Kwangman Ko

• Doctor of Philosophy
• East Tennessee State University

Objective This study aimed to identify early reading achievers and uncover family and child factors that mitigate reading skill disparities. Background Literacy standards guide educational policy to prevent literacy issues in at‐risk children. Many studies lack accurate methods to measure reading milestones, relying on static approaches that miss...

The current study expands the literature on parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic by considering how much time spent on childcare increased and how the time was perceived by mothers and fathers in South Korea. Using the perspective of family systems theory and taking a person-centered approach, this study examined how parental experiences differ a...

A refined version of identity theory hypothesized that the indirect path from father role identity salience (FRIS) to paternal psychological well-being via father involvement would differ depending on within- and outside-family contexts (i.e., the presence of preschool-aged child[ren] and work-to-family conflict [WFC]). To examine the moderated med...

This study’s first aim was to identify typologies of parenting among emerging adults based on helicopter parenting and parental affection indicators. Our second aim was to determine whether these defined types of parenting related to emerging adults’ self-efficacy and grade point average (GPA) across four parent–child gender combinations. We collec...

First-generation college students (FGCSs) are known to experience more difficulty in the college education environment compared to continuing-generation college students (CGCSs). The current study used a person-centered approach to investigate subgroups of FGCSs that have had similar experiences of social, financial, academic, and cultural barriers...

We compared attitudes about child support between the United States and South Korean respondents, using a multiple-segment factorial vignette to gather quantitative and qualitative data from 132 Americans and 132 South Koreans. South Koreans were more likely than U.S. respondents to think child support should be paid. Respondents in both countries...

In response to the dearth of research focusing solely on immigrant fathers, we propose the Integrative Conceptual Model to investigate the psychological well-being of recent immigrant fathers from East Asia to the United States. This model addresses how multiple factors in the society (e.g., policy), work and community (e.g., employment), family (e...

Drawing upon the Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT) model, this study examines how people in South Korea perceived their spousal relationships under COVID-19 outbreak. Analyzing 720 married respondents with a young child from the Survey on Koreans’ set of values regarding marriage and family in the COVID-19 era conducted on February 2021, we found...

The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study was to evaluate the relationships between completion of high school dual enrollment courses and subsequent success of first-time, full-time community college students as measured by completion of an associate degree and time to completion of the degree. In addition to comparing dual and non-du...

Objective The goal of this study is to uncover latent classes of maternal and paternal helicopter parenting among American and Chinese college students, and to examine whether latent classes of maternal and paternal helicopter parenting are related to college students’ mental health (depression and self-esteem). Background Previous studies have ex...

With the emphasis on children’s responsibility for the care of ageing parents, this study examined how Chinese adult children’s support provided to parents was associated with filial piety, support from parents and parent-child contact frequency. With the 2006 Chinese General Social Survey, we used structural equation modelling with 1,452 adults wi...

Objective In this study we explored the associations among divorced parents' perceptions of the benefits and risks of dating and parents' sharing of private information about dating, specifically information related to the timing of introducing dating partners to children and coparents and disclosures to children about dating activities. Backgroun...

In response to the dearth of research focusing solely on immigrant fathers, we propose the Integrative Conceptual Model to investigate the psychological well-being of recent immigrant fathers from East Asia to the United States. This model addresses how multiple factors in the society (e.g., policy), work and community (e.g., employment), family (e...

Helicopter parenting has emerged as a prevalent phenomenon in families with adult children. Due to its developmentally inappropriate nature, helicopter parenting sometimes serves as a risk factor for children. In addition, culture and parents’ gender shape parenting and adult children’s outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to identify mul...

In response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, universities across the world moved coursework online and frequently used Zoom videotelephony software to replicate the experience of learning in a classroom. While this platform supported certain aspects of the traditional classroom, such as immediacy of responses and the facilitation of social interact...

This study examined how the longitudinal associations among children’s negative emotionality, mothers’ depressive symptoms, parental warmth, and children’s school readiness and whether the associations vary as a function of fathers’ positive involvement in low-income South Korean families. Participants were 399 families including mothers (M age = 3...

Given roles and expectations of father involvement in South Korea are in transition from traditional breadwinner to an involved caregiver to children, it is plausible that Korean fathers show diverse involvement behaviors in the contexts of work, family, and parenting. Using a person-centered approach, we explored if there were groupings of Korean...

Based on the theoretical perspectives of role strain theory and the spillover model, we examined the association between job demands and employed fathers’ involvement of single-income and dual-income families in South Korea (Korea hereafter). In addition, we examined the mediating role of work to family conflict in the above association. Data were...

This study reviewed the current state of major field tests among social science programs and explored the need for an end-of-program assessment for academic human services programs. A review of the literature found a paucity of research on major field tests and no such assessments for human services. The researchers offered a 60-item test for bacca...

The fulfilment of Child Support payments following divorce is important to ensure children’s wellbeing. Guided by a model of normative influences, we investigated how individuals perceived Child Support payments in South Korea and the United States and if they varied by child’s gender, custody arrangements, changes in the responsible father’s finan...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of responsibility inferences on judgments about helping older parents and stepparents with activities of daily living, health management, and recovery in the aftermath of an illness or injury. Using Weiner’s theory of responsibility inferences as a guiding framework, we evaluated (1) the amount o...

College students’ perceptions of filial obligation can differ across individual, familial, and cultural contexts. However, comparative and empirical studies on this issue are scarce. To address the gap in literature, we examined how American and Korean cultural contexts differently affect the association between two types of parent-child relationsh...

Although obligation is believed to be a central component of family relationships, empirical investigation of if, how, and to what extent connotations associated with terms commonly used to denote “family obligation” affect exchanges of family support remains limited. In this mixed-method study, we explored the effects of words commonly used to den...

Objective To examine individuals' attitudes about parental disclosures to children. Background Parents' disclosures can either help or hinder children's coping with family‐related stressors. Knowing what is appropriate to disclose, however, is not always clear. Method We examined judgments about parental disclosures using a mixed‐methods approach...