Soonbum Kwon’s scientific contributions

This study examined the experience of middle-aged women, centering on the home as the residence of never-married children. I conducted interviews with four such women in their 50s and 60s who had experienced the residential independence of never-married children within the past five years, and a variety of field texts were used as research texts. Through reconstructing the participants’ experiences, two main themes emerged: experiencing anxiety regarding alienation from their child and expecting to resolve this anxiety through the marriage of their child. The participants were anxious about their never-married children, and this study found that at the root of this was anxiety regarding being alienated from their children. The participants often attempted to visit their children’s homes to relieve such anxiety but, as their children often discouraged this, the situation was aggravated. Thus, the participants wished for their children to marry, as they aspired to restore an intimate relationship with them through such an event. These results imply that tensions and conflicts between parents and children may arise due to the independence of never-married children.

Smartphones are representative multimedia devices capable of various functions that have emerged due to the development of information communication technologies (ICTs). The popularization of smartphones has changed the way ICTs media is used; consequnetly, it is expected that smartphones will influence family life by changing family communications and time use. However, there is a gap between the empirical research on ICTs media and family. This study explores any correlations in the amount of time spent on smartphones between a husband and wife. We marged 1,444 married couples’ media diaries from the 8th Korean Media Panel Survey (2017) to analyze the average amount of time spent on communications and leisure·shopping using smartphones. The results show that husbands’ time use for communication has increased similarly to wives’ time use. In addition, husbands’ time use for leisure and shopping was positively related to wives’ time spent on communications and leisure·shopping. The findings show that the use of smartphones is interrelated within the family and suggested that a family systems approach is needed in ICTs media research. Future studies will provide a deeper understanding of the impact of ICTs media and how families are using a variety of ICTs media devices such as smartphones.

This study aims to better estimate the amount of time spent for child care and to understand the characteristics of time spent for child care among employed and non-employed mothers with children under age 6 by taking concurrent activities into account. To assess time spent for child care, I differentiate child care activities into three types: primary activity without concurrent activities, primary activity with concurrent activities, and secondary activity with concurrent activities. The Major results of this study are as follows: First, employed mothers spent 145 minutes less than non-employed mothers in the total amount of time spent for child care during weekdays and this difference diminished to 62 minutes on weekends. Specifically there were differences in all types of time spent for child care among employed and non-employed mothers during weekdays, while the difference was only significant in the average amount of primary time spent for child care without concurrent activities on weekends. Second, there was no difference in the average ratio of time spent for child care with concurrent activities among employed and non-employed mothers during weekdays. By contrast, the average ratio of time spent for child care with concurrent activities of employed mothers was 5% higher than non-employed mothers on weekends. Lastly, the highest concurrent activity with child care activities was leisure followed by housework. This means that child care, leisure, and housework are somewhat related to each other among mothers.

This study investigated changes in family life cycle during the last few decades. The concept of family life cycle provides an analysis framework from a family developmental perspective. It allows to explore how macro demographic changes are translated into structural and developmental changes at family level. In spite of importance in family and demographic research, few studies have examined recent trends of the family life cycle with empirical data with an exception of Gong (1987). Gong collected data from 3,013 married women and divided them into six marriage cohorts from 1935-1944 to 1975-1984 in a ten year interval. He identified six stages of the family life cycle(stage 1: formation, stage 2: expansion, stage 3: end of expansion, stage 4: reduction, stage 5: end of reduction, and stage 6: dissolution) and estimated the mean duration of each stage by the marriage cohorts. This study employed the Gong(1987)'s analysis and updated it by applying to more recent marriage cohorts of 1985-1994, 1995-2004, and 2005-2007. Using Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families, we selected 7,730 married women and divided them into six marriage cohorts from 1958-1964 to 2005-2007 in a ten year interval. From the analysis, I found several important results with respect to changes in the family life cycle. First, the duration of the whole family life cycle has expanded since the Gong's cohorts due to the lengthened life expectancy. However, the proportion of the family life cycle out of the entire individual life span has been reduced. Second, the duration of stage 2 has been steadily reduced and the duration of stage 3 has been lengthened. Third, the duration of stage 4 has been reduced and the duration of stage 5 has been expanded. Fourth, the duration of stage 6 has increased up to the 1985-1994 marriage cohort and then decreased beginning the 1995-2004 marriage cohort. Last, those who do not follow the family life cycle such as the divorced and remarried have increased. These findings imply that the structural aspect of family has been steadily changed due to aging, low fertility, and delayed marriages. These changes not only influence family relations and life but also modify individual life courses. Demographic policies and family policies need to take these changes into account in centenarian era.