Abstract
This study was to review the child research articles in the field of home economics in Korea for the last two decades and to evaluate the child studies in terms of home much the child research had contributed to society. For the purposes of this study all the child research articles that had been published in the three representative academic journals of Korea were reviewed. A framework to evaluate child studies was decided in accordance with objectives of the research theoretical and practical, Theoretical studies imply ones dealt with child development and personality parent-child relations development of measures and thoughts on children while practical studies mean the research on development of parent education programs child education programs mental health of children wellbeing of children and child welfare policies. Results of qualntitative analysis in this study showed increases in numbers of both theoretical and practical studies. Practical studies however occupied j st 4-12% of all the research article published in the last 20 years. The Results of this study indicated researcher' low involvement in pratical studies. Researchers in the field of child studies had most frequently conducted research on child development and parent-child relations which were conducted based on theoretical knoledges from the West. For the practical child studies there were some studies on developing parent education programs and a few articles dealt with child welfare policies and wellbeing of children for two decades. Furthermore the major variables of the practical studies were analyzed and evaluated with respect to their contribution to society as well as socializing child relate issues. Finally the reasons of scholars' low involvement in practical studies and some suggestions for further studies to deal with practical child issues were discussed.
