PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to construct a structural equation model that would further explain the mental health status of Korean immigrants living in Canada. METHODS: Survey using a structured questionnaire was conducted with 386 people in Canada (Vancouver and Toronto). Six instruments were used in this model. The analysis of data was done with both SPSS 14.0 for descriptive statistics and AMOS 5.0 for covariance structure analysis. RESULTS: Based on the constructed model, physical health status, immigrant life stress, self esteem, and quality of life were found to have significant direct effect on mental health. In addition, factors such as physical health status, immigrant life stress, quality of life, English proficiency, family cohesion and social support were found to indirectly affect mental health. The final modified model yielded Chi-square=34.79 (p<.001), df=13, Chi-square/df=2.68, GFI=0.98, AGFI=0.94, NFI=0.95, PNFI=0.44, PGFI=0.35, RMSE=0.07 and exhibited good fit indices. CONCLUSION: This structural equation model is a comprehensive theoretical model that explains the related factors and their relationship with mental health in Korean immigrants. Findings of this study can contribute to the designing of an appropriate prevention strategy to further improve the mental health of immigrants in Canada.
Adult ; Canada ; Emigrants and Immigrants/*psychology ; Female ; Health Status ; Humans ; Male ; *Mental Health ; Middle Aged ; *Models, Psychological ; Quality of Life ; Republic of Korea/ethnology ; Self Concept ; Social Support ; Stress, Psychological

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the causal relationship of familial factors (parental acceptance, autonomy, and family satisfaction), social support (teacher's support and friend's support), school achievement, self-concept, and school adjustment. Based on preceding research, this study established a path model of school adjustment and its related variables. METHODS: Two thousand six hundred and twenty nine middle school students participated in this study. Data were collected by a visit-survey with an organized questionnaire and was analyzed by the SPSS and AMOS programs. RESULTS: Self-concept showed a significantly direct influence to school adjustment while both family satisfaction and school achievement directly and indirectly influenced school adjustment. Parental acceptance, autonomy, and social support indirectly influenced school adjustment. CONCLUSION: These results imply that first, family satisfaction and self-concept are essential to solve the problems of school adjustment. Especially friend's support, teacher's support and school achievement should help improve the self-concept and school adjustment. Second, a variety of programs are available for schools to employ in an effort to provide interventions for students who demonstrate school maladjustment. Finally, it is necessary for family, school and society members to comprehensively cooperate to improve school adjustment.
*Achievement ; Adaptation, Psychological ; Adolescent ; *Adolescent Psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Models, Educational ; Parent-Child Relations ; Peer Group ; Personal Satisfaction ; Schools ; Self Concept ; *Social Adjustment

Purpose: The objectives of this research are to verify the development and effectiveness of a nursing student emotional competency promotion program that is important in professional nursing strategies for strengthening the psychological well-being of patients. Methods: This research was done by developing an emotional competency promotion program for nursing students according to the analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation (ADDIE) model. Apply the program to students and evaluate their effects on their self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management and self-efficacy using a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The subjects of this research were 48 nursing students enrolled in the department of nursing of D College; 24 students were placed in the experimental group and 24 students were in the control group. The experimental group participated in the developed program from December 18, 2017 to January 12, 2018, for a total of 8 sessions. Each session was 120 minutes long. For data collection, a pretest, posttest 1 and 2 were performed using an independent t-test and repeated measure ANOVA using SPSS/WIN 22.0. Results: The experimental group who participated in the emotional competency promotion program showed higher self awareness (F=5.65, p=.005), self management (F=11.12, p<.001), social awareness (F=5.02, p=.009), relationship management (F=11.22, p<.001) and self-efficacy (F=14.24, p<.001) than the control group. These results were supported by a statistically meaningful difference in the time period and the interaction between the time period and the two groups. Conclusion The study’s findings indicate that the emotional competency promotion program developed through this study is effective at increasing the self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management and self-efficacy of nursing students.

PURPOSE: Many Koreans go abroad for work, study or permanent migration. As they adapt to their new environment, they can suffer from various health problems. This article aims to gain a greater understanding of the experiences of Korean immigrants in Canada. This study reports the findings of a grounded theory study. METHODS: In-depth unstructured interviews were conducted with 18 Korean immigrants in Vancouver. Data was audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using constant comparative analysis. RESULTS: Six main categories emerged: motivation, confronting, suffering, efforts to adapt, assimilation, and conflict. A basic social process model of adaptation to life in Canada was developed reflecting the inter-relationships between these categories. Data extracts was presented to illustrate the grounding of the model in participants accounts. CONCLUSION: Immigrants need empathetic support and cultural understanding; this study increases the understanding of the Korean immigrant population, which should help in the design of effective coping strategies that consider the particular characteristics and problems of immigrants.
Acculturation ; Canada* ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Emigration and Immigration ; Humans ; Life Change Events ; Motivation ; Qualitative Research ; Quality of Life

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine a hypothetical model designed to explain the influence of length of work experience, frequency of mobilization, traumatic events, and depression on post-traumatic stress (PTS) in Korean fire fighters. METHODS: In this study 2,181 fire fighters were surveyed and data collection was conducted from September 7 to September 30, 2009 using an structured questionnaire. SPSS and AMOS programs were used for descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and path analysis. RESULTS: Frequency of mobilization, traumatic events, and depression showed direct effects on PTS for fire fighters, while length of work experience showed an indirect effect on PTS for fire fighters. The variables of this modified model explained 47.9% of the variance in PTS. CONCLUSION: Through this study the hypothetical model adequately explained PTS in fire fighters. Fire fighter's PTS can be decreased by managing long-term work experience, frequency of mobilization, traumatic events, and depression. Based on the outcomes of this study, it is necessary to develop a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) program for PTS.
Crisis Intervention ; Data Collection ; Depression ; Firefighters ; Fires ; Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study was to develop a comprehensive community-based fall prevention program and to test the effects of the program on the muscle strength, postural balance and fall efficacy for elderly people. METHODS: The design of this study was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. There were 28 participants in the experimental group and 29 in the control group. The program consisted of balance exercises, elastic resistance exercises and prevention education. The program was provided five times a week for 8 weeks and each session lasted 90 minutes. Data were analyzed using chi2-test, independent t-test and paired t-test using the SPSS program. RESULTS: Muscle strength of the lower extremities, postural balance and fall efficacy scores significantly improved in the experimental group compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that this program can improve lower extremity muscle strength, postural balance and fall efficacy in elders. Therefore, this program is recommended for use in fall prevention programs for elders living in the community.
Accidental Falls/*prevention & control ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Ankle/physiology ; Exercise ; Female ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Hip/physiology ; Humans ; Knee/physiology ; Male ; *Muscle Strength ; *Postural Balance ; *Program Evaluation

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to investigate the posttraumatic growth, a positive mental and psychological change and related factors experienced by firefighters, in order to prevent PTSD and to for use as basic data for mental health promotion. METHODS: This study was a descriptive research study with 186 firefighters working in two fire stations in Busan Metropolitan City. It was conducted from August 1 to 31, 2015. There were 5 research tools in the structured survey, including IES-R-K, Resilience Scale, FACES-III, OCQ, and K-PTGI. Collected data were analyzed with t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression analysis using SPSS/WIN 18.0. RESULTS: The related factors affecting posttraumatic growth in firefighers were family cohesion (β=.15, p=.044), organizational commitment (β=.61, p<.001), gender (β=.16, p=.023) and amount of work experience in the current field (β=.28, p=.001). The explanatory power of these factors for posttraumatic growth was 43.1%. CONCLUSION: The results indicate a need to develop and distribute intervention programs that focus on strengthening the resilience of individuals, organizational commitment and family cohesion to promote post-traumatic growth, instead of focusing on crisis intervention and follow-up programs after traumatic experiences.
Busan ; Crisis Intervention ; Firefighters* ; Fires ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Mental Health ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the suicide ideation effects of suicide prevention program. METHODS: Using several databases, studies were collected from March, 2012 to August, 2012. For the purpose of a systematic literature review, in this study analysis was done of pretested-posttested research among non-randomized studies utilizing suicide prevention program, and having set the intervention as the independent variable suicidal idea as a dependent variable. RESULTS: The result of interventions on suicide prevention showed a moderate effect at -0.72 (96% CI: -0.96, 0.48). For intervention types, reality therapy was most effective overall, while the life cycle was found to be most effective for young people (d=-1.57, 95% CI: -2.70, -0.43). The periods for the intervention on suicide prevention was shown to be most effective when it was repeated over 20 times (d=-1.55, 95% CI:-2.75, -0.35), and also it worked better for the risk group than a general group (d=-0.89, 95% CI: -1.26, 0.52). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study support basic data for interventions to prevent future suicide and the need for further development of prevention programs.
Life Cycle Stages ; Reality Therapy ; Suicide*

PURPOSE: Although concerns of female sexual dysfunction (FSD) are increasing in Korea, sexual dysfunction related factors are limited in research studies. The aim of this study was to develop an explanatory model that will further explain the continuously increasing female sexual dysfunction cases in Korea. METHODS: Survey visits were conducted to four hundred and eighty five women, over 25 years of age and presently residing in either urban or rural areas. All of them were analyzed using a structured questionnaire. A total of 8 instruments were used in this model. The analysis of data was done with both SPSS WIN for descriptive statistics and AMOS 5.0 for covariance structure analysis. RESULTS: As a result, variables that showed notably direct effects on FSD were: sexual concept (sexual attitude), sexual distress, and psychosocial health (depression, crisis, traumatic life events). On the other hand, variables such as age, educational level, economic status, and marital status showed indirect influences on health-promoting behaviors. CONCLUSION: By comprehensively addressing the factors related to sexual dysfunction, and comparing each influence, this study can contribute to designing an appropriate sexual dysfunction prevention strategy in tune with the particular characteristics and problems of a client.
Adult ; Demography ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; *Models, Biological ; Questionnaires ; Sexual Behavior ; Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological/*psychology ; Socioeconomic Factors

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to investigate the degree of depression in Korean American immigrants according to their characteristics. METHODS: This descriptive correlation study conducted visit-surveys with organized questionnaires and sampled 330 Korean American immigrants living in Houston, Seattle and New York areas. SCL-90 was used to measure the degree of depression. Data was analyzed by t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis using SPSS/WIN 14.0. RESULTS: Findings revealed that; 1) the degree of depression in Korean American immigrants according to their characteristics were significantly different in age, occupation, immigration life satisfaction, and health status; 2) Pearson's correlation revealed a significant association among depression, immigrant life stress, self esteem, and quality of life; 3) multi regression analysis showed immigrant life stress, self esteem, and quality of life significantly influenced depression in Korean American immigrants. CONCLUSION: Based on the findings of this study, health professionals should provide proper management of depression as well as its influencing factors, namely, immigrant life stress, self esteem, and quality of life especially for new immigrant populations.
Asian Americans* ; Depression* ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; Emigration and Immigration ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Occupations ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Self Concept ; Statistics as Topic ; Stress, Psychological