The purpose of this study was to develop the Korean Wisdom Scale and examine the validity of the scale. The Korean Wisdom Scale was developed and identified its validity by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis. The Korean Wisdom Scale consists of five factors, which are ‘Outlook and Insight’, ‘Adjustment of Emotion’, ‘Perspective Taking’, ‘Integration of Experience’, ‘Concern and Comprehension’. Those five factors indicated the reasonable fit index by confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, this scale identified a significant positive relation with psychological well-being such as satisfaction and meaning of life, satisfaction of relationship. On the other hand, it indicated a negative relation with psychological symptoms such as neurosis and clinging. Also, the scale was differentiated from Adult Self-transcendence Inventory. Therefore, the results indicated that this scale has a reliable criterion-related validity. Finally, implication and limitation of this study were discussed in relation with future studies.
The current paper examines the effect of collectivism on perceived youth unemployment anxiety as well as mental health and the mediating effects of employment self-efficacy; self-esteem; and the frequency of upward and downward social comparisons. In Study 1, data were gathered from 179 university students in upper-ranking schools and middle-ranking schools in Seoul, Korea. Our results indicated that (a) collectivism was positively correlated to, and also an significant predictor of perceived youth unemployment anxiety and mental health and (b) employment self-efficacy and self-esteem had mediating effects on the relationship between collectivism and perceived youth unemployment anxiety and mental health. In Study 2, data were gathered from 118 students in upper-ranking schools in Seoul, Korea. Our results indicated that (c) upward social comparison had mediating effects on the relationship between collectivism and perceived youth unemployment anxiety and mental health, while downward social comparison did not. The findings are discussed in terms of their general implications for understanding the importance of culture in employment seeking settings.
Recently, the low fertility has been deepened because of the increase in women's economic activity, the advancement in standard of living, the rising cost of family maintenance, Therefore master plan for low fertility and aging society which is an overall response strategy for sudden increase in social costs was prepared. The most important point of the second basic plan is the reinforcement in child care support for all families and the balance of work & family. This paper shows the supporting policy for child raising in family and community as reality of policy for low fertility. The paper proposes child care support program(idolbom) as the supporting policy for child raising in family, education for men stimulating father's participation in child rearing, and sharing child care work in community in order to reinforce child care friendly environment.
The main studying problem of this study is to develop the scale which examines awareness of singleness for Korean men and women. So, firstly, study 1 fulfilled open survey related to condition for solitary life, its strengths and weaknesses and factors disturbing it for 490 unmarried and married people (244 men and 246 women) who are living in Seoul and capital area. And then, content analysis and category analysis were analyzed for their responses. As the result, each questionnaire was divided into economic aspect, relative aspect, characteristic aspect, eco related aspect, family aspect and social system aspect. Study 2 organized questionnaires for condition for solitary life, its strengths and weaknesses based on the material obtained in study 1 and then, exploratory factor analysis was conducted for total 800 adults (400 men and 400 women) who are living in Seoul, capital area, Incheon and Chungnam. As the result, the condition for solitary life extracted 5 factors including ego-maturity factor (24 questionnaires, total explanation quantity: 61.7%), strengths of solitary life extracted 6 factors including self-growth factor(29 questionnaires, total explanation quantity: 61.4 %) and weaknesses of solitary life extracted 6 factors including solitary factor(31questionnaires, total explanation quantity: 64.75 %). For verifying the suitability of the factor structure, as the result of conducting confirmatory factor analysis for 400 people (200 men and 200 women), the suitability of awareness scale model of men and women on singleness was verified. Those results were discussed from the aspect of variables and phenomenon related to singleness and marriage of Korean society.
The sharp decline of fertility in industrialized countries since the 19th century constitutes a major problem for evolutionary approaches to human behavior. Why would people voluntarily reduce their total number of offspring, despite the fact that resources are so abundant in modern times? Here I review three evolutionary hypotheses for low fertility in modern societies, and discuss how the evolutionary perspective could shed new light on solving the problem of low fertility in Korea. Low fertility may be 1) a maladaptive outcome from the mismatch between our ancestral environments and evolutionarily novel environments, 2) a consequence of gene-culture coevolution where traits that reduce genetic fitness can still spread through a population as a result of imitation, especially if the traits are expressed by high-status people, or 3) an adaptation that maximize parents' long-term genetic fitness in knowledge- based industrialized societies where high parental investment is required for rearing competitive offspring. Based on these considerations, I suggest how the evolutionary explanations of low fertility can be applied to increasing the birth rate in Korea.
The total fertility rate of our nation has been in the world's lowest level with constant falling since it reached an all-time low in 1983. The increase in economic participation of women, difficulties to balance work and family life, and traditional gender role and family norms in our society have been blamed for causing low birth rates. In addition, the current economic recession and increased polarization of wealth make it more difficult for working families to balance work and family life, resulting in lowering fertility rates. The Korean government has recently prepared the second five-year basic plan(2011-2015) to deal with low fertility and population ageing. The basic plan aims at providing support for working families in balancing work and family life and helping people ease the burden of marriage, childbirth, and raising their children. The work-family balance policies based on gender equality will do much to increase fertility rates in the future. In this context, this study examined current status and problems of balancing work and family life in our society, the Korean government and corporate policies for work-family balance, and the effects of policies on childbirth. Suggestions for future directions are presented.
The research investigates the attitudes toward children among mothers young children and maternal grandmothers, focusing specifically on the ideal number of children, gender preference, old age security and positive and negative values of children. A total of 442 respondents, consisting of 221 young mothers (average age of 35) and 221 maternal grandmothers (average age of 63) completed a questionnaire developed by Kim, Park and Kwon (2005). The reliability of the scales ranged from Cronbach α of .78 to .91. The results are as follows. First, as for the ideal number of children, young mothers reported that they would prefer two children, while grandmothers reported that they would prefer four children. As for the ideal number of male child, young mothers reported that they would prefer that they would prefer one son, while grandmothers reported two sons. Second, as for the gender of the child, young mothers did not show a gender preference, while grandmothers stated that at least one child should be a son, especially if it is the only child. Third, grandmothers had higher expectation of old age security in their male child than young mothers but two groups did not show any difference for the female child. Fourth, as for positive values of children, young mothers were more likely to emphasize personal aspects (i.e., psychological pleasure and happiness) and family cohesiveness, while grandmothers were more likely to emphasize social aspects (i.e., continuing the family line and old age security. As for negative values of children, young mothers were more likely to emphasize personal aspects (i.e., parental role and responsibility), while grandmothers were more likely to emphasize social aspects (i.e., family conflict and relationship). Fifth, as for factors that influenced the number of children that they decided to have, young mothers were more likely to report negative values of children (i.e., financial constraints), while grandmothers were more likely to emphasize positive values of children (i.e., continuing the family line).