entrepreneurial motivation and propose policies and frameworks for supporting their successful enterprise creation.

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors affecting family strength and therewith, suggest some strategies to improve family strength and welfare. For this purpose, the researcher sampled 208 college students and surveyed them for their perceptions of the concept of family and family strengths. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, as a result of surveying the subjects on their perception of the concept of family, it was found that almost all of them (99%) perceived that ‘a family consists of a couple and their children’ (item 1). The other items regarding the concept of family chosen by the majority of subjects were ‘a couple and adopted child’ (item 3 & item 17), ‘a remarried couple and their children’ (item 9), ‘a single parent and children’ (item 2), ‘a three-generation family; couple, widowed daughter and granddaughter’ (item 4), ‘three sisters’ (item 7), ‘an unmarried woman living with a son born from a sperm bank’ (item 19), ‘a separated couple with no child’ (item 13), ‘cousins living together’ (item 11), ‘a divorced man and his girlfriend with child’ (item 15) and ‘homosexual family’ (item 8). Second, as a result of assessing subjects’ needs for family functions and their efforts for family strengths, it was found that the family functions for family members scored higher than those for the society, and that subjects’ efforts for the family functions conducive to both their family members and society scored lower than their needs for the family functions. Third, subjects’ needs and efforts for family functions were positively correlated with family strengths. Namely, family functions were closely related with family strengths.

The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions and awareness of traditional Korean wedding ceremonies. For this purpose, I began a literature review and investigated the consciousness about traditional Korean wedding ceremonies among unmarried people. As a result, I discussed the future of Korean wedding culture. Data were analyzed from the sample of 206 unmarried people collected from April 20 to Jun 13, 2009. The data were analyzed by making use of the SPSS program and included Frequency analysis, ANOVA and the χ²-test. The summary of these results was as follows. First, unmarried people want a special wedding ceremony. They think the appropriate age of marriage is between their 20s and mid-30s. The traditional wedding ceremony is changing, but they think that the meanings behind them will continue. If they married a foreigner, they would want to have a modern wedding ceremony and each of their traditional wedding ceremonies. Second, they have no educational experience about traditional wedding culture(85.4%). Some people who have educational experience learned about traditional wedding culture from their parents or grandparents. Third, most traditional wedding procedures were influenced by Korean customs. Most men did not know about traditional Korean wedding procedures. But if they get married, they will follow traditional wedding procedures (M=3.35). In the future, we will have to succeed Korean wedding culture, for example, Peau back(幣帛), Ham(函), and traditional wedding ceremony.

This qualitative case study focused on two types of livable, family-friendly communities and their activities. The landscaping, the community library, and the Dongbu Apartment Residents’ Committee were examined in relationship to the everyday lives of the community’s residents through observation and an in-depth interview. The experiences and thoughts of two representatives and four volunteers were described in detail. This study implies the importance of activity as well as a visible effort to improve quality of life. Further, it implies the necessity of a long-term perspective and commitment to developing a livable community base with strategies consistent with integrity and the values of everyday life. Above all, we researchers emphasize the most important factor of the livable community is the third sector; a public space based on everyday life located between a structurally separate work space and family space.

The purpose of this study is to provide background information to help develop family-friendly policies which aid in the ability for employees to balance family and work, and to increase the effectiveness and feasibility of these policies at work sites. We surveyed the performance and usage of work-family balance policies among working mothers with young children. We also examined the factors influencing the job satisfaction of working mothers. The study sample consisted of 237 working mothers with young children. We found that family economic status, working mother's experience of family leave or maternity leave, and easiness of policy use are important factors in a working mother’s job satisfaction. Especially when individual and job characteristics are controlled, the most influential factor on working mothers’ job satisfaction was the experience of family leave or maternity leave. In addition, the easiness of family-friendly policy use was a significant factor in working mothers’ job-satisfaction.

The article's purpose is to depict the experiences and cognition of Korean male workers on the relationship between work and family, in a conglomerate company. It examines the data of 11 interviews, especially focusing on the issue of participation in family lives. The cases consist of new comer employees, managerial officers, and executive personnel. According to the interviewee’s report, Korean companies have drastically changed from a so called collectivistic culture to an individualisic one. In addition, the styles of their stories have changed drastically. New comers and managerial officers accentuate the importance of family in contrast to the attitudes of executive staff. These individuals also discuss the trend of increasing participation in domestic chores. However, the study does not illustrate a change in the younger generations’ inner identities in relation to familial responsibility. Many of the interviewees’opinions taken from the study are almost similar in that these individuals do not encompass the lives of family in future plans. In conclusion, workers from large companiesin Korea maintain the attitude of focusing on official life one-sidedly.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the characteristics and economic status of deficit households compared to surplus households. Data from The Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2005 by NSO and 50, 207 salary/wage earners’ households were used for the analysis. The statistical methods used were GLM, logit, and cluster analyses. The analysis results showed that 25.3 percent of the households were deficit households. Approximately half of the lowest 20% income group were deficit households. Income deficit households earned 1, 273 thousand less than that of surplus households, whereas consumption of deficit households was 1, 006 thousand more than that of surplus households. The average propensity of consumption of deficit households was 142.1. According to the logit analysis, factors contributing tothe probability of belonging to a deficit household included income level, household size, age and educational level, occupation, homeownership, car ownership, and wife's employment status. Deficit households were classified into 5 types: 1) health care expenditure-dominated group, 2) housing expenditure-dominated group, 3) education expenditure-dominated group, 4) money transfer-dominated group, and 5) overall-overconsumption group. The overall- overconsumption group was the largest group of all at 58.5%. It was found that for all five groups, the changes in household size, income group, home ownership, and occupation of the individual were variables that influenced the probability of belonging to a certain group.