• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.41
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• pp.7-42
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• 2000

Little empirical study has been conducted concerning social worker' empowerment that has very important function on clients' empowerment. Using the sample of 222 social workers selected from 92 community welfare centers, this study attempted to identify social workers' empowerment level and its predictors. This study used the empowerment scale developed by Leslie, Holzhalb, Holland (1998) that focuses on measurement of social workers's empowerment in social work agencies. Using confirmatory factor analysis, it was confirmed that the scale has three factors such as control of work environment, work relationships, and personal work orientation. This study showed that using 5 points scale, mean of social workers' empowerment is 3.67. In identifying predictors of the empowerment, this study used variables from the following aspects: organizational characteristics, job characteristics, and individual characteristics. Using regression analysis, it was found that variables related to job characteristics such as role ambiguities, role conflicts, and skill varieties are statistically very significant predictors of social workers' empowerment. Self-esteem in personal characteristics and participation in decision making and transformational leadership in organizational characteristics are also statistically significant predictors of social workers' empowerment. This study also revealed that self-control and self-esteem variables function as moderator in the relation with variables such as role ambiguities and role conflicts. Finally, this study discussed the direction of future research in social workers' empowerment and the areas that management efforts should be focused on for promoting social workers' empowerment.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.98-106
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• 2017

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the relationships between the factors affecting health levels of the elderly in rural areas. Methods: Subjects were 257 elderly people residing in rural areas of six cities and Gangwon Province. Data was collected through questionnaires (demographic and socioeconomic status, social resources, health behaviors, physical environment, psychological tendency and general health levels) and was analyzed by using multiple regression and Sobel test. Results: The demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the subjects exerted statistically significant influence on their social resources, health behaviors, physical environment, and psychological tendencies. The demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, social resources, health behaviors, physical environment, and psychological tendencies, in turn, exerted a statistically significant influence on the health level. The social resources had mediating effects on the relationship between income, one of the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and health level. The residential environments had mediating effects on the relationship between income and health level. The psychological tendency had mediating effects on the relationship between income and health level. Conclusion: This study suggests that income is an important factor affecting health level among rural elderly people. In addition, social resources, health behaviors, physical environment, and psychological tendencies among them also affect health level, so it is necessary to make strategies to improve these factors.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.149-164
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to identify the types of social networks of urban housewives according to different network composition patterns and to analyze the structural and functional characteristics of identified types. The data used in this study were collected from 589 full-time housewives residing in Taejeon city. The major findings are as follows: 1) The social networks of housewives in urban nuclear families were classified into eight types: the kin network, the non-kin network, the kin-centered network, the friend-centered network, the neighbor-centered network, the associate-centered network, the parallel network, and the decentralized network. 2) The structual characteristics (size, density, homogeneity, duration, proximity, frequency, closeness, direction) varied according to the type. The kin network type and the non-kin network type showed extreme degrees in network characteristics. The parallel network type and the decentralized network type showed an average level of network characteristics. The kin-, friend-, neighbor-, and the associate-centered types showed network characteristics of an intermediate level between the single-category types and the decentralized type. 3) The average levels of function of social network types were different in only two(service support, interference) of the six function areas(emotional support, service support, material support, information support, social companionship support, interference). The average level of service support by the non-kin network type was higher than other types. The average level of interference by the kin-centered network type was higher than other types, and that of the neighbor-centered network type was lower than other types. On the other hand, the total amount of function performance of social network types was different in all function areas. The total amount of social support given by the decentralized network type was greater than the other types. The total amount of interference given by the non-kin network type was smaller than the other types.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.46
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• pp.319-348
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• 2001

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the buffering effect of social welfare services on the relationship between the level of older persons' impairment and burden experienced by the family caregivers. It also assessed the level of caregiving burden as well as the effect of both older person's impairment and the characteristics of the caregivers on burden. The survey data collected from 150 community residing family caregivers was used for analyses. Findings are as follows. First, the caregivers are more burdened in the deterioration of mental health, scarce time for oneself, and the suffering of social life than in other areas of burden. Second, the more severe the physical and the mental impairment of the elder, the more burden the caregivers experience. The caregivers' characteristics such as the worse mental health, the lower level of attachment to the elder, the longer caregiving hours are also related to the higher level of caregiving burden. Third, the caregivers' use of adult day care and respite care services buffer the relationship between the level of impairment of older persons and the caregiving burden. However, social work counselling, visiting nurse, homemaker services do not have such buffering effects. Among informal support, instrumental support buffers the relationship between the elder's physical impairment and burden, while emotional support buffers the relationship between the elder's mental impairment and burden. According to the results, implication for social welfare services and practice methods for the family caregivers was discussed.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.463-481
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• 2020

