Korean Fathers Research Articles

The Role of Korean Fathers: A Study of Korean Fathering Practices in the United States

Abstract This study explored Korean immigrant fathers’ perspectives on their involvement in children’s learning and schooling in the United States with the intent to suggest for early childhood educators and teachers to consider the importance of involving the immigrant fathers in children’s learning and schooling. In-depth interviews were used to explore of three Korean fathers involvement both at home and at school settings. The results of the study overall indicated that three Korean fathers commonly experienced difficulties and frustration when they participated in their children’s learning, schooling, and playing. Additionally, the Korean fathers reported to encounter acknowledged challenges in terms of language issues, cultural differences, and negative experiences in their involvement in children’s learning and schooling.

Impacts of Korean fathers' attachment and parenting behavior on their children's social competence

The impacts of fathers' childhood attachment representations and their parenting behavior on 5-year-old children's social competence were examined. One hundred and sixty Korean fathers cohabiting with their children (85 boys and 75 girls) answered questionnaires. The questionnaires related to the attachment representations of their parents based on their retrospective childhood memories and their own parenting behavior as the fathers of preschoolers. In addition, the children's preschool teachers rated their levels of social competence. Structural equation modeling indicated that the fathers' childhood attachment representations had significant indirect impacts on boys' social competence because of their own parenting behavior. There was no impact of fathers' childhood attachment representations, but fathers' parenting behavior had a significant direct impact on their daughters' social competence.

한국 영화에 나타난 아버지 캐릭터의 부성성에 대한 기호학적 연구

In the history, `father` has been described as a being who not only take care of the family but also represents the family socially and supports them. Like the Western patriarchal tradition prevalent in the 19th century, fathers in Korean society also bear patriarchal paternity based on Korean traditional Confucian culture. In such a unique family culture of Korea, Korean fathers hold the patriarchal male centered idea and regard it as the roles of man and father to be responsible for the family`s living and safety and to be more rational than emotional and more blunt than gentle. Social ideology for this image of father is expressed in media, and an example is the patriarchal image of father in TV dramas and movies. In order to analyze the image of Korean fathers described in films, this study selected two films and examined the semiological meanings of fathers` roles expressed in the films using Metz`s syntagmatic and paradigmatic analysis method. The films chosen for case study are `Fly Daddy`, `The Show Must Go On`, and `Speed Scandal`. These films are good examples demonstrating that Korean patriarchal paternity and its background traditional ideology are projected on media.

Genetic variants that affect length/height in infancy/early childhood in Vietnamese-Korean families

To identify genetic factors that influence height in infancy/early childhood, a family-based genome-wide association study was conducted using 269,888 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 165 families composed of a Korean father, a Vietnamese mother and Vietnamese-Korean offspring in the International Marriage-based Immigrant Cohort in Korea. In a single-SNP-based analysis, the six SNPs in or near genes MAF, MAGI2, BMP4 and PTPN7 showed consistent suggestive associations at all height standard deviation scores using Korean, World Health Organization and Vietnamese growth references. Analyzing the haplotypes for the genes, haplotype blocks were found to be significantly associated with height. Similar to the results of a contiguous haplotype analysis using tag SNPs as above, noncontiguous haplotypes of variable length also showed a significant association near the suspected loci. Our result suggests that height during infancy/early childhood may be regulated by genetic variations that differ from those of adults.

The role of fathers in language maintenance and language attrition: the case of Korean–English late bilinguals in New Zealand

The father's role in children's L1 maintenance and L2 learning is a relatively unexplored area. This study considers the L1 and L2 proficiency of 30 Korean–English late bilinguals who immigrated to New Zealand during their adolescence and how their L1 and L2 proficiency is influenced by the language use of family members. Data were collected through a questionnaire, a vocabulary test and a story-retelling task, and analysed in terms of language use and language proficiency measures. While language use of Korean siblings and fathers is shown to have a dual role in both affecting language use and L1 proficiency, the language use of Korean mothers is not associated with their children's patterns of language use or their children's L1 proficiency. We attribute the differences to different types of interaction between Korean mothers and fathers, and their adolescent children. The data also show that parental language use plays a minimal role in the adolescent L2 acquisition.

