Meejung Chin

Certified Healthy Family Specialists' Job and Working Conditions from the Insiders' Perspective

Abstract The number of Healthy Family Support Centers has dramatically increased during the past eight years since the Framework Act on Healthy Families was enacted. This phenomenal growth is largely credited to Certified Healthy Family Specialists (CHFSs). Despite their contributions, the job and working conditions of the CHFSs have rarely been explored from the insiders’ perspective. In this study, we aim to delineate CHFSs’ job and working conditions from their own narratives in order to improve an understanding of CHFSs’ profession and work environment. We conducted in-depth interviews with nine CHFSs and a focus-group interview with five CHFSs. Our findings revealed that CHFSs took pride in their professions, internalized their professional mission of enhancing family strengths, and highlighted CHFSs’ unique professional role in comparison to other human services professionals. In conclusion, CHFSs showed a strong professional identity consisting of rich professional knowledge, solid career goals, and integrated socio-political values. Contrary to the positive perception of the CHFSs’ job, CHFSs expressed challenges in their working conditions in terms of small-scale organizations at local Healthy Family Support Centers, a heavy workload, hierarchical relationships with local government officers, and the unsatisfactory payroll and promotion system. This study contributes to a better understanding of CHFSs’ job and their working conditions and provides insights on how to enhance professionalism among CHFSs and their work environment. As for policy implications, we suggest advancing qualifications for CHFSs, improving professional training programs for current CHFSs, and expanding small-scale organizations.

Family Policy in South Korea: Development, Implementation, and Evaluation

This chapter describes the sociohistoric context of Korean families and the policymaking process of family policy in South Korea (officially the Republic of Korea, Korea hereafter). Until very recently, Korean families, influenced by Confucianism, have been the primary safety net and care providers with little or no assistance from the government. Recent demographic changes including low fertility, an increasingly aging population, a decrease in marriage, and an increase in divorce and transnational marriages have all contributed to social problems which need a more comprehensive and universal family policy. Major amendments to the marriage law in the Civil Law have eliminated a traditional patriarchal headship system of the family and provided equal opportunity for male and female household headship. This law has also been amended to require divorcing couples to have a period of consideration and to come to a financial settlement for child support. In addition, there have been significant improvements in the family–work balance policy and elderly policy. The newly legislated Framework Act on Healthy Families and the Multicultural Family Support Act provide strength-based and preventive family programs and services to families. Special services for families at risk have been expanded to include low-income families, single parents, and families who have members with special needs or who struggle with domestic violence. Based on these achievements, we can conclude that significant progress in family policy has been made during the last 10 years in Korea. Nevertheless, family policy should continue to develop and be more carefully designed and implemented to encourage men to be more engaged in family life and to shift the strong Korean work-oriented culture to a more family-oriented culture. Furthermore, an evidence-based policy should be sought to encourage positive effects and outcomes.

Parents` Perceptions on Character and Character Education in Family

This study attempted to explore parents`perceptions on character and character education for their children using a focus group interview method. According to previous research, the concept of character consists of wholeness of three components: relationship, individuality, and morality. This study investigated how parents` perception differ from the widely agreed concept of character. Forty-four mothers and ten fathers participated in eleven focus group interviews. The results showed that parents recognized social relationship and self realization as two most important components of character education of children. However, the parents paid less attention on morality and wholeness. The parents conceptualized character as an alternative to academic achievement. For example, they considered self realization as an alternative to academic achievement. These tendencies could be a barrier in character education in family. Based on these findings, this study recommends that parent education should take more attention on character education in family and help parents develop a balanced understanding on the concept of character.

Family Life Prospect of the Middle-Aged and Its Implications for Family Policy toward Centenarian Society

This study attempted to explore how middle aged married men and women prospected a Centenarian society and what implications their prospect cast for family policy. We conducted focus group interviews with five groups in order to identify their subjective prospects on marital relations, parent-child relations, caregiving from family or institutions, and alternative living arrangement. From those interviews, we found that married men and women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s possessed ambivalent attitudes toward their marital relationship, either acknowledging an importance of marital relationship or accepting long-standing disrespectful marital relationship. They also had a dualistic perspective on parent-child relationship, accepting parental responsibility for children and even grand-children but maintaining low expectations for children. What they needed was age appropriate opportunities for work or leisure and better community services and facilities. These results showed that the middle-aged was concerned experiencing unprecedented family situations. They needed family life education and services in order to adapt to the Centenarian society. Since family policy has viewed this age group out of service target, programs and services have been underdeveloped for this group. Expecting a Centenarian society however, we need to expand the boundary of family policy and take a new perspective. We need to develop and implement marital education programs, community-based self-care services, and age-appropriated opportunities for work, leisure, and social relations.

Perception of Community Family-Friendliness among Parents with Young Children in Urban and Rural Areas

This study aims to find the association between community scales and perceived community family-friendliness among parents with young children. Communities were identified into three groups: metropolitan, small and medium-sized cities and rural, according to the degree of urbanization. The data were drawn from a sample of 1,038 parents who had at least one pre-school child. The data were analyzed by frequencies, means, GIS, ANOVA, and multiple regressions. This study compared the level of community family-friendliness both at the `dong` and `si` levels after controlling for the individual and household characteristics of the respondents. The findings of this study are as follows. First, after controlling for individual and household factors, the level of perceived community family-friendliness differed by the community scales. The parents in the small and medium-sized cities had higher scores on community family-friendliness than their counterparts in metropolitan communities. And parents in rural communities received had lower scores in community family-friendliness than those in metropolitan communities. The results also showed similar patterns for the `dong` and `si` models. While job and housing type were associated with the perceived family-friendliness of the community, other characteristics such as sex, age, educational level, monthly household income and home ownership were not.

The Prospects of the Married Men and Women in their 50s and 60s about their Future Coresident Family Members, Caregivers, and Residence

This study attempted to explain how middle-aged married men and women prospected their family life in terms of their future coresident family members, caregivers, and residence, and what factors were associated with these prospects. The prospects reflected their realistic expectation rather than their preference based on their current life situations. Data were drawn from a survey of 800 married men and women in their 50s and 60s in Seoul and Gyunggi-do. Following previous research, we examined how resources (age, sex, health status, spouse`s health status, number of children, current living arrangement, and household income), subjective perception on their responsibility for their parents and children, and relational satisfaction with their spouse and with their children were associated with the prospect. The results showed that these factors were associated with the prospect which is with whom they would live, who would care for them, and where they would live in different ways. The resources were more likely to be associated with the prospect on coresident family members and residence. The perceptions on responsibility were more likely to be associated with the prospect on caregivers. The relational satisfaction was more likely to be associated with the prospect on coresident members. These results underscored that the characteristics of caregiving and family life would change in 10-20 years. Family policymakers need to take these changes into consideration as they deal with issues of family policy.

Policy Study on Parents Support for Character Education within Family

This study focuses on the roles of family and parents as primary environments for character education of children and adolescents, examines surrounding micro and macro environments in a bioecological model, and explores parent support methods for restoring character education in family. For this study, we had interviews with 54 parents(44 mothers & 10 fathers). Through the interviews we found difficulties of character education in family and analyzed them in children and teenagers, parents, school, and social-cultural dimensions based on the bioecological model. On the basis of the parents` perception for these difficulties, we proposed how to support the roles of family and parents for recovering character education in family. The policy methods were propsed in family, school, and society dimensions. This study is meaningful in that it suggests evidence base for making the parent support policy.

Child-Care Infrastructures and the Perception of Community Family-Friendliness : Parents with Young Children in 25 Provinces in Seoul

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of family-friendly community policy and child care policy on parents with young children. Particularly, two specific questions were addressed: 1) Were there differences in the perception of community family-friendliness among parents with young children in Seoul provinces? 2) Were there differences in the perception of community family-friendliness among parents with young children, depending on child-care infrastructures in Seoul provinces? Data for this study were drawn from multiple sources. Individual-level indicators were drawn from the survey of 1,246 parents with children under age 6 in Seoul. Community-level indicators were drawn from the 2011 Seoul census data. Frequency, descriptive statistics, GIS mapping, and hierarchical linear model analysis were conducted to examine the perception of community family-friendliness by individual, child-care infrastructures, and the community at large. The major results of the present study are as follows: The perception of parents on community family-friendliness varied across the 25 provinces in Seoul. The perception of community family-friendliness was positively related with the total number of child day-care centers, and the number of infant-toddler child daycare centers. The number of accredited child daycare centers was negatively associated with the perception of community family-friendliness.