This study examines the level of consumer knowledge regarding the concept and characteristics of the sharing economy along with the role of the three economic players in the sharing economy. This study develops scales for measuring a consumer's knowledge level and the knowledge level using these scales as well as analyzes the impact of knowledge levels, socio-demographic variables, social capital, and knowledge sharing on participation in the sharing economy. The scales measuring the level of knowledge in the sharing economy were composed of 22 questions for the concept, 30 questions for the characteristics, and 15 questions for the role of the economic parties. Consumer's knowledge level regarding the concept and characteristics of the sharing economy and the role of the economic players was very low. In particular, the knowledge on the concept was insufficient. Women's knowledge on the sharing economy showed higher scores than men. Consumers with higher scores in social capital and knowledge sharing showed higher scores of the knowledge level on the sharing economy than those behind in these two variables. A higher knowledge level of the sharing economy resulted in higher participation in the sharing economy. Issues and directions for future studies on the sharing economy were proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.13-23
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• 2008

This study examined effects of demographic characteristics, mothers' perceived social pressure regarding their children's education, social conspicuousness, competitiveness, and self-esteem on the mothers' fervor for their children's education. These effects were analysed separately by residential area. A total of 231 mothers who had children attend middle school at Mok-dong and Ahyun-dong surveyed by questionnaire. There were significant differences based on the mothers' residential area. Mok-dong mothers have a higher perceived social pressure about child education, self-esteem, education fervor for their child, and monthly income and fathers' and mothers' education level than Ahyun-dong mothers. In Mok-dong mothers, only demographic characteristics of the family significantly explained the mothers' education fervor. Specifically, monthly income and fathers' education level were positively related to education fervor of Mok-dong mothers. Ahyun-dong mothers' social pressure about child education and self-esteem significantly explained mothers' education fervor for their child after controlling their demographic characteristics. Specifically, positive social pressure and positive self-esteem were positively related to mothers' education fervor about their child.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.161-169
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• 2024

Purpose : This study investigated the correlation between social support and older people's quality of life. Methods : We conducted a questionnaire survey with 350 older participants and analyzed 320 completed surveys. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 for Windows. The general characteristics of the participants and quality of life subdomains were analyzed using descriptive statistics and frequency analyses. Furthermore, the differences between the subdomains of social support and quality of life were analyzed using independent t-tests and a one-way ANOVA. Post-hoc tests were performed using the Scheffé test. A significance level of α=.05 was used to verify statistical significance. Results : Upon examining the sub-domain level of social support and considering general characteristics, it was found that older age correlates with increased dependency among patients with associated diseases (p<.05). Similarly, an investigation into participants' quality of life at the subdomain level, considering general characteristics, revealed higher correspondence to lower quality of life (p<.05). Differences emerged between social support and quality of life among older individuals, with a negative correlation observed between the two (p<.05). Conclusion : This study suggests the importance of actively supporting older people with chronic diseases who experience emotional and psychological instability. It advocates for promoting the use of various services, including visiting medical services, convalescent care, and assistance, to meet their needs effectively.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.53
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• pp.257-283
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• 2003

The main objective of this study is to examine antecedents and outcome of organizational cynicism. This paper focuses on organizational commitment of social worker as outcome variable. Thus, this study attempts to examine structural relation of variables of organizational level(personnel management), job level(job characteristics), and individual level(level of self-control) on the level of organizational commitment, with special concern about the mediating effect of organizational cynicism. The study conducted mail survey and collected information for data analysis from 330 social workers working at 173 social welfare organizations in Seoul and Kyong-gi area, The study used structural equation modeling(SEM) method for analyzing the constructed model. Main results are as follows: (1) evaluation about personnel management is negatively related to organizational cynicism; (2) evaluation about job characteristics is negatively related to organizational cynicism; (3) evaluation about self-control is negatively related to organizational cynicism; (4) organizational cynicism exerts negative effect on the level of organizational commitment; and (5) evaluation about personnel management, evaluation about job characteristics, and evaluation about self-control exerts positive effect on the level of organizational commitment. Among the results of this study, this paper focuses on the function of personnel management system on organizational cynicism. This paper emphasizes that social welfare organizations must make a lot of efforts for making fair personnel system in order to reduce social workers' organizational cynicism and ultimately promote their organizational commitment.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.186-198
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to analyze social support, job satisfaction and burnout level of Korean nurses who are working in Germany. The data were obtained from 71 nurses in terms of questionnaire which was distributed between October 2000. to January 2001. The analysis of the data was done by means of the SPSS program. The results of this study were as follows ; 1. The subjects had social supporters on the average of 8 to 9. The total social support score was 264.79. An analysis of the relationship between social support and general characteristics for the subjects was found to be statistically significant in the case of religion(t=2.783, p< .05 ) and work experience(F=2.594, p< .05). 2. The mean score of job satisfaction was the highest in interaction(3.71) followed by the relationship between nurses and doctors (3.56), and then followed by autonomy, professional position, pay, requirements, administration in descending order. So the total mean score 3.33 was based on a maximum score of 5. An analysis of the relationship between job satisfaction and general characteristics for the subjects was found to be statistically significant in the case of the thought of the value for the nurse job (F=4.977, p< .001). 3. The mean score of burnout level was 2.94 based on a maximum score of 7. Burnout level was the highest in the order of physical exhaustion, emotional exhaustion and mental exhaustion. An analysis of the relationship between burnout level and general characteristics for the subjects was found to be statistically significant in the case of planning period of employed nursing profession (F=4.113, p< .001), shift of work department (F=2.593, p< .05 ), thought of the value for the nurse job (F=3.789, p< .001). 4. The job satisfaction was found higher as the social support was higher(r= .278, p< .05). The burnout level was found lower as the social support was higher(r= .342, p< .01). The burnout level was found lower as the job satisfaction was higher(r= .478, p< .01). These results discussed on the above indicated that social support influenced on job satisfaction and burnout level, and that job satisfaction influenced on burnout level. To improve job satisfaction for the nurse, it is necessary that the role of social support as well as the method to increase it should be investigated correctly. The study to adjust as well as to prevent burnout level is absolutely needed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.549-561
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• 1995

This study was designed to identify the relation-ship of perceived social support on self-esteem and hopelessness in patients with chronic renal failure who are hemodialysis. The subjects of this study were the 50 patients who were registered in the hemodialysis department of the two hospitals. The data were collected using a questionnaire and The period of the data collection was from August 9 to 16, 1993. The instruments for this study were the perceived social support scale designed by Park Ji-Won, the self -esteem scale designed by Rosenberg and the hopelessness scale designed by Beck et al. The data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, t-test, ANOVA, and .Pearson correlation coefficient. The results are summarized as follows ; 1. The degree of support according to the type of perceived social support ranged down in the fol-lowing order from high to low the mean emotion-al support 21.12, the mean informational support 19.58, the mean appraisal support 17.00, the mean material support 15.22, the man self-esteem was 32.00 and the mean hopelessness was 60.48. 2. Test for hypothesis ; Hypothesis 1, "The higher the level of perceived social support in patients on hemodialysis, the higher their level of self-esteem will be. " was not supported(r=.05, p=0.74). Hypothesis 2, "The higher the level of perceived social support in patients on hemodialysis, the lower their level of hopelessness will be. " was supported(r=-0.53, p=0.00). 3. The relations between general characteristics and the level of perceived social support, self-esteem, and hopelessness ; (1) The 'Gender'(P=0.04), 'Occupation'(P=0.04), 'Education'(P=0.00), 'Married state'(P=0.00) 'Duration of Hemodialysis'(P=0.00) and 'In-come'(P=0.00) of the subjects were related to perceived social support and showed a statistically significant difference. (2) No general characteristics of the subjects were related self-esteem in a statistically significant way. (3) The 'Education'(P=0.00) , 'Income'(P=0.00) of the subjects were related to hopelessness and showed a statistically significant difference. Thus, it is concluded that social support must be included in nursing interventions for patients with chronic renal failure on hemodialysis.