Changing Social Expectations for Work and Family Involvement Among Korean Fathers

In this study, we explore the gap between the culture and conduct of paternal involvement with children among Korean middle-class and workingclass fathers. Using interview data from thirtytwo fathers following a period of national economic crisis, we find that Korean fathers negotiated among three contradictory and often ambiguous sets of cultural expectations: traditional Confucian fatherhood; work success as measure of good fatherhood; and "new" fatherhood that embraces providing and caregiving roles. Family involvement was limited for all fathers, although care for children was most directly shaped by strict or flexible working schedules. Middle class and working class fathers used different strategies to reduce the gap between conflicting cultural expectations for paternal caregiving and low levels of actual involvement with children, including delayed fatherhood, lowered expectations, and segregated roles.

Haplotypes and mutation analysis of 22 Y-chromosomal STRs in Korean father–son pairs

We analyzed 369 Korean father/son haplotype transfers in 355 families at 22 Y-STRs (DYS19, DYS389I/II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385, DYS388, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS446, DYS447, DYS448, DYS449, DYS456, DYS458, DYS464, DYS635, and GATA H4.1). A total of 350 haplotypes were observed with an overall haplotype diversity of 0.9999. Among these, 345 were unique and five were found twice. Furthermore, 36 mutations were identified, giving locus-specific mutation rate estimates between 0.0 and 19.0 x 10(-3) per generation and an average mutation rate estimate of 3.9 x 10(-3) (95% CI 2.7-5.4 x 10(-3)). The compilation of Y-STR mutation events for the present study and previous studies demonstrates that DYS449, DYS458, DYS635, DYS456 and DYS439 are the most prone to mutations and that their overall average mutation rate estimate is 2.36 x 10(-3) (95% CI 2.03-2.73 x 10(-33)).

Intergenerational Comparisons of Paternal Korean Child Rearing Practices and Attitudes

Objective The purpose of this study was to explore possible antecedents of paternal child rearing in middle‐class, two‐parent, Korean families. Design. This study first addressed the intergenerational similarities and differences in child rearing practices and attitudes of fifty‐seven pairs of Korean grandfathers and fathers who were each interviewed individually with the Sears Interview Schedule. This study also examined the extent of the importance of fathers’ educational level, job satisfaction, marital relationship, and childhood relationships with own parents, for predicting fathering practices and attitudes. Results. Fathers reported disciplinary practices, such as strictness with parental rules/discipline and permissiveness for child aggression toward others, similar to those of their own fathers. Fathers reported significantly more nurturance and acceptance/flexibility compared with grandfathers. Paternal job satisfaction and relationship with own mother as well as educational attainment predicted fathering behaviors with respect to child sexuality and parental rules. Conclusions. A compensatory hypothesis, cohort hypothesis, and the modeling theory were each helpful for understanding fathering similarities and differences between generations in a Korean context.

ETHNIC ORIGIN OF CYSTIC FIBROSIS (CF) FAMILIES

Beginning with the very first interview of parents with CF children seen at this center, an on-going study of the genealogy of each family was conducted. The pedigrees of 220 families with 293 CF children provided satisfactory data for an analysis of their ethnic origins. The majority (55.5%) were from 3 ethnic groups, namely, Germans (19.4%), Irish (18.7%, and English (17.4%). The next frequent groups were French (8.8%), Scotch (7.9%), and Dutch (6.7%), totaling 23.4%. The rest were Swedes (3.3%), Italians (3.1%), Polish (3%), Norwegians (2.4%), Spanish (1.8%), and Russians (1.7%), adding to 15.3%. Danes, Hungarians, Austrians, Yugoslavians, Czechoslovakians, Portuguese, Greeks, Romenians, and Finnish, each less than 1%, made up the remaining 5.3%. There were 13 (6%) Jewish families whose ancestors were from Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, and Russia. Three other families had Jewish intermarriages in their pedigrees. There were also two Gypsy families of Romanian and Greek origin. Among the non-Caucasians, only 10 families were American Negroes and one family was Asian. The latter vas from Korean father of Chinese origin and an Okinawan mother who had no known intermarriages with the Caucasian race. Two other Caucasian families had Phillipine ancestors and one other family had an ancestor of Hawaiian Chinese. Intermarriages with the American Indians were present in at least 10% of the Caucasian population